Wagons for the Santa Fe Trade: Wheeled Vehicles and Their Makers, 1822-1880 - Hardcover

Gardner, Mark L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826318460 ISBN 13: 9780826318466

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, 2000

Synopsis

This profusely illustrated history explores Santa Fe Trade freight wagons and wagon makers. For a half-century until the railroad reached New Mexico in 1880, hundreds of freight wagons yearly hauled commercial goods over the Santa Fe Trail, the major traffic artery between Missouri and New Mexico. The author identifies wagon types and examines wagon makers and their factories, power sources, woodworking machinery, and construction processes. Individual chapters examine Pennsylvania and Missouri wagons, characteristics of freight wagons, the transition from shop to factory, and Dearborns, personal vehicles, and provision wagons. The author also devotes a chapter to the legendary wind wagon. Appendices offer first-person descriptions of merchant trains, rolling stock, and wagon factories.

About this title

About the Author:

Mark L. Gardner, a professional historian, lives in Cascade, Colorado. His other publications include The Mexican War Correspondence of Richard Smith Elliott, coedited with Marc Simmons.

Review:

AAA1/2This masterful overview documents how the Santa Fe Trail was a proving ground for freight wagons . . . GardnerAAA1/2s knowledge of the wagon builderAAA1/2s art is conveyed eloquently and thoroughly, yet with modesty and grace. . . it is obvious that much time and painstaking work went into the book . . . "Wagons for the Santa Fe Trade" is a detailed, yet coherent guide.AAA1/2

About this edition

• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0826318460
• ISBN 13: 9780826318466
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224