After the Louisiana Purchase<\/strong><\/a><\/span> of 1803, wagon trains<\/strong> or caravans brought pioneer<\/strong> settlers, merchants, missionaries, prospectors, freight and livestock across the Great Plains to the West.<\/p>\n Spanish conquistadors<\/strong><\/a><\/span> had explored the southwest in search of gold, starting with the Coronado Expedition<\/strong><\/a><\/span> in 1540. Before the wagon trains, adventurous mountain men<\/strong> and fur traders<\/strong><\/a><\/span> hunted and trapped the region, mostly seeking beaver pelts to sell to eastern merchants to satisfy fashion trends in big cities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hunting and pack trails used by Native Americans<\/strong><\/a><\/span> and mountain men were widened to accommodate wagons. As market demand for beaver pelts declined, fur traders became guides for wagon trains through rugged and hostile territory.<\/p>\n Famous routes included the Santa Fe Trail<\/strong><\/a><\/span>\u00a0(1821-1880),\u00a0Oregon Trail<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>(1811-1890), Old Spanish Trail (1829-1848), California Trail (1841-1869), Overland Trail (1858-1870), Smoky Hill Trail (1855-1870), Gila Trail\u00a0(1846-1880) and Mormon Trail (1846-1868).<\/p>\n The primary starting point was Independence, Missouri. Covered wagons gathered each spring, organized, and set off on the long trek westward. Wagons could travel ten to fifteen miles per day, drawn by teams of horses, mules, or oxen. Oxen teams had more stamina and traveled at two miles per hour.<\/p>\n Average journeys by wagon took three to six months, still saving weeks or months off the alternate 15,000-mile hazardous sea journey. A sea voyage from the east coast to the west coast around Cape Horn at the tip of South America took up to eight months.<\/p>\n Pioneers used smaller, lighter, flat-bed wagons known as prairie schooners<\/strong>\u00a0since the white canvas covers looked like ships sailing on an ocean of prairie grass. The smaller wagons carried over a ton of cargo and passengers. Popular manufacturers of wagons were Murphy and Studebaker.<\/p>\n The Mormon two-wheel handcart was also used, pushed, or pulled by two people. [See the movie, 17 Miracles, 2011, depicting Mormons using handcarts on the pioneer trail to Utah in 1857.]<\/p>\n Smaller wagon trains were often comprised of family, friends, and neighbors who knew each other and were able to get along without using a written contract<\/strong>. Larger wagon trains comprised of strangers and diverse groups formed companies with bylaws, rules, and contracts. They elected captains<\/strong> and officers. Longer trains included lieutenants for each section.<\/p>\n Constitution-like contracts for mutual benefit and protection included provisions for voting, decision making, amending the contract, adding or withdrawing members, dissolution, arbitration, jury trials, banishing lawbreakers, gambling, drinking, Sabbath-breaking (some wagon trains did not travel on Sundays), defense, river crossings, hunting, medical care, death, breakdowns, failing to perform duties, and private property rights. Captains served as trail judges.<\/p>\n A panel of three arbiters with binding decisions settled disputes, one chosen by each party and the third arbiter chosen by the first two.<\/p>\n Contracts for guide services\u00a0commonly included a charge per person or per wagon, to be paid upon safe arrival at the destination. By 1850, trails were well-known and guide books with reliable information were used.<\/p>\n Many miles of wagon trails were outside of state or territorial jurisdiction<\/strong> across unorganized, disputed, or Indian Territory<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Contracts provided the rules, laws, structure and self-government for the mobile group.<\/p>\n The 1963 episode titled Caravan<\/em>, of the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel<\/em>\u00a0stated that by custom, a wagon train was governed by maritime law<\/strong><\/a><\/span>, with the captain in charge.<\/p>\n In the TV series Wagon Train, season 3, episodes 29 and 30, Trial for Murder<\/em>, the story depicts the arrest and makeshift trial of an accused murderer, around 1870, 200 miles from the nearest town with law officials on the California Trail. The wagon master checks the registration book for passenger occupations to find any lawyers or others with legal knowledge to serve as attorneys in the case.