- 1861 Prairie Traveler - Wagon Planning

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1861 Prairie Traveler - Wagon Planning

This chapter from the historic Prairie Traveler book provides planning instructions for westbound settler and pioneer families traveling  the major covered wagon train routes and trails of the 1850s.  The directions include organization of the wagon train, wagon design, the use of mules and oxen as wagon teams, stores and provisions to take and how to pack them for the trail, substitutes in times of emergency and the clothing, equipment and weapons that would be required.

The great rush west had already begun when this Prairie Traveler book was commissioned by the US Army.  It was written to inform and prepare people who would be loading their families into covered wagons and heading west.  Too many covered wagons had been found burned to the axles, settler and pioneer families slaughtered on the trail.  Too many instances of starvation and deprivation had happened due to lost and ill prepared wagon families.  This book was written to make a perilous trail journey safer and to help more pioneer and settler families colonize the west.

Today the Prairie Traveler book is considered to be a masterpiece of exploration literature and one of the most important books written during and about America’s westward expansion.  The Prairie Traveler is a handbook about how to travel and explore with a covered wagon train, and a reliable snapshot of life for America’s pioneer and settler families en route to the frontier.