Chuckwagon Stew and the Chuckwagon Cooks

Cattle drives, roundups, settlers headed west to California all had something in common. The chuckwagon cook. He was revered on those cattle drives.

The high time of the trail drives lasted only about 20 years, from the end of the Civil War to the mid -1880's. In that brief period of time around 10 million cows walked the trails from Texas to the rail heads in Kansas and Missouri. Many of these went as far as Wyoming and even into Canada.

In the early days of the great trail drives the cowhand had to make do with what he could carry with him. This caused some rather hungry, uncomfortable times on the trail. A well supplied chuck wagon contained an amazing assortment of goods and possibles needed for a long trail drive. Not only did the wagon have to carry food supplies and cooking utensils, it had to carry the cowboy bed rolls and personal effects as well. Considering the average wagon box was around 10 feet long and only 38-40 inches wide packing and unpacking must have been a science in itself. It's no wonder cousies had a reputation for being a little on edge most of the time.



There is a mistaken notion that most of the wagons used during the westward migration were of the Conestoga variety. Conestoga wagons were indigenous to the Conestoga area of Pennsylvania and were large freight wagons reaching lengths of up to 24 feet. While a few Conestoga wagons made the trek to the west most of the wagons used were of the typical farm or "lumber wagon" variety. This is the case for both chuck wagons and pioneer wagons. The chuck wagon served to be such a popular vehicle that the Studebaker Wagon Company and other wagon manufacturing companies were selling pre-built "Round Up" wagons by the end of the great trail drives. Simple and functional in its design, the chuck wagon remains important to western cattle drives to this day.