Today’s Mystery: What was a Conestoga wagon???
What is your mental image of a Conestoga wagon? Like “all the pioneers” used? Well, they didn’t all use a Conestoga wagon but many did. Here’s a wonderful description:
“A Conestoga wagon in all its glory was a brave sight. The wagon body was that color so dearly loved by the Pennsylvania Dutch, a light but brilliant blue; the great wheels and all running gear was black and the hempen homespun top was white; the great wheels and all the running gear was well as the sideboards were vermilion. The horses were often black or bay; over the horses were bows of bells…rising were flat iron hoops with three to eight bells carefully selected to chime………..
Can you imagine or picture that grand sight? Here tiz:
Want to read “the rest of the story,” I’m reading The Pennsylvania Dutch by Fredric Klees, 1950, page 227.
Interested in seeing conestoga wagons, visit Baker, OR. I understand these are beauties, but do not exhibit Pennsylvania Dutch embellishments. Or look at the existing “bow frames” that now highlight the Oregon City End of the Trail Exhibit where wagons with their white fabric once proudly enhanced that great place of interest along I-205. I saw them swimming during the “great flood” in Oregon City. Is that why the beautiful white covers were removed?