Conestoga Wagon

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Conestoga wagon
Conestoga wagon in collection (GOUS Hall)

Object Details

Description

Pennsylvania Germans near the Conestoga River first made Conestoga wagons around 1750 to haul freight. By the 1810s, improved roads to Pittsburgh and Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) stimulated trade between Philadelphia, Baltimore, and settlers near the Ohio River. Wagoners with horse-drawn Conestoga wagons carried supplies and finished goods westward on three- to four-week journeys and returned with flour, whiskey, tobacco, and other products. The Conestoga wagon’s curved shape shifted cargo toward the center and prevented items from sliding on mountain slopes. Railroads replaced Conestoga wagons by the 1850s, but the prairie schooner, a lightweight, flat variant, carried pioneer settlers from Missouri to the West Coast.

Location

Currently not on view (right side board; fragment, right side board; left side board; lazy board)

Currently not on view (bows)

Currently not on view

Currently not on view (replica cover)

Currently not on view (feed box)

ID Number

TR.321453

catalog number

321453

accession number

243296

Object Name

wagon

Other Terms

Road

Measurements

overall: 8 ft x 7 ft x 18 ft; 2.4384 m x 2.1336 m x 5.4864 m

See more items in

Work and Industry: Transportation, Road

Transportation

Road Transportation

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Metadata Usage

CC0

Link to Original Record

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a6-9fd2-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record ID

nmah_842999