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Chuckwagon, Ghostown Blues Bed & Breakfast, Highway 271, 1 km west of Maple Creek, SK

Chuckwagon, Ghostown Blues Bed & Breakfast, Highway 271, 1 km west of Maple Creek, SK.

Greg Hisey: "That's a 1925 Eaton wagon, out of the Eaton catalogue. That's an original wagon. I've built underneath there, that's called the pan boot, and the chuck box there. This was a kitchen on wheels, that's what they were designed for, made by a guy named Charlie Goodnight in 1864 [Wikepedia says 1866], when the cattle drives started. Now, they didn't have trunks on top. It had a rack, and that's where the cowboys' bedrolls went. That's where the chuckwagon races were invented. They usually had more than one of these on the cattle drive and they raced to the next camp to get the best site handy to water. The cowboy's bedrolls [and personal effects were stowed] up front. There was another box on some of them that was a pantry, and then there was a shelf across that you put the lanterns in. So they could eat and cook at night."

"It was a marvel of practicality, just like the sheep wagons. To me, they were built like a ship berth in there - a marvel of practicality and functionality. This one I take to town quite often for parades and heritage day, or Taste of Maple Creek, and they'll be cooking out of the back of it. All this stuff's hand hammered. I try to keep them as true to what they were as I can get. They're fun. I enjoy building them."

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Filename: 2012-08-001-0879-D.tif
Image Size: 5760x3840 / 63.3MB; Avenue Consul Cypress Ghostown Blues Hills Maple Creek Provinces Provincial Railway Saskatchewan and bed breakfast main park street
Contained in galleries: Ghostown Blues Bed and Breakfast

Chuckwagon, Ghostown Blues Bed & Breakfast, Highway 271, 1 km west of Maple Creek, SK. <br />
<br />
Greg Hisey: "That's a 1925 Eaton wagon, out of the Eaton catalogue. That's an original wagon. I've built underneath there, that's called the pan boot, and the chuck box there. This was a kitchen on wheels, that's what they were designed for, made by a guy named Charlie Goodnight in 1864 [Wikepedia says 1866], when the cattle drives started. Now, they didn't have trunks on top. It had a rack, and that's where the cowboys' bedrolls went. That's where the chuckwagon races were invented. They usually had more than one of these on the cattle drive and they raced to the next camp to get the best site handy to water. The cowboy's bedrolls [and personal effects were stowed] up front. There was another box on some of them that was a pantry, and then there was a shelf across that you put the lanterns in. So they could eat and cook at night."<br />
<br />
"It was a marvel of practicality, just like the sheep wagons. To me, they were built like a ship berth in there - a marvel of practicality and functionality. This one I take to town quite often for parades and heritage day, or Taste of Maple Creek, and they'll be cooking out of the back of it. All this stuff's hand hammered. I try to keep them as true to what they were as I can get. They're fun. I enjoy building them."