Sumner had a blast from the past March 1 when a man riding in a covered wagon pulled by four horses rolled into town.

Lee the Horselogger, as he likes to be called, began traveling this way in 2006 after leaving his home in Montana and shunning the amenities of conventional modern life.

He didn’t give up all aspects of contemporary living and travels with a laptop and cell phone, using them to communicate with friends and visitors to his Web site.

One friend helps by calling ahead and arranging places for Lee to spend the night.

At the Sumner City Council meeting March 1, Sumner Downtown Association Executive Director Shelly Schlumpf said the city arranged for Lee to park his wagon in a parking lot off Wood Avenue and Main Street until hitting the trail early the following afternoon.

The journey is part adventure and a lot of work, Lee the Horselogger said, taking more than a year to go from one side of the country to the other.

Before heading out of town, he fed the four Suffolk Punch horses who pull him along the stretches of highway and main streets from one end of the country to another. As Lee placed scoopfuls of feed in front of the horses, Miss Katie, a great Pyrenese dog, strolled nearby waiting to leave. Katie has an enviable lifestyle in the dog world. She gets to spend each day with her owner traveling and enjoying scenery throughout the country.

Lee and his animals receive visitors when they travel and are sometimes popular enough to draw crowds of several hundred people.

During their time in Sumner, they didn’t draw such a crowd, but were visited by some and were interviewed by a few journalists.

Lee the Horselogger’s Web site includes stories written about him as he’s been on his journey.

He said he doesn’t have plans to stop traveling, the perfect outlook for someone who travels at pioneer speed.