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The thing that makes for great history.... details

OK, so what do you take when hauling maybe 3,000 pounds in a wagon for the next two months over 900 miles of roadless wilderness?



This from Gregg (and BTW, the scientific name of the autumn sage growing in my garden is Salvia greggi, him being the one who first identified it as something different, and collected it for science)...

http://www.kancoll.org/books/gregg/gr_ch02_1.htm

The ordinary supplies for each man's consumption during the journey, are about fifty pounds of flour, as many more of bacon, ten of coffee and twenty of sugar, and a little salt.


Interesting to ponder that these guys could have carried my Corolla to Santa Fe in one of those wagons...

The wagons now most in use upon the Prairies are manufactured in Pittsburg; and are usually drawn by eight mules or the same number of oxen. Of late years, however, I have seen much larger vehicles employed, with ten or twelve mules harnessed to each, and a cargo of goods of about five thousand pounds in weight.

At an early period the horse was more frequently in use, as mules were not found in great abundance; but as soon as the means for procuring these animals increased, the horse was gradually and finally discarded, except occasionally for riding and the chase. Oxen having been employed by Major Riley for the baggage wagons of the escort which was furnished the caravan of 1829, they were found, to the surprise of the traders, to perform almost equal to mules.

Since that time, upon an average, about half of the wa-gons in these expeditions have been drawn by oxen. They possess many advantages, such as pulling heavier loads than the same number of mules, particularly through muddy or sandy places; but they generally fall off in strength as the prairie grass becomes drier and shorter, and often arrive at their destination in a most shocking plight.

In this condition I have seen them sacrificed at Santa Fe for ten dollars the pair; though in more favorable seasons, they sometimes remain strong enough to be driven back to the United States the same fall. Therefore, although the original cost of a team of mules is much greater, the loss ultimately sustained by them is considerably less, to say nothing of the comfort of being able to travel faster and more at ease.

The inferiority of oxen as regards endurance is partially owing to the tenderness of their feet; for there are very few among the thousands who have travelled on the Prairies that ever knew how to shoe them properly. Many have resorted to the curious expedient of shoeing their animals with 'moccasins' made of raw buffalo skin, which does remarkably well as long as the weather remains dry; but when wet, they are soon worn through.

Even mules, for the most part, perform the entire trip without being shod at all, unless the hoofs become very smooth, which sometimes renders all their movements on the dry grassy surface as laborious as if they were treading upon ice.

The thing that interests me is, being as the digestive system of equines is so much less efficient w/respect to grass than that of cattle, how come those mules were holding up so much better than oxen?

Birdwatcher