<\/p>\n The wagon master states that under the articles signed by all members, he has the same rights and responsibilities as the captain of a ship<\/strong> to establish and enforce the rules when they are traveling outside the jurisdiction of any other duly constituted authority. A jury is selected by the attorneys. Witnesses testify under oath, sworn on a Bible, administered by the court clerk, with an American flag in the background in a trail-side desert court.<\/p>\n In season 6, episode 1, Wagon Train Mutiny<\/em>, the wagon master reminds train members that they signed a charter agreeing to obey the military commands of the captain, under penalty of mutiny.<\/strong><\/p>\n In season 1, episode 14, The Julie Gage Story<\/em>, the wagon master performs a marriage ceremony<\/strong>, using a Bible, under the same authority as the captain of a ship.<\/p>\n In season 5, episode 18, titled Incident of the Mountain Man<\/em>, of TV series Rawhide, a wagon master states the wagon train jury held a murder trial under the Law of the Trail, sentencing a mountain man scout murder suspect to a trail-side hanging. Clint Eastwood, as cattle drive ramrod Rowdy, intervenes and convinces the hanging party, including the father of the victim, to take the suspect to the nearest town with a marshal for a trial. Along the way, the suspect reveals the death was an accident, not a murder, before dying fighting Indians.<\/p>\n The trail boss on a cattle drive was in charge of enforcing the Law of the Trail.<\/p>\n The first frontier that used wagon trains was across the Allegheny Mountains in the late 18th century.\u00a0Wagon trains ended in the East in the 1840s and 1850s as railroads were built. In 1852, the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) westward route reached the Ohio River, the first eastern seaboard railroad to do so.<\/p>\n Even after the completion of the Union Pacific-Central Pacific transcontinental railroad<\/strong> in May 1869, wagon trains continued for another decade or more, but they decreased in size. Pioneer wagon wheel ruts can still be seen in several states along the old trails. The trip by railroad only took 7 days.<\/p>\n In 1855, the Panama<\/strong> Railroad<\/strong> was completed, shortening the sea trip by 8,000 miles, eliminating the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America. [The Panama Canal did not open until 1914.]<\/p>\n Before the Panama Railroad was built, some adventuresome California forty-niner gold rush prospectors crossed the isthmus by a 4-day canoe river trip, followed by 50 difficult miles of jungle trail by horse or mule to Panama City.<\/p>\n Following the Civil War<\/strong>, the military defeat and relocation of the Indians, the massive reduction of the buffalo herds, and the establishment of stagecoach<\/strong> lines, bridges, ferries, and improved trading posts<\/strong> and services made travel safer, faster, and more convenient. As the population grew, freight caravans<\/strong> carried cargo to cities, towns, forts, and mining camps.<\/p>\n When wagon trains were attacked by hostile Indians and property or livestock was stolen or destroyed, the victim could file a depredation<\/strong><\/a><\/span> claim for restitution with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The victim made a list of the lost items and the estimated value and went to a notary<\/strong> or court clerk to make a sworn affidavit describing the incident and the name of the hostile tribe.<\/p>\n Wagon Train Indian Depredation Claim of Richard Barret 1865<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Wagon Train Indian Depredation Affidavit of Jerome Crow 1866<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Wagon Train<\/em>, the Western TV series about the trail from Missouri to California, ran on NBC 1957\u201362 and then on ABC 1962\u201365. Movies with wagon trains include Note: The Chisholms added at the suggestion of filmmaker David DePerro. Thank you. Image Credits<\/strong> Updated 2024-09-16, added Rawhide TV episode, Law of the Trail<\/p>\n Visit our website for\u00a0Colorado Springs Mobile Notary<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0services or\u00a0Colorado Notary Training<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>classes.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Copyright 2018\u00a0 ABC Legal Docs, LLC\u00a0 All rights reserved.\u00a0 Do not copy.\u00a0 Citations welcome.