Research... Once upon a time, this was something done largely at libraries and museums or even wading through the back-room files of a brick-and-mortar newspaper business or historical society. In earlier days, there was no such thing as the internet or a digitized archive. Microfiche and microfilm readers were about as high tech as it got. Anyone who’s spent back-aching months and even years searching for answers in the dusty, forgotten parts of the past knows that old school study can be wearily time-consuming.
In the twenty-first century, though, many individuals want to skip the line, focusing only on quick answers to their questions – even the tough ones. Society has evolved into a place of constant impatience. As a result, too many will jump head-first into the shallow end, leaning solely on the first return from an internet search engine. Others will go straight to social media, expecting countless learned scholars to be camped there; all of this with nary a concern for credentials or credibility. It’s truly surprising how many rely on a rumor-mill style of research for authority and direction.
Even popular, modern-day books can be a minefield of mayhem. Reinforcing that point, several years ago, there were a number of people telling me about a book focused on travel along a pioneer trail. “You HAVE to read it. It’s great,” they said. So, I finally found a copy and read enough to realize, that while it might have qualified as an interesting ‘light’ read, the writer consistently misunderstood the details and makeup of early wagons as well as the early wagon-making industry. There were countless erroneous details passed along as authoritative facts. Among them was the repeated labeling of brake blocks as brake shoes. The writer also referred to the standards on the running gear as bolsters (they are a part of but not literally the bolster), claimed all wagon parts were standardized by the mid-1850s, declared a twentieth century advertisement from Peter Schuttler to be from the 1850s, and even went so far as to say that nineteenth-century wagons originally built by Joseph Murphy in St.Louis can still be seen in parades in the twenty-first century. Of course, no footnote or endnote support was provided for these bold and baseless claims. They remain misdirected balderdash and can seriously hamper a person’s ability to build a foundation of factual knowledge. As a footnote from decades of my own, extensive Murphy studies – including personally interviewing Emily Ann O'Neill Bott, who literally wrote the book on her great grandfather, Joseph Murphy – as of this writing, I’ve found a total of ZERO substantiated Murphy wagon survivors. I wish there were. The brand remains one of the most elusive and intriguing transportation giants of the American West.
It's been an honor to speak at so many venues across the country, including this one at Colonial Williamsburg. Image Copyright © David E. Sneed, All Rights Reserved.
Too often, too many folks are steered in the wrong direction because of insufficient study of primary sources. It can be a challenging landscape for seasoned scholars exploring early horse-drawn transportation, let alone casual observers looking for instant gratification. Even though there are many individuals and organizations working hard to help others better understand the truth of this part of America’s past, it only takes one well-placed, errancy-filled story to undo a world of work.
In the past week, I’ve heard from multiple, knowledgeable friends who wanted to relay recent experiences with internet search returns. Each was astounded at the answers the relatively-new AI Overview is providing when folks type in a wagon or stagecoach question. Their shock came, not because the answers were spot-on but, because they were over-the-moon WRONG and, sometimes, completely inconsistent! Let’s be clear here. AI still has plenty of weakness and we need to be extremely careful where we place our trust. The system only ‘knows’ what it is fed and there’s a lot of nonsense that it’s trying to digest. This has always been a challenge online because anyone can write anything at any time and put it almost anywhere. The search algorithms can be tied to writings with no credible basis in facts. Too often, this information is then placed at the top of a query for everyone’s consumption. In some cases, AI has made it worse because it’s trying to glean everything it can and combine it all into a simple synopsis.
The Wheels That Won The West® collection includes a vast amount of early supplier materials as well. Image Copyright © David E. Sneed, All Rights Reserved.
The problem with learning about early wagons and stages is that there is nothing ‘simple’ about the vehicles and their stories. This early industry and its products are a complex, multi-layered narrative full of twists, turns, and surprises. Couple that with the observation that very few folks have done any significant studies beyond a Google search. Over the decades, I’ve written literally hundreds of researched stories and shared them on the internet. Even with so many details posted online, I’d conservatively say that 99.9% of the primary source material in our Wheels That Won The West® Archives remains unpublished ANYWHERE in the modern world. Our compilation of rare details is believed to be the largest private collection of America’s early wagon and staging empires. Still, there are plenty of places where we’re still looking for more details from yesterday.
So, what does the future hold for folks trying to learn about these vehicles online? I’d say it’s a bit like getting out of a car and asking for directions in a sketchy part of town late at night. It’s a place where one would do well to tread lightly. In fairness, not every horse-drawn vehicle question posed to a search engine or a social media page is answered incorrectly. Many replies are perfectly fine and answered by knowledgeable folks. Regrettably, others are not. Therein lies the problem. How does the average person know the difference between good and poor responses?
Looking at early vehicles from an historical perspective can unlock details not readily apparent. This old running gear has seen its better days but it still has a lot to share - including patented features and design elements that help us better understand what this major maker was doing more than 125 years ago. Image Copyright © David E. Sneed, All Rights Reserved.
For those who might feel I’m overexaggerating the challenges of online research, I’ll share a number of questions and wrong answers returned in a recent test of AI search returns. Roughly a week prior to the posting of this write-up, these were the questions posed and the answers provided by AI...
Stagecoach image courtesy of the INSP and Western Bound television networks. The program "Legends of the Stagecoach" can be viewed on the networks, themselves, or on YouTube anytime.
WHY DO STAGECOACHES HAVE SANDBOXES?
AI Overview
"Stagecoaches were equipped with sandboxes as a safety feature for braking on rugged or steep terrain... The sandbox was an ingenious apparatus placed over the brake pads. When a stagecoach was approaching a steep downhill section, the driver could release sand onto the brake pads and the wheels. This increased the friction, providing essential extra stopping power and control, especially when navigating mountainous regions or struggling through mud and snow where normal braking would be less effective."
Good grief! The above paragraph is total garbage!! And, I do mean TOTAL. If it’s possible to train AI to deliberately deceive, the words above are well-suited for that purpose. Special thanks to Doug Hansen at Hansen Wheel & Wagon Shop for pointing out this extremely poor answer to us.
Our "Making Tracks" print includes a callout of wagon parts and design elements. Image Copyright © David E. Sneed, All Rights Reserved.
WHAT IS A SLIDER ON THE RUNNING GEAR OF A HORSE-DRAWN WAGON?
AI Overview
"A 'slider' on a horse-drawn wagon's running gear, also called a skid shoe or drag shoe, is a metal plate placed under the wagon's wheels to create drag, stopping them from spinning freely when going downhill, allowing the driver to control the descent by dragging the wagon safely rather than letting it rush uncontrolled. It's secured to the wheels and the wagon body, acting as a brake by preventing the wheels from turning, thus "skidding" or "dragging" the vehicle down the incline."
Here’s another answer that can create a lot of confusion. The slider on a wagon gear doesn't refer to the sliding action of a drag shoe. I did rephrase the question and AI did a little better with its explanation. Again, we often cover these types of details within our in-person presentations.
The next three (3) questions are all basically the same, with a few shifts in the wording. The main reason I wanted to show this is that the AI answers can dramatically change even though the questions are generally the same...
HOW MANY WAGON AND CARRIAGE MAKERS WERE IN THE UNITED STATES?
AI Overview
"The number of U.S. wagon and carriage makers varied significantly, peaking around the turn of the 20th century with thousands of businesses, including some reports of 80,000 builders in 1887, though Census data shows around 10,000 establishments in 1900, which quickly dropped to fewer than 100 by 1920 with the rise of automobiles, leaving only a few hundred significant surