Conestoga wagon

English

Conestoga wagon hauled by oxen

Alternative forms

• Conestogoe wagon

Etymology

From the Conestoga River in Pennsylvania, USA, whose settlers presumably developed early forms.

Noun

Conestoga wagon (plural Conestoga wagons)

1. A heavy covered wagon with a curved boatlike body popular in the United States from about 1750–1850. [1717]
   • 1866, Stewart Pearce, Annals of Luzerne County: A Record of Interesting Events, Traditions, and Anecdotes, J. B. Lippincott & Co., page 344:

     During the summer and fall the covered broad-wheeled Conestoga wagons, moved by four or six splendid draught-horses, were constantly employed in transporting the productions of the county to market.

   The heavy and boat-shaped Conestoga wagon should not be confused with the lighter and cheaper prairie schooners that largely replaced them.

Synonyms

• Dutch wagon, Conestoga, Conestoga wain

See also

• prairie schooner