Dodge assists the Old Courthouse of St. Louis
We recently had the unique opportunity to transport an original Overland wagon from the Old Courthouse in St. Louis to the Old Post Office location. This move required the expert disassembly and careful reassembly of the 200-year-old artifact. The wagon was donated by a man in Iowa and was in the Museum under the Gateway Arch from the 1970’s until 2014, where it went on display inside of the Old Courthouse. Due to courthouse renovations, the wagon needed to be moved and Dodge was delighted to be tasked with the job.
Here is some history of the wagon: Wagon travel was not new to the West in the 1840’s as traders had been using wagons for years. Immigrant guidebooks published in the 1840’s and 1850’s recommended wagons of simple construction, built from timber, and adaptable for use as a cart or a boat if needed. Some pioneers purchased wagons for the one-way journey to the West. Others converted farm rigs or built the wagon themselves.
Travel by wagon train occurred primarily between the 1840’s–1880’s, disappearing after completion of the first transcontinental railroad. But its place in history is immovable as the first method of major westward expansion. The pioneer families took the risk of movement to a better life, and the wagon carried them west.
