Freeman's champion., 1858-06-24
From the Journal of Commerce, May 49,
Mountain and Prairie Trains and
Commerce. Ii


cluding the wagons loading for the
Utaht Expedion, destined for Salt
Lake, and the various Forts in the
mountains, there will be ten thousand
full loaded and fully equipfSd wag'
ons leave Kanzas City this season
cross the plains--none of these N
make shorter trip than six hundred
miles, and many Of them to go full
eleven hundred miles.
A wagon that takes merchandise
over the plains and into the noun
tains, is by no means, such q wagon
as people unaccustomed to prairie
countries are in the habit Of seeing.
They are not "double wagons" or
"lumber wagons" or "fartn wag-
ons," or "Chicago wagons" or
Concord wagonS"-they are "prai-
rie wagons" or schooners," as the
boys call them, and as novel sight
to an Eastern man, as any Yankee in
stitution is to u trontiersman, or as
the railroad will be to most of the
jackson county people aOhe1 it gets
here. A wagon weighs about tour
thousand pounds, the pole, or tongue,
is thirteen feet long, and with all the
"6xings" about it is as heavy as a
light buggy. One of the hind wheels
weighs three hundred pounds, and is
Sixty.four inches in diameter-the
tire is four inches wide, the hub
twelve inches through and eighteen
inches deep, and the spokes are as
large as middle sized bed post
Any one can conceive what an axle
tree for such wheel must be. The
body is three feet eight inches wide,
thirteen feet long at the bottom and
eighteen feet long at the top, with
bows extending above the bed three
feet high, and also extending fore and
aft of the bed two feet and u half, SO
that the top of the wagons, measur-
ing over the bows, is eighteen feet
long-height of wagon from bottom
of wheels to top of bows is ten feet.
These bows are covered with three
wagon sheets, made of the best quail
ity of duck, and cost about $50.
These details will give one an idea
ofa prairie wagon, which always car
lies from ffty-hve to sixty hundred
pounds of freight, and transports it
never less than six hundred miles.
Now for the team. The team or the
motive power Of these cumbrous thd
ugly wagons, conSitss of six yoke of
oxen, or steers," as they are called
by old freighters; or five span of
mules. A driver with a ragged han-
mel shirt, pair of fbGckskin, "jeans"
or "store" pants, With pockets iHiade
or breaking out almost any where,
pair of brcgans, an old hat and
whip, the ST. ck Of which is generally
hickory sapling ten or fifteen feet
long, the lash about the same length
made out Of undressed raw hide, an
inch and half thick in the "belly,"
the whole weighing five pounds and
half, and when brought upon the
aforesaid steer, crack, crack. crack, it
goes with reports loud as a navy
pistol
Such are, in brief, the details of
one of these mountain wagons, ten
thousand of which will leave Kanzas
City for the forts and trading posts
in the mountains this season. A
wagon and team hitched up and ready
for travel is about one hundred feet
long, and they travel on the average
about one hundred feet apart, Now
if all these wagons were to leave in
one train, they would stretch out over
the prairie Three hundred and Seusnty-
nine milesl Some team, that. When
corraIed," or encamped, they would
make an encamprhent Of over one
hundred and fifty thousand head Of
stock, about twenty Thousand and
five hundred mei--no women--and
if in the mountains they would prob
ably be surrounded by ten thousand
"Ingins." The wagons would CON
tain sixty-fite million pounds of mer-
chandise, worth in Kanzas City twen-
ty million dollars, and in the noun
tains, twenty four millions and half.
Here, then, are the figures of the
great commerce Of the prairies, which
is centered in Kanzas City, as we
compute il when gathered together
in one grand encampment;
Men, 20,500
Wagons, 10000
Cattle aid mules, 100000
Lbs Of merchandise, 100000
VA Value OF merchandise
in the mountains, S24,5O0,000