why did the wagons dump???

[chong2]

i was wondering why wagons would dump thier stuff into single piles and not just throw stuff as they traveled. i doubt they were concerned about litter... but maybe they were. has anyone found any goodies from any they have discovered

 

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[Montana Jim]

Probebly while thinning load they had to resecure goods... stopping would allow them to unload, move stuff around, and resecure it before moving on.

The only experience I have with wagons is watching movies... LOL

 

[Copperhead]

Well, they weren't eating a bag of chips and drinking a can of coke while driving is one reason...I doubt you could do much of anything in a moving wagon besides hold on..I imagine they didn't have a lot to throw away while they were moving...after stopping for the day, any garbage they created or anything they broke was they probably just left....

 

[Ramitt]

 

[silverswede]

Let me give it a shot of imagination. It's 1960 and you have a ranch in Nevada, also a dump truck. As your trash accumulates you toss it in the truck box and when a goodly pile in there off you go a couple of miles out on the range to a ravine. Trip the dump and drive home....Now it's 100 years earlier-1860 Trucks haven't been invented.You toss your trash in the box of the old dray wagon. The one that has the floor that drops open like two trap doors. hitch up the team, haul er' out to the ravine and trip the trapdoors and YEEHAW! Geez, I hope someone a year or two older than me remembers those wagons.
Whoops sorry Ramitt..Here's the only picture I could find.

 

[re-tek]

hmm.. heres a thought...

some of us have a trailer or old pickup we use when going to the dump. back then you didnt pay tag and registration so it must have been easier to keep an old mode of transportation for dump runs. throw all the junk in the wagon tll its full, then go for a ride.

 

[Ramitt]

Cool, thanks for the picture silverswede.

 

[Jim West Pa]

Maybe what ya found is all the belongins they "dropped" when they had to flip the wagon and hide behind it so's not to git stuck wit arrows when the injins attacked 'em.And then some rennegade was smart enough to sneak up behind 'em and scalp 'em dead and now all their belongins are left to rot on the ground cox da injins had no use fer white man stuffs.

 

[Zephyr]

Okay, imagine it's the late 1800's and you are on your way across the country with your wagon, headed for new homestead territory. Then one of your draft animals drops dead. You can't really stay there in the middle of nowhere, one animal won't be able to pull your wagon (loaded with all your worldly possessions) by itself for very long, so, with heavy heart, you're going to have to pare down what you're taking with you to the bare necessities, or you and your family will die, stranded in the wilderness. Even if part of a wagon train, such decisions were made often.
Now you just have to find the routes they took and look for anything they discarded along the way....

 

[Tubecity]

What of the settlers who moved west in the 1800's. The stories of the wagons bogged down in the mud or in the sands near the desert. If a mule or ox died, didn't they lighten the load by dumping belongings to keep up
with the wagon train? I've read where many of the wagons had false
bottoms in them where they would hide their money, jewelry and silverware. Being from western Pa., the only big westward movement in my area was the Lewis & Clark expedition as the flatboats used were built within a few miles of me & taken down the Monongahela to the
Ohio & then down the Mississippi. In 1802 this was the wild west.

 

[chong2]

cool scenereos, i think i like the indian one best. there is a mining town about 30 miles from the location, but that would be pointless hauling 1 load and dumping it, there are some rr tracks maybe 1/2 mile away but still pointless. people comuted between 2 areas since the 1850's the local is about smack in between. also the area was notorious for apache indian raids and what not. one of my fam members actually talks with geronimos grand daughter or its great great g daughter. ill get a pic of the site when i go back, and will screen it throughly and probe. only i know its lacation, muahhahahhahahahhahahah, sorry still recovering from last night