\u00a0 Terms of Use apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wagon Trains, Contracts, Law 1820-1880 After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, wagon trains or caravans brought pioneer settlers, merchants, missionaries, prospectors, freight and livestock across the Great Plains to the West. Spanish conquistadors had explored the southwest in search of gold, starting with the Coronado Expedition in 1540. Before the wagon trains, adventurous mountain men and fur traders hunted and trapped the region, mostly seeking beaver pelts to sell to eastern merchants to satisfy fashion trends in big cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3210,920],"tags":[598,1195,2634,2640,2635,43,2638,2512,602,507,3279,513,309,3186,1914,2636,601,1936,2639,2637,2633],"class_list":["post-5377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colorado-history","category-notary-history","tag-bents-fort","tag-captain","tag-caravan","tag-civil-war","tag-conestoga-wagons","tag-contract","tag-freight","tag-fur-traders","tag-indians","tag-jurisdiction","tag-law-of-the-trail","tag-maritime-law","tag-marriage","tag-panama","tag-pioneer","tag-prairie-schooners","tag-santa-fe-trail","tag-stagecoach","tag-trading-post","tag-transcontinental-railroad","tag-wagon-trains","has_thumb"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/span>Hunting Trails to Wagon Trails<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Conestoga Wagons and Prairie Schooners<\/span><\/h2>\n
Conestoga wagons<\/strong>, originating in the Conestoga River Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, were larger heavy wagons, 18x11x4 feet, designed for hauling freight, up to 6 tons. The front and back were curved upward to keep freight from sliding. Seams were caulked with tar for crossing rivers.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Verbal and Written Contracts<\/span><\/h2>\n
The captain chose the camping site each night, based on advice from a guide or scout. At night, the wagons formed a circle or a square, serving as a corral for livestock and a fortress for the passengers. There was music, singing, and dancing for entertainment. The tongue of the lead wagon was pointed toward the North Star, for the wagon train to orient its direction the next morning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/span>Maritime Law on Wagon Trains<\/span><\/h2>\n
End of the Wagon Trains<\/h2>\n
<\/span>Indian Depredation Claims and Notaries<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Wagon Train TV Shows and Movies<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nThe Oregon Trail<\/em> TV series ran on NBC in 1977.<\/p>\n
\nThe Covered Wagon<\/em>, a 1923 silent film about pioneers traveling from Kansas to Oregon.\u00a0Most of the extras seen in\u00a0The Covered Wagon<\/em> are riding in the heirloom real covered wagons used by their pioneer ancestors.
\nThe Big Trail<\/em> (1930) about the Oregon Trail, starring John Wayne
\nZane Grey’s Fighting Caravans<\/em> (1931) about California freight wagons, starring Gary Cooper and the remake\u00a0Wagon Wheels<\/em> (1934) starring Randolph Scott
\nThe Oregon Trail<\/em> (1936) John Wayne
\n3 Faces West<\/em> (1940) John Wayne
\nWagon Train<\/em> (1940) Tim Holt
\nKit Carson<\/em> (1940) John Hall
\nBad Bascomb<\/em> (1946) Wallace Beery
\nWagon Master<\/em> (1950) about a Mormon wagon train to Utah, starring Ben Johnson and Ward Bond
\nBend of the River<\/em> (1952) James Stewart
\nArrow in the Dust<\/em> (1954) Sterling Hayden
\nWestward Ho<\/em>, the Wagons<\/em> (1956) Fess Parker
\nThe Oregon Trail<\/em>\u00a0(1959) Fred MacMurray
\nThunder in the Sun<\/em> (1959) Susan Hayward, Jeff Chandler
\nThe Way West<\/em>\u00a0(1967)\u00a0<\/em>Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark
\nHow the West Was Won<\/em> (1976-1979) TV series, includes the Macahan family journey to Oregon in the 1860s, starring James Arness
\nThe Chisholms<\/em> (1979) TV mini-series, 4 episodes, TV series in 1980, 9 episodes, about the Chisholm family moving from Virginia to Wyoming, starring Robert Preston, Rosemary Harris
\nInto the West<\/em> (2005) TV mini-series, 6 episodes, covers Westward expansion period from 1825 to 1890
\n17 Miracles<\/em>, (2011), Jasen Wade, depicting Mormons using handcarts on the pioneer trail to Utah in 1857<\/p>\n
\nFort scenes in several western movies and TV shows including Centennial, How the West Was Won, Dream West, and The Chisholms were filmed at Bent’s Fort in Colorado<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, on the Santa Fe Trail.<\/p>\n
\n1. Covered wagon, Bent’s Fort, Colorado by Mosab Sasi (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
\n2. Conestoga wagon\u00a0by Pearson Scott Foresman [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
\n3.\u00a0Pioneers Crossing the Plains of Nebraska by C.C.A. Christensen [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
\n4. Map, U.S. Territory 1840, University of Virginia, fair use for education
\n5. Transcontinental Railroad celebration, Utah 1869 by Andrew J. Russell (1830-1902), photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n