Quick links
prairie schooner†
Hist.
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
any of various types of wagon used by settlers in the westward migration of the nineteenth century.
Quotations
1880
The light waggon, covered with a cotton awning that gives it the name of "prairie-schooner," from its fancied resemblance to a sail-boat [and] the two-horse spring waggon . . . are the greatest favourites.
1914
All freight . . . was brought . . . in ox waggons, commonly called prairie schooners. These were very large and hauled by spans of ten pairs of oxen. . . .
1964
Other reminders of the past included . . . a Conestoga, or prairie schooner.
1966
[Caption] These prairie schooners brought Canadians back from Montana to homesteads in the Peace River Country.