Oregon Trail Wagon Basics
Understanding the ins and outs of Oregon Trail wagons can give you a better sense of what life on the trail would have been like.
The covered wagon is certainly one of the most iconic images of the Old West. In a world where horsepower was still the kind that ate oats, wagons were crucial to the life of almost any frontier family. A good wagon was like a good pick up is these days; helpful to haul people and goods around with. Perhaps nowhere was a good covered wagon as important as it was on the Oregon Trail.
If you are reading Jemmey Fletcher: Tyrant’s Road you may have just come the scene where Jemmey rides into camp and sees all the wagons that will make the journey. While many folks today think Conestoga wagons were popular, historical evidence suggests that Conestogas were simply too large for the 2,000 mile trip. Rather, most emigrants beefed up their old farm wagons or bought similar ones instead. These wagons were generally a simple affair with just enough room for all the necessary supplies for a family of four to make the trip. Although widely varied in size and style, one might expect these “Prairie Schooners" to measure four feet wide by ten feet long. However big they were, almost all of these wagons had to be reinforced and tuned up before leaving Independence for Oregon.
When it came to building material author Merrill J. Mattes in his award-winning book “The Great Platte River Road” states that oak, hickory, and maple were by far the best woods to use. Pioneers also used iron to reinforce certain parts of the wagon to make it stronger. On the downside, any iron added would also add to the overall weight of the outfit and be counterproductive. Ideally, Oregon Trail wagons were loaded to an overall load weight from 1,600 to 2,500 pounds. Heavier wagons required more pulling animals, thus more expense and work along the trail. Smaller outfits required less, but could not take as much stuff along. There was no perfect formula for a correct wagon, and each pioneer had to make their own decisions.
All wagons also had covers that were supported by bows. Bows were generally hooped to a height of about 5 feet above the wagon box. Across the top stretched some kind of rainproof canvas, oiled linen, sailcloth, or oilcloth. This cloth helped keep the wagons dry, and it would also allow travelers some respite from the burning summer sun on occasion.
Keeping wagons running during the 2,000 mile trip would have been a major chore. Nearly all wagons carried along grease to keep the running gear operating smoothly. In his book, Mattes also states that once “store-bought grease was exhausted, boiled buffalo or wolf greats served.” Setters also took along as many spare parts as they could afford to pack. You can imagine it would have been mighty intimidating to head across the treeless prairie with a wooden wagon as your only form of transportation. Settlers were recorded as having used any resource available to fix their wagons including buffalo hide, suitable timber, abandoned wagons, or even the material from the wagon itself. How difficult it would have been to keep a wagon going across the entire Oregon Trial few will ever understand.
Here is a good source put out by the BLM about wagons of the Oregon Trail.
If you are looking for some visuals about Oregon Trail wagons, here is a short video found on Youtube. The speaker is the curator at the National Frontier Trails Museum.
Here are a few pieces of art that were created during the time period and show wagons as they really were.
Albert Bierstadt: Oregon Trail. Notice the hooped canvas top, the tool box on the back, and the grease container hanging below.
Albert Bierstadt: Nooning on the Platte. Notice the square shape of the wagon looked rather than sweeping bows of the Conestoga.
A.R. Waud; A. Bobbet - Pilgrims on the Plains: Here you can see the canvas on the right side has been folded up to allow air to circulate within the wagon box. However, this wood engraving was created later in 1871.
Hopefully, all of this information will give you a better idea of what Oregon Trail wagons actually looked like and a few of the considerations pioneers took into account when building or buying them. Having the right wagon was very important and a good one would have made the difficult 2,000 mile journey just a little easier.
