Conastoga wagon history

[BullRunBear]

The June issue of Early American Life magazine has an excellent article on the history of the conastoga wagon. To my surprise, they go back to early 1700s in Pennsylvania. My 'knowledge' of them consisted of old episodes of the Wagon Train TV show with Ward Bond. The piece covers why and where they were developed, the materials used to construct them (very exacting), the colors used to paint them, their relative cost, even the development or choices of the type of horse to draw them. Very enjoyable and I learned a lot.

Jeff

 

[Kansas Jake]

I'll have to see if our local library has it. Your post did prompt me to look up Studebaker to see when they started making wagons and it seems they started in the late 1850s in Indiana.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

When I was young, my aunt and uncle were antique dealers in eastern PA (back in the 1960's) They had a Stage coach in one shed and a conestoga wagon in another. The Conestoga wagon was huge. compared to the stage coach. longer, slightly arched down in the middle and every bit as high as the stage. Their stage and conestoga were used as props in the filming of the Molly McGuires up in the town of Mauch Chunk. . I thought the rear wheels on the conestoga were huge, until my uncle picked up an old horse drawn log skidder. Those wheels were at least 8 feet in diameter and the iron tires about 10 inches wide.. I had the opportunity to buy an original freighter's saddle from about 1850 2 decades ago and passed on it. Then I saw a painting of a wagon on the plains with a similar saddle on one lead horse.

 

[Baxter]

"Prairie Schooner"? I recall reading (? Reliving History magazine?) that western conestogas were smaller than those in the east.