A wagon (or waggon) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by

draft animals A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for transportation (e.g. riding horses and camels), while othe ...

or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from

cart A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

s (which have two wheels) and from lighter four-wheeled vehicles primarily for carrying people, such as

carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

s. Common animals which pull wagons are

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

s, and oxen. One animal or several, often in pairs or teams may pull wagons. However, there are examples of human-propelled wagons, such as mining corfs. A wagon was formerly called a wain and one who builds or repairs wagons is a wainwright. More specifically, a wain is a type of horse- or oxen-drawn, load-carrying vehicle, used for agricultural purposes rather than transporting people. A wagon or cart, usually four-wheeled; for example, a haywain, normally has four wheels, but the term has now acquired slightly poetical connotations, so is not always used with technical correctness. However, a two-wheeled "haywain" would be a hay cart, as opposed to a carriage. ''Wain'' is also an archaic term for a chariot. ''Wain'' can also be a verb, to carry or deliver, and has other meanings. Contemporary or modern animal-drawn wagons may be of metal instead of wood and have regular wheels with rubber tires instead of traditional

wooden wheel A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright" (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker - as also in shipwright and arkwright). This ...

s. A person who drives wagons is called a "wagoner", a "

teamster A teamster in American English is a truck driver; a person who drives teams of draft animals; or a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union. In some places, a teamster was called a carter, the name referring to the ...

", a "

bullocky A bullocky is an Australian English term for the driver of a bullock team. The American term is bullwhacker. Bullock drivers were also known as teamsters or carriers. History Bullock teams were in use in Sydney in 1795 when they were used ...

" (Australia), a "

muleteer An ''arriero'', muleteer, or more informally a muleskinner (; ;) is a person who transports goods using pack animals, especially mules. Distribution and function In Latin America, muleskinners transport coffee, maize, maize (corn), cork (mat ...

", or simply a "driver". Wagons have served numerous purposes, with a variety of designs. As with motorized vehicles, some are designed to serve as many functions as possible, while others are highly specialized.

Terminology and design

The exact name and terminology used are often dependent on the design or shape of the wagon. If low and sideless it may be called a dray, trolley or float. When traveling over long distances and periods, wagons may be covered with cloth to protect their contents from the elements; these are "

covered wagon A covered wagon, also called a prairie wagon, whitetop, or prairie schooner, is a horse-drawn or ox-drawn wagon used for passengers or freight hauling. It has a canvas, tarpaulin, or waterproof sheet which is stretched over removable wooden ...

s". If it has high sides, with or without a permanent top, it may be called a "

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. There is some variation in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting either goods or ...

". A wagon might be unsprung if ordinarily used over rough ground or cobbles. A

front axle assembly Turning radius was a longstanding problem with wagons, dictated by the distance between the front wagon wheels and the bed of the wagon—namely, the point where the rotating wheels collide with the side of the wagon when turning. Many earlier de ...

, in its simplest form, is an assembly of a short beam with a pivot plate, two wheels and spindles as well as a drawbar attached to this. A pin attaches the device to a

horse-drawn vehicle A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by auto ...

making the

turning radius The turning radius (alternatively, turning diameter or turning circle) of a vehicle defines the minimum dimension (typically the radius or diameter) of available space required for that vehicle to make a semi-circular U-turn without skidding. Th ...

smaller.

Types

Farm wagon

Farm wagons are built for general multi-purpose usage in an agricultural or rural setting. These include gathering

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, Fiber, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same spe ...

s and wood, and delivering them to the farmstead or market. Wagons can also be pulled with

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

s for easy transportation of those materials. A common form found throughout Europe is the , a large wagon the sides of which consisted of ladders strapped in place to hold in hay or

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

, though these could be removed to serve other needs.

Freight wagon

Freight wagons were used for the overland hauling of freight and bulk commodities. They were not designed for transporting people and were not built for comfort. Many were constructed without a driver's seat or bench, leaving the driver to walk alongside the wagon or ride atop one of the horses. Many freight wagons had a "lazyboard," a plank that could be pulled out for sitting upon, and then pushed back when not needed. In America, lazyboards were located on the left side and close to the brake because wagons were steered from the left side. In the United States and Canada, the large, heavily built

Conestoga wagon The Conestoga wagon, also simply known as the Conestoga, is a horse-drawn freight wagon that was used exclusively in North America, primarily the United States, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Such wagons were probably first used by Pennsylvania ...

