Things You'll Need:
- Wooden planks
- Wooden beams
- Bolts
- Nails
- 2 axles
- Iron braces
- Wagon wheels
- Wooden lathes
- Canvas
- Wooden pole
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Step 1
Begin with the wagon box. The box of a Conestoga wagon is also called a Yankee bed. The Yankee bed consists of an open-topped arrangement of wooden planks or boards. Set up a large board for the bottom. Typically this would be about 10 to 12 feet in length and around 4 feet wide. A true Conestoga would be about twice this size. The smaller version is known as a prairie schooner. Take another two 10- to 12-foot planks and bolt them to the long sides of the bottom plank. These sideboards should be about 2 to 3 feet high. You can fill any gaps in the boards with tar or caulking.
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Step 2
Select a narrow beam about the same length of your Yankee bed. This will be the support for the wheels. It must also be strong enough to support the weight of the Yankee box and cover as well as all your passengers and freight. Select two 4-foot beams and bolt them to the underside of each end of the long main beam. They should be perpendicular to the main beam. Attach a brace to the underside of each end of these 4-foot beams. Your brace can be iron or it can be a triangle made of wooden beams. It must be the right size for an axle. The axle must fit through it and be able to move freely. If you make a wooden triangle, make sure it points downward.
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Step 3
Thrust an axle through each pair of braces. Attach a wagon wheel to the end of each axle. A traditional wagon wheel has wooden spokes and a wooden rim. The wooden rim is enclosed by an iron tire. Wagon wheels are complicated to build. You will probably best off seeing if you can find one or buy one. Next, attach two more short beams to the top of the long main beam that is your wheel base. These two beams can about the same dimensions as the beams supporting the axles. Attach them a little in from the axle beams. Bolt them up on their long sides so you get some height above the wheel base. You are going to be attaching the Yankee bed to these beams. Bolt the Yankee bed in place.
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Step 4
Use some thin beams to make your bows. The bows are the arched pieces of wood that go on top of the Yankee bed to support the canvas cover. Make the bows by soaking or steaming the thin beams and slowly bending them to the right shape. Attach these bows to the sides of your Yankee bed. You will need 4 or 5 bows. Space them evenly along the Yankee bed. Finally, get a large piece of canvas and stretch it over the bows. This is your bonnet, or cover.
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Step 5
Build the tongue for your covered wagon. The tongue is a long wooden pole that attaches to the front of the wheel base. Traditional wagons use an arrangement of wooden singletree and doubletree to hold the tongue in place and permit it to move up and down. About as long as the axles, the singletree sits below the tongue. The double is about the length of the crosspieces above the wheels. It sits on top of the tongue. To make the yoke attach a short pole perpendicular to the top front end of the long tongue. The harness is attached to this yoke.
