Trivia Correction: The answer to trivia question #4 has been changed from Answer A. Orson Hyde to Answer A. Orson Pratt.⁶

“It was a great picture, a stirring panorama of an earlier day, which now unfolded. Slow, swaying, stately, the ox teams came on, as though impelled by and not compelling the fleet of white canvas sails.” — Emerson Hough¹

Covered wagons were the primary mode of transportation for pioneers moving west in the mid-nineteenth century.² Modeled after the Conestoga wagon, they were built from hardwoods like maple and oak, with iron reinforcement at stress points like axels and wheels.³ The wagons could carry about 2,000 pounds and were light enough to be pulled by oxen or mules.^2,3 The canvas cover on top provided protection from the elements, like rain and dust, and could be rolled back to open up the top.^2,3 Sometimes called a prairie schooner, the covered wagon was smaller and lighter than the Conestoga wagon and was especially suited for long-distance travel.⁴ Groups of covered wagons were called trains.⁵ Pioneers typically traveled 15-20 miles per day at a pace of about 2 miles per hour.⁴ Due to the difficulty of accurately measuring the distance traveled each day in a wagon, Orson Pratt, a Latter-day Saint apostle, helped invent a "roadometer.” The roadometer was a "set of wooden cogwheels" that measured distance through calculations derived from the number of revolutions of the wagon wheel.⁶

1. Emerson Hough, The Covered Wagon, 3, archive.org

2. Brenda K. Jackson, “Covered Wagons,” plainshumanities.unl.edu

3. ”Trail Basics - The Wagon,” oregontrailcenter.org

4. William E. Hill, “Prairie Schooner,” britannica.com

5. The Oregon Trail, nebraskastudies.org

6. ”One Tool That Built the West: Orson Pratt’s Odometer,” history.churchofjesuschrist.org