Covered wagon

The Conestoga wagon was a heavy American wagon of English and German type from the late 18th century and into the 19th century. It was used for freight and drawn by teams of horses or oxen depending on load. The covered canvas top was supported on eight to twelve angled bows, rather than upright. Capacity was around 4 to 5 tons with no springs. Though it was boat-shaped it did not float. It was used in eastern North America for freight hauling, with some used for southward migration through the Appalachian valleys and along the Great Wagon Road. It was too heavy for use west of the Mississippi River; the westward wagons were lighter, and more angular or square.^{[4]: 55–56}

• Conestoga wagons
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  Conestoga in a museum
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  Shows framework and bows
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  Freight Conestoga

From the early 1840s through the 1860s, the United States saw large numbers of emigrant families traveling westward across the prairies and along the overland trails. Most emigrants followed one of several westward expansion trails, departing from Missouri River towns each spring, and faced journeys of around 2,000 miles, traveling 10-20 miles per day. The Conestoga wagon was too heavy for the long westward migrations, and rarely went west of the Missouri River, though some were used as freighters on the Santa Fe Trail. The primary vehicle for westward migrations were farm wagons with a bed about 10 feet long, 4 feet wide, and sides 2 feet high. They had 5 or 6 bows, over which was draped a light-colored cover of canvas, twill, or similar fabric. Oxen were the most common animal used for pulling covered wagons, although mules and horses were also used. Authors of guidebooks written for emigrants noted that oxen were more reliable, less expensive, and nearly as fast as other options.^[7][8]

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  Covered wagon c. 1870s
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  Covered wagons at California Interpretive Center in Elko, Nevada

Prairie schooner

Prairie schooner is a fanciful name for the covered wagon, drawing on their broad white canvas covers, romantically envisioned as the sails of a ship crossing the sea of prairie grass.^[7]

On all the prairie the white-covered wagon was the only sign of human life. It was visible as far as a sail would have been upon the lake, and the prairie, with its graceful undulations that had once been its bottom, waving now with grass, was not unlike the water's surface. A "prairie schooner" was what the settlers called such a wagon. —William Eleazar Barton in The Prairie Schooner: A Story of the Black Hawk War ^[2]: 15

[A Prairie schooner is an] American emigrant wagon of light/medium weight and dimensions. Headed by a canvas top supported on bow-shaped hoops or tilts. Either sprung or dead axle, up to a capacity of 3 tons. Lever brakes acted on both rear wheels. Drawn by either two or four horses in pole gear. First came to prominence during the gold rush period of the 1840’s. Not to be confused with the much larger Conestoga Wagon. —D.J.M. Smith in A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles ^[4]: 135

During the Great Trek starting in 1836, Dutch-speaking settlers in South Africa travelled by wagon trains, migrating northward from British-ruled areas in search of their own homeland.^[9] Mostly pulled by pairs of oxen, the Boer trek wagon had a long wheel-base with the sides higher at the rear in typical Dutch fashion. The ox-wagon had a felt or canvas top supported by bowed hoops.^[4]: 17

• Voortrekker covered wagons
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  Diagram of wagon and fittings
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  Almost exclusively pulled by oxen
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  Voortrekker wagon in museum

Modern wagons are used for excursions for group outings or camping. The interior of camping wagons are used for sleeping and food preparation, while wagons for group excursions typically have two long bench seats along the sides of the wagon with a long table in the middle. Smaller wagons can often be converted into a wagonette by removing the canvas and framework. In Germany, this type of wagon is called a kremser, and in the Netherlands a janplezier.

• Modern excursion wagons
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  Wagon for group outings
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  Wagon for camping
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  Kremser (Germany)
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  Janplezier (Netherlands)

Before railroads in early America, ox-teams and wagons were used to haul overland freight, sometimes in great wagon trains of 10 to 60 teams. Each team of 5 to 7 yoked pairs of oxen pulled two wagons—a lead wagon (averaging 6,500 pounds [2,900 kg]), which pulled a trailer wagon (4,000 pounds [1,800 kg]).^{[12]: 12, 29–30}

Military have used covered wagons for transport of supplies. Called "baggage wagons" during the American Revolutionary War, in one account British commander Henry Clinton had a baggage train of 1,500 wagons that stretched 12 miles long.^[13]: 192