Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why did they call it a station wagon?

When I was 17, I wrecked my '70 Camaro. When that happened, I was without a car except when I could borrow my parents cars. I was a senior in high school and only took 4 classes because that's all I needed to graduate. I would get out of school at 12:30 and then went to work at a gas station near home.

After I wrecked the Camaro, I had to hitch hike home from school every day about 20 miles. That lasted for about a month or so until I bought a '68 Ford Country Squire for $75.00. It became the "Party Wagon". I installed my radio from the Camaro, 8 track tape player, and 2 big ass stereo speakers in the back. I provided the musical entertainment for all field parties.

There was this place that people would go with their 4WDs and do hill climbs. This kid bet me $10 that I couldn't climb this certain hill, so I tried it and made it to the top. I hit a rock on the way up and screwed up my starter. We pushed it back down the hill and piled into a friends car to get home that night. I came back the next day and put a new starter on it. The damn starter cost half as much as the whole car.

After about 6 months, I ran that thing into the ground. That's when I bought my '73 Pontiac Lemans for $500.00.

My college car in the late 60's was a 59 Ford Fairlane wagon. It was big and ugly but it was amazing how popular I would get when it was time to make a trip home. I rarely made the 300 mile trip without 5 other people and their luggage to pay for the gas. It was often the only car on the road when the snow got heavy. It would just plow through it. On one of those trips, an attractive young lady heard that there was a car heading toward Boise where she lived and she hooked a ride. That was a start. It ended after I lost her to cancer after 33 years of marriage.

We had a 1961 Ford wagon. I learned to drive in that car. About 1973 the engine died and we pushed it down to the pasture. What is left of it is buried under and pile of dirt in an old ditch were spent 30 years filling up.

kwg

It seems that the very first vehicles we'd recognize as being station wagons were largely custom wooden-bodied variants of Model Ts, and were known as "depot hacks" because they were used to carry folks and their luggage to and from train depots. "Hack" referred to the archaic term "hackney", a horse-drawn taxi (and the "Hackney" name traces its way back eventually to the Spanish word jaca, which Uncle Internet tells me is some kind of little horse). Depot Hacks started off as horse-drawn affairs, and the name just got applied to their motorized replacements. "Station Wagon" was just another name for these depot hacks, so the "station" in station wagon is referring specifically to train stations. The first actual production wagon (as in, not custom) was the 1923 Star.


1923 ford star

hacked url

I like big wagons for drive in movie nights!

From what I read, that was their 1st use but not the 1st name. The original name was depot hack, derived from hackney wagons pulled by horses.

In summer of ‘56 my father was sales manager at a Chevy dealership and we had a two tone yellow and black station wagon. That summer we took a road trip to California to see some cousins. The back seats were put down and three of us rode in the back on a mattress. All the luggage went on top in a baggage carrier. I’m not sure how my folks did it but we all survived but more than once we were threatened with “I’m gonna pull over and get a switch!” 😁 My older sister and younger brother spent most of our time looking for cowboys and Indians.

In the 90’s we had a bronze Volare wagon and let our daughter drive it a lot. She and her friends called it the “Brown Bomb”.

In high school I had a girlfriend with one.

We always called them "grocery getters"

A family in our community had a '65ish Plymouth wagon.. Thier daughter was a couple years older than I and used to ask me to go to the movies with her occasionally...
16yo self learned alot in the back of that thing..
Had a liking for wagons ever since!

My grandparents had old ford ranch wagon back in the mid 70's. A Tank ! That thing went everywhere. Was my PawPaws camper lots of times.. kinda his mobile fish camp!

I don't know why they were/are called station wagons though..

Mine was called "The Shaggin Waggon"

Neighbors had an AMC Rambler station wagon, it was practical and reliable from what I remember. Simpler times back then....

Anyone have a CB with whip antenna on their’s so they could talk to Joody back at the farm about the hot cobbler?

100'' stainlees whp.

On side window i put a sign ''if this wagons rockin don't bother knockin'' other side; ass grass or gas nobody drives for free. Back in 19&67

No, but I still have the whip on the 72 Blazer from back in those days - and the CB radio setup is still mounted under the dash. Wonder of it still works - I could turn it on and try, but would anyone reply?

Before everybody had to have a 1 ton dually to move their bass boats, I recall seeing some full size wagons hauling some serious loads.

Squire Country wagon with a big block hooked to 24’ and 6 to maybe 8k pounds of boat and trailer. 👍

My dad hauled our boat back in the day with one.

The term SUV hadn't been invented yet

Had one of the last. Caprice classic wagons made big block 8v fuel injection and tubro charged from the factory big ass thing would settle down at about 75 and you could put major miles on it interstate cruiseing took her and the wife an kid to the mouse ,like sitting on your living room couch at 85 mph. Missthe old girl sometimes put 400k on it sold it to somebody in Newport News