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A covered wagon replica at the High Desert Museum

The Conestoga wagon is a heavy, broad-wheeled covered freight carrier used extensively during the United States Westward Expansion in the late 1700s and 1800s. It was large enough to transport loads up to 8 short tons (7 metric tons), and was drawn by 4 to 8 mules or 4 to 6 oxen. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... The High Desert Museum is located in Bend, Oregon. ... Events and trends The Bonneville Slide blocks the Columbia River near the site of present-day Cascade Locks, Oregon with a land bridge 200 feet (60 m) high. ... // Invention of the Jacquard loom in 1801. ... The short ton is a unit of mass equal to 907. ... A tonne (also called metric ton) is a non-SI unit of mass, accepted for use with SI, defined as: 1 tonne = 103 kg (= 106 g). ... For other uses, see Mule (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ...

History

The first Conestoga wagons appeared in Pennsylvania around 1725 and are thought to have been introduced by Mennonite German settlers in that area, and its name came from the Conestoga Valley in that region. In colonial times the conestoga wagon was popular for migration southward through the Great Appalachian Valley along the Great Wagon Road. After the American Revolution it was used to open up commerce to Pittsburgh and Ohio. In 1820 rates charged were roughly one dollar per 100 pounds per 100 miles ($1 per 5,300 kilometers), with speeds about 15 miles (25 km) per day. The Conestoga, often in long wagon trains, was the primary overland freight vehicle over the Appalachians until the development of the railroad. Subsequently it played a role in Western settlement, especially on the Santa Fe Trail, where ox and mule teams could pull its vast cargo with fewer water stops. The Conestoga wagon is a significant historical item that was used extensively during the United States’ Westward Expansion in the late 1700s and 1800s. If it had not been for the Studebaker and Conestoga wagons, the Westward Expansion would have been severed because of lack of transportation. The Conestoga wagon was cleverly built. Its floor curved upward to prevent the contents from tipping and shifting. Also for protection against bad weather, stretched across the wagon was a tough, white canvas cover. Also it is 16.5 feet in length and 4.5 feet in width. Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  Ranked 33rd  - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²)  - Width 280 miles (455 km)  - Length 160 miles (255 km)  - % water 2. ... Conestoga Township is a township located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. ... Fljótsdalur in East Iceland, a rather flat valley In geology, a valley is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. ... The Great Valley, also called the Great Appalachian Valley or Great Valley Region, is one of the major landform features of eastern North America. ... The Great Wagon Road, which ran from Pennsylvania to Georgia, was one of the most heavily traveled major routes for settlers in all America. ... John Trumbulls Declaration of Independence, showing the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia The American Revolution refers to the period during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen... “Pittsburgh” redirects here. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus Largest metro area Greater Cleveland Area  Ranked 34th  - Total 44,825 sq mi (116,096 km²)  - Width 220 miles (355 km)  - Length 220 miles (355 km)  - % water 8. ... The Appalachian Mountains are a system of North American mountains running from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada to Alabama in the United States, although the northernmost mainland portion ends at the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... Trail logo The Santa Fe Trail was an historic 19th century transportation route across southwestern North America connecting Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. ... For other uses, see Water stop (disambiguation). ... Studebaker Corporation, or simply Studebaker, was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. ...

Prairie schooners

The term prairie schooner is often used to replace Conestoga wagon. These commercial wagons were much too huge, heavy, and hard to handle, to be used by families emigrating to Oregon, Utah, or California in the nineteenth century. Thus, the westward-bound emigrants’ conveyance of choice was the smaller, lighter, farm-type wagon which could be drawn by teams of fewer animals. Crammed inside these small wagons were supplies for the 2,000-mile journey ahead, a few precious items from back East, and tools to help establish their future homes in the West.

It might be helpful to think of the emigrant’s box-like covered wagon as an early version of the moving van, and the Conestoga wagon as a prototype for the modern tractor-trailer.

The emigrants themselves never called their wagons Conestogas or prairie schooners. Nineteenth-century diaries and reminiscences reveal that westering emigrants during the time of their journeys — the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s — generally referred to their vehicles simply as "wagons" or "waggons." Travelers crossing the prairie gazed at the lines of white-topped wagons rumbling across the dying grass and described the wagons as "ships upon the ocean," or ships on "rolling waves of green from horizon to horizon," or as resembling "dim sails crossing a rolling sea." But they never called their wagons “prairie schooners.”^[1]

English adventurer Fred Ebb penned the almost magic words in his journal, in 1860 during an overland trip to Utah, when he wrote the wagon “is literally a "prairie ship: its body is often used as a ferry.”^[2] A few emigrant diaries make references to "prairie schooners," but only when describing the large, freight-bearing Conestoga wagons that accompanied some military expeditions or commercial ventures. It was not until the pioneers began penning (and romanticizing) their reminiscences during the 1870s and later — long after their migration to the West — that they began calling their own simple wagons "prairie schooners." Even then, some authors near the end of the century felt the term was unusual enough to feel it necessary to explain that an emigrant's wagon "came to be known in those days as a prairie schooner."

References

1. ^ Margaret F. Walker, “Out to Sea on a Prairie Schooner,” Overland Journal, 23 no. 3 (Fall 2005):118-22.
2. ^ Sir Richard F. Burton, The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains to Ridgewood (New York: Harper, 1862), 22.