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Narrow covered wagon used by west-bound Canadian settlers c. 1885 Painting showing a wagon train of covered wagons. A covered wagon, also called a prairie wagon, whitetop, [1] or prairie schooner, [2] is a horse-drawn or ox-drawn wagon used for passengers or freight hauling. It has a canvas, tarpaulin, or waterproof sheet which is stretched ...
The journey was a severe test of strength and endurance so travelers often joined wagon trains traveling about 12–15 miles (19–24 km) per day. Settlers often had to cross flooded rivers. Indians attacked the wagon trains; however, of the 10,000 deaths that occurred from 1835 to 1855, only 4 percent resulted from Indian attacks.
The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, were a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada.
The Stephens–Townsend–Murphy Party consisted of ten families who migrated from Iowa to California prior to the Mexican–American War and the California Gold Rush.The Stephens Party is significant in California history because they were the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada during the expansion of the American West.
Although it was sometimes used for westward frontier travel in the 19th century, lightweight and cheaper covered wagons were generally preferred by the pioneers. The Nissen wagon, likely deriving from Conestoga wagons, was also lightweight despite superficially resembling them and was a dominant vehicle type in the southeastern states compared ...
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The Conestoga-type wagon is from pioneer days (an axle dates to the 1860s), but its canvas is too worn. Its wood boards have been replaced many times. It has become far too deteriorated to remain ...
By 1836, when the first Oregon migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been scouted and roughed out to Fort Hall, Idaho. In July 1836, missionary wives Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding were the first white pioneer women to cross South Pass on their way to Oregon Territory via Fort Hall.