Diversity of Frontier Travel

Answer to last week's quiz was "Butch Cassidy".

Sometimes life just gets in the way - since my last post we rescued an umbrella cockatoo which along with our scarlet macaw completes our family. Unfortunately she comes to us with quite a temper, although she is sweet and gentle (until she doesn't get her way). So, for the last week or so we have been holding behavior modification classes :) My 42 year old macaw is thoroughly bored with the whole ordeal LOL

Continuing on with diversity on the American Frontier - not only were the settlers themselves from a very diverse background, but so were the methods they chose for traveling to the new frontier. One question I always asked my students was "How did the settlers travel?" Invariably they answer with "Wagon Train" which of course was true...BUT by no means was it the only way.

The Conestoga Wagon of course was just the family wagon with a canvas top stretched over the top and the family's horses or oxen to pull it. The journey was slow and difficult along newly formed wagon trails and roads, but once you got to your claim, you simply took off the top and unhooked the animals and you had your transportation and work horses or oxen ready to go.

The Covered Wagon is a symbol of the American West - long trains of covered wagons headed west to sights and scenes unknown with all worldly possesions inside, and nothing left behind to come back to. All that would have to be built all over again.

While history seemed to focus on the Conestoga Wagon, settlers often choose other means of travel depending on their destination and financial means. For instance travel by stagecoach and stopping in hotels in established towns would have been a better night's sleep but I can not imagine that long and arduous journey on wooden seats without shocks or springs along those unsettled trails.

As the railroad spread westward in the mid 1800's, travel by train was quicker and by far more comfortable, but that luxury came with a price for the ride and many pioneers could not afford it. Since rail was limited in the early days, one could travel part way by train to the farthest rail station in the west, and then travel by stagecoach for the remainder of your journey.

The Mississippi and Ohio Rivers provided those traveling west the option of traveling by Steamboat to their destination. This was also a popular choice as observed in several period photos of "steamers" arriving at western frontier ports.

Which method would you have chosen if you were taking the trek to the American Western Frontier? Personally I would have chosen the Conestoga Wagon because of the sense of vastness and open-ness of that method of travel.


Next time "diversity of housing on the frontier"

Julie

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