Types of Covered Wagons

Wagon Illustration: George R. Stewart in The California Trail

You have to be careful not to pack too much!

In the desert between present-day Lovelock and the Sierras, exhausted pioneers had to jettison much of their cargo just to be able to keep going:

"A scene of destruction began. Trunks, bags, boxes were brought out, opened and ransacked. Cut down to 75 lbs. a man. The scene can be easily imagined. In the evening the plain was scattered with waifs [stray articles] and fragments, looking as though a whirlwind had scattered about the contents of several dry goods, hardware and variety shops."

—Diary of Bernard J. Reid, 1849

This much food is suggested for each adult in the group:

200 pounds of flour
30 pounds of pilot bread (hardtack)
75 pounds of bacon
10 pounds of rice
5 pounds of coffee
2 pounds of tea
25 pounds of sugar
½ bushel of dried beans
1 bushel of dried fruit
2 pounds of saleratus (baking soda)
10 pounds of salt
½ bushel of corn meal
½ bushel of corn, parched and ground
1 small keg of vinegar

—Jacqueline Williams, Wagon Wheel Kitchens