was a predominant form of freight wagon in the late 18th and 19th centuries, often used for hauling goods on the

Great Wagon Road The Great Wagon Road, also known as the Philadelphia Wagon Road, is a historic trail in the eastern United States that was first traveled by indigenous tribes, and later explorers, settlers, soldiers, and travelers. It extended from British Penn ...

in the Appalachian Valley and across the Appalachian Mountains. Even larger wagons were built, such as the

twenty-mule team Twenty-mule teams were teams of eighteen mules and two horses attached to large wagons that transported borax out of Death Valley from 1883 to 1898. They traveled from mining, mines across the Mojave Desert to the nearest Rail transport, railr ...

wagons, used for hauling borax from

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

, which could haul per pair. The wagons' bodies were long and deep; the rear wheels were in diameter, and the wagons weighed empty. Freight wagons in the American West were hauled by oxen, mules or horses. Freight wagon teams would generally haul between three and thirty-five tons of freight when hauling to mining outposts. On the return, they would haul ore to steamboats or to railroad depots. File:Smithsonian National Museum of American History - Conestoga Wagon (8307591214).jpg,

, USA 1840s File:Bullock Team Wool Wagon.jpg,

Ox-wagon An ox-wagon or bullock wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen (draught cattle). It was a traditional form of transport, especially in Southern Africa but also in New Zealand and Australia. Ox-wagons were also used in the United States. ...

hauling wool, New Zealand c. 1880 File:20 Mule Team in Death Valley.jpg,

Twenty-mule team Twenty-mule teams were teams of eighteen mules and two horses attached to large wagons that transported borax out of Death Valley from 1883 to 1898. They traveled from mining, mines across the Mojave Desert to the nearest Rail transport, railr ...

, Borax freight, USA 1880s File:20-mule-team wagons.jpg, Borax wagons on display c. 1935 File:Freight team LCCN2013647269.jpg, Freight wagons, USA 1905 File:Freight cart with a farmer and horses (3526479046).jpg, Freight wagons, Argentina 1920s File:Horse-drawn wagon loaded with 175 sacks of wheat beside freight car LCCN2007677294.jpg, Load of wheat, USA 1910

Delivery wagon

A delivery wagon was used to deliver merchandise such as milk, bread, produce, meat and ice to residential and commercial customers, predominantly in urban settings. The concept of express wagons and paneled delivery vans developed in the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, delivery wagons were often finely painted, lettered and varnished, serving as image-builders and rolling advertisements. Special forms of delivery wagons include an

ice wagon An iceman is someone who sells or delivers ice from a wagon, cart, or motor-truck. While the advent of modern refrigeration and freezers have made the profession increasingly uncommon, in previous eras of human history, the iceman transported an ...

and a milk wagon.

Tank wagon A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; t ...

s carried liquid cargo. Water wagons made deliveries to areas lacking piped water and for military camp use. In the early 1900s, the American street flusher used a gas-powered pump to clean city streets of litter or mud, and to wet down dust in dry seasons. Liquid manure wagons were low tank vehicles for spreading manure on fields in the 1860s–1900s. Oil wagons operated from the 1880s to 1920s and held up to 500 gallons of oil or spirits. In the city center of

Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Gmünd (, until 1934: Gmünd; Swabian: ''Gmẽẽd'' or ''Gmend'') is a city in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the city is the second largest in the Ostalb district ...

, Germany, since 1992 the city's plants have been irrigated using a horse-drawn wagon with a water tank. File:Baker's-van-r.jpg, Bakery delivery wagon, Australia 1900s File:Paardenkar met alcoholtank van de firma Delizy & Doistau Fils (Rectification d'Alcools) in Pantin, RP-F-F01164-30-2.jpg, Alcohol tank wagon, France 1900s File:Bon Marche Department Store horse-drawn wagon, probably 1900 (SEATTLE 102).jpg, Store delivery, USA 1900s File:Breadvan - London 1.jpg, Bread delivery, England 1910s File:Hevosvaunuja Helsingin Meijeriliikkeen pihalla, toisessa kerroksessa konttori - - hkm.HKMS000005-km003lbl.jpg, Milk wagons, Finland 1920s File:Acme Farmers Dairy milk delivery wagon (I0004258).jpg, Milk delivery, Canada 1920s

Living accommodations

Wagons have also served as the first mobile homes, as mobile workshops, and mobile kitchens. *

Shepherd's hut The shepherd's hut (or shepherd's wagon) was, since the 14th century and into the 20th century, used by shepherds during sheep raising and lambing, primarily in the United Kingdom and France. Shepherd's huts often had iron wheels and corrugated i ...

– for remote shepherds * Vardo – traditional wagon of the 19th-century British Romani people *

Living van A living van is a portable Travel trailer, caravan for temporary use of traveling work crews, especially of Traction engine, early steam engines. Living vans developed from the earlier shepherd's wagons, used to provide portable accommodatio ...

– used to house roving work crews during early steam engine days *

Showman's wagon A living van is a portable caravan for temporary use of traveling work crews, especially of early steam engines. Living vans developed from the earlier shepherd's wagons, used to provide portable accommodation following a flock as they were ...

– elaborate living accommodations for showmen *

Chuckwagon A chuckwagon, or chuck wagon, is a horse-drawn wagon operating as a mobile field kitchen and frequently covered wagon, covered with a white tarp, also called a camp wagon or round-up wagon. It was historically used for the storage and transpor ...

– a small wagon used for providing food and cooking; essentially a portable kitchen File:Shepherd living vans at the Great Dorset - geograph.org.uk - 1476363.jpg, Shepherd huts File:Gipsy caravan, Fishers Farm - geograph.org.uk - 238741.jpg, A Romani Vardo File:Walker Hoadley's caravan.jpg, Showman's wagon File:Chuckwagon.jpg,

Entertainment and show

Traveling circuses decorated their wagons to be able to take part in the grand parade—even packing wagons for equipment, animal cage wagons, living vans and band wagons. Popular in North America was, and still is, the float or show wagon, driven by six horses pulling a highly decorated show wagon with a token payload, and heavily painted with company or owner advertising. Horse-drawn wagons are popular attractions at tourist destinations for leisurely sightseeing. File:Triumph-isabella-ommeganck-1615-alsloot.jpg, Pageant wagons, Belgium 1615 File:Circus parade wagon.jpg, Circus parade wagon, built 1904 File:Horse drawn Japanese float in Portland Rose Festival parade, Portland, Oregon, 1908 (AL+CA 2101).jpg,

Parade float A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually s ...

, USA 1908 File:Colonial Williamsburg wagon tour.jpg, Tourist wagon, USA 2004 File:2008-06-01Dinkelsbühl Pferdewagen03.jpg, Sight-seeing wagon, Germany 2008 File:Budweiser Clydesdales, St. Louis, Missouri (33625293774).jpg, Exhibition wagon, USA 2017

Motorized wagons

During the transition to mechanized vehicles from animal-powered, vehicles were built by

coachbuilder A coachbuilder manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. The trade of producing coachwork began with bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. Today it includes custom automobiles, buses, Coach (bus), motor coaches, and passenger car (rai ...

s and the bodies and undercarriages were substantially similar to the horse-drawn vehicles. *

Hippomobile The Hippomobile is an early, three wheeled automobile invented by Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir in France in 1863 which carried its own internal combustion engine. It was based on his 1860 invention, the Lenoir gas engine. History In 1863, the H ...

– 1860s invention, gas powered *

Steam wagon A steam wagon (or steam lorry, steam waggon or steamtruck) is a Steam power, steam-powered truck for carrying freight. It was the earliest form of lorry (truck) and came in two basic forms: ''overtype'' and ''undertype'', the distinction being t ...

– late 1800s, large steam-powered vehicle *

Duryea Motor Wagon The Duryea Motor Wagon was among the first standardized automobiles and among the first powered by gasoline. Fifteen examples were built by the Duryea Motor Wagon Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, between 1893 and 1896. Their enterprise follo ...

– 1890s gasoline powered, patterned from the American buggy * Auto Wagon – early 1900s gas-powered, patterned from the American buggy *

High wheeler A high wheeler is a car which uses large diameter wheels that are similar to those used by horse-drawn vehicles. These cars were produced until about 1915, predominantly in the United States. Design High wheelers were derived from horse-drawn ...

– 1910s – often made from converted horse-drawn wagons In modern times, the term

station wagon A station wagon (American English, US, also wagon) or estate car (British English, UK, also estate) is an automotive Car body style, body-style variant of a Sedan (automobile), sedan with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo ...

survives as a type of automobile. It describes a car with a passenger compartment that extends to the back of the vehicle, that has no trunk, that has one or more rear seats that can be folded making space for carrying cargo, as well as featuring an opening tailgate or liftgate. File:Patent, Duryea Road Vehicle, 1895.png, Drawing for the

Duryea Duryea may refer to: * Duryea (surname) * Duryea Motor Wagon Company, first American automobile company * Duryea, Pennsylvania, a borough in Luzerne County {{Disambiguation ...

Road Vehicle, 1895 File:George B Selden driving automobile in 1905.jpg,

George B. Selden George Baldwin Selden (September 14, 1846 – January 17, 1922) was an American patent lawyer and inventor from New York who was granted a U.S. patent for an automobile in 1895.Flink, p. 51 ''Probably the most absurd action in the history of pa ...

driving an automobile in 1905 File:1911 International Wagon.JPG, 1911 International Harvester Auto Wagon (

) File:International Torpedo - Coupe Florio 2015 01.jpg,

International Harvester Auto-Buggy The International Harvester Auto-Buggy is a two-cylinder, air-cooled motor car made by International Harvester Corporation. First announced in February 1907, the Auto-Buggy was dropped from their range of products in early 1912, but the Auto Wagon ...

Modern agricultural wagons

File:Gravity wagon 3-2.jpg,

Gravity wagon The gravity wagon, or slant wagon, is an angled hopper style wagon that utilizes gravity to make the unloading process easier. It is primarily used on farms for agricultural purposes, such as for holding crops or fertilizer. For easy comparison ...

File:Forage wagon.jpg, Front unload

forage wagon A silo () is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are commonly used for bulk storage of grain, coal, cement, carbon black, woodchips, food products and sawdust. Three types of silos are in widespread use today: tower silos, bunker s ...

Wagon train

In migration and military settings, wagons were often found in large groups called

wagon train ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western television series that aired for eight seasons, first on the NBC television network (1957–1962) and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and reached the top of the ...

s. In warfare, large groups of supply wagons were used to support traveling armies with food and munitions, forming "baggage trains". During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, these wagon trains would often be accompanied by the wagons of private merchants, known as

sutler A sutler or victualer is a civilian merchant who sells provisions to an army in the field, in camp, or in quarters. Sutlers sold wares from the back of a wagon or a temporary tent, traveling with an army or to remote military outposts. Sutler wa ...

s, who sold goods to soldiers, as well as the wagons of photographers and news reporters. Special purpose-built support wagons existed for blacksmithing, telegraphy and even observation ballooning. In migration settings, such as the emigrant trails of the American West and the

Great Trek The Great Trek (, ) was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial adminis ...

of South Africa, wagons would travel together for support, navigation and protection. A group of wagons may be used to create an improvised fort called a

laager A wagon fort, wagon fortress, wagenburg or corral, often referred to as circling the wagons, is a temporary fortification made of wagons arranged into a rectangle, circle, or other shape and possibly joined with each other to produce an improvis ...

, made by circling them to form an enclosure. In these settings, a

chuckwagon A chuckwagon, or chuck wagon, is a horse-drawn wagon operating as a mobile field kitchen and frequently covered wagon, covered with a white tarp, also called a camp wagon or round-up wagon. It was historically used for the storage and transpor ...

is a small wagon used for providing food and cooking, essentially a portable kitchen.

Draft animals

In addition to horses and oxen, animals such as mules and goats have been used as draft animals for appropriately sized wagons. File:Brazilian Princes 1883.jpg, Sheep and children's wagon (1883) File:Goat team - Washington, D.C..jpg, Goat pair and wagon (1917) File:The 18-seater pram, Park Royal Hospital, London, 1925 Wellcome L0002193.jpg, Donkey and wagon full of children (1925) File:Ben Turner and family in their wagon with mule team. Flint R... (3109740135).jpg, Mule team and wagon (1939) File:Opnamen FF-tentoonstelling te Enschede. Een Transvaalse boer met een huifkar get, Bestanddeelnr 904-7345.jpg, Oxen and covered wagon (1951)

Wagons in art

As a common, important element in history and life, wagons have been the subjects of artwork. Some examples are the paintings ''

The Hay Wain ''The Hay Wain'' – originally titled ''Landscape: Noon'' – is a painting by John Constable, completed in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the River Stour, Suffolk, River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It hangs ...

'' and ''

The Haywain Triptych The ''Haywain Triptych'' is a panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. A date of around 1516 has been established by means of dendrochronological research. The central panel, ...

'', and on the

Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar The Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar was a fifty-cent piece struck intermittently by the United States Bureau of the Mint between 1926 and 1939. The coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser and James Earle Fraser, and commemorates those wh ...

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control