Loading the Wagon - Hands on History at Home

By the mid-1840s, Sutter's Fort was the destination for hundreds of American immigrants traveling to California by wagon on the overland trail, such as the Donner Party. In this video, Ryan and Jared discuss our pioneer wagon, and explore the hardships and struggles of the overland journey to California. Ryan also demonstrates how you can recreate the experience of trying to pack a wagon at home! If you decide to take on the wagon-loading challenge, let us know how it went in the comments below!
Sutter's Fort State Historic Park is a California State Park located in the heart of Sacramento, California.

[@frederickbooth7970]

Interesting! The wagon will haul more items then my compact 1984 S10 long bed pickup. My truck has a 29 cu. ft. capacity while the wagon has a 40' capacity. The wagon also has 1 ton hauling ability while my truck only has 1542 lbs weight capacity. Of course the wagon can`t go 50 mph! Personally I would have rather gone to the extra expense & used mules for draft power. Of course at present our strong & fast Thoroughbreds from our farm would work too! I would want to make sure the wagon had real good brakes though. We have used our 1st farm sire to pull a stuck in the mud trailer free. The 4 x 4 Blazer just spun all 4 wheels. The tractor we had also kept just spinning its wheels to. The horse with his all hoofed drive had no difficulties pulling the trailer free despite the 6" of mud. Amazed us actually. Great video always like to see how things were done in the past.

[@rvvanlife]

Fascinating, thank you so much 👍

[@a916LEX]

I love these videos so much! Thank you for sharing with us.

[@blackmary7686]

interesting video, I love the information about this important and historic time, thank you very much

[@axerxes3981]

Excellent, excellent, excellent!! Nice to see that some of our State's budget hadn't been waisted!! BTW... where did the fresh milk come from every day?? Did some families really bring a cow along with them? Thanks for sharing.... Ax

[@Me.love.]

Amazing i love your video what Will pioneers do whenever You hit water and do the wagons Do flot and can i have a reply From people or you

[@gerardfenn3988]

Only a very few wagons came with the very expensive blow up inflatable life preservers that enabled the wagon to just float all the way down the Columbia river.

[@vosifle]

What about tools?!?