The 2008 NCA Convention - Exploring the Mississippi - Memphis, Tennessee

The 2008 NCA Convention, Exploring The Mississippi, was held September 23-28 in the Memphis, Tennessee area.

Coordinated by: Don Largent ( email)

The 36th annual convention of the National Carousel Association was headquartered at the Holiday Inn Select at the Memphis Ariport. The convention also included an overnight stay in St. Louis, Missouris on September 24.

The 2008 convention, along with two pre-convention tours, included visits to the following carousels:

• The Carousel Works Endangered Species carousel at the Mempnis Zoo
• The 1909 Dentzel Carousel at Libertyland Amusement Park
• The Carousel Works Mary Ann Lee Conservation Carousel at the St. Louis Zoo
• The 1921 Dentzel carousel at Faust Park in St. Louis
• The horses and chariot sides from the 1898 Armitage-Herschell, which are on display at Faust Park
• The 1905 Herschell-Spillman track machine at the St. Vincent De Paul Parish Seiminary picnic in Perryville, Missouri
• The 1901 Armitage-Herschell track machine in Greenville, Mississippi
• The 1904 Dentzel in Highland Park, Meridian, Mississippi
• The newly restored 1924 Spillman Engineering "Over the Jumps" carousel at the zoo in Little Rock, Arkansas

Additional stops on this year's convention and pre-convention tours included:

• The Memphis Zoo
• The Little Rock Zoo
• The St. Louis Zoo
• A three-hour premium tour of Graceland, including
  • Graceland Mansion Audio Tour
  • Two Elvis Airplanes tour
  • Sincerely Elvis Museum
  • Elvis Presley Automobile Museum
  • Elvis After Dark Exhibit

In addition to a number of carousel presentations, our conventions always included a number of fundraising activities. This includes our traditional auction and bus raffles. This year, the carousel miniatures that were provided as raffle prizes were patterned from a horse on the Libertyland Dentzel.

Those who were lucky enough to win one of these horses also received a photograph of the carver, Jerry Reinhardt, pictured with the original horse! (Jerry's miniature of this horse can be seen Here.)