The Shepherder's Wagon
(Page 4 of 4)
May/June 1970
By Victor A Croley
After a career in the big cities, I had been talking so much about the sheepwagons of my youth that my wife finally agreed to let me build one and try it out. They are still in use in some parts of the old west: Idaho, Utah, Nevada, the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana, and no doubt modern plans are available from the western state agricultural colleges. But anyone with a minimum of tools, imagination and skill can build one. The old horse-drawn running gear is now replaced by a rubber-tired farm wagon. But hardware supply houses in the west still stock the compact sheepwagon stoves and the bent hickory bows that hold the canvas and tent and awning companies still have the patterns and skill to sew the coverings.
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There were three layers of covering: a good heavy canvas on the outside; then a layer of coarse wool blanket for insulation; and a fancy-patterned oil-cloth inner lining. The last might be replaced by plastic today.
It was this triple-ply covering that made the sheep wagon so easily heated, snug and comfortable in subzero weather. In summer, too, the insulated ceiling plus the cross-ventilation from rear-window through the door kept the interior comfortably shaded and cool in the high altitude areas of the west.
When I built my last sheep wagon, the rubber-tired running gear cost me a hundred dollars in used, but good condition. The rest of the wagon cost another hundred, and for two hundred dollars we had a comfortable trailer and mobile home. With an ancient (1930) Model A car we traveled from Casper, Wyoming to San Diego - camping and sightseeing along the way - and with never a hitch or difficulty although in deference to the car, I chose the easiest route: Over Raton Pass and south to Las Cruces, then west through Tucson and Yuma and over the Lagunas.
In San Diego I lifted the wagon body onto blocks and sold the running gear at a farm auction. We lived in the sheep wagon body while our home was building and then the grandchildren inherited it as a playhouse.
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