THE SCHOONER OF THE PRAIRIE
Originated in Lancaster County, Pennsylvnia
Length - 24 to 26 feet
Height - 11 to 12
Weight - approximately 3,000 pounds
Construction - oak or poplar, tightly fit, caulked with pitch to be water tight
Iron tires were two to four inches wide
Front wheels - 3ft 6 " in diam.
Rear wheels - 4 ft 8 inches high
when new, the body was blue, the wheels and underneath read, canvas top was white.
Three teams of draft horses or oxen
Five teams of mules
From Encyclopedia.com
Prairie Schooner - wagon covered with white canvas, made famous by its almost universal use in the migration across the Western prairies and plains, and so called in allusion to the white-topped schooners of the sea. It was a descendant of the Conestoga wagon . Whereas the latter usually required a six-horse team even on good roads, the prairie schooner was much lighter and rarely needed more than four horses, and sometimes only two, even on virgin prairie trails. Oxen were frequently used instead of horses. The average prairie schooner was an ordinary farm wagon fitted with a top, drawn in at both ends, with only an oval opening to admit air and light to the interior, where women and children usually slept and rode. In crossing the Great Plains groups of prairie schooners customarily traveled together for protection (see wagon train ).
Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyright (c) 2004.
Great Reading and Reference Resources:
Coffee County Historical Society and Museum http://www.coffeycountymuseum.org/artifact01.htm
Traveling in a Covered Wagon http://www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/covwgn.html
Museum of Westward Expansion http://www.nps.gov/jeff/mowe-wagon.htm
From the End of the Oregon Trail Organization http://www.endoftheoregontrail.org/wagons.html
Across the Plains in '64 by Prairie Schooner to Oregon , Anna Dell Clinkinbeard. http://flag.blackened.net/daver/1sthand/atp/atp.html
Page created January 17, 2004 by Mary Thompson Saban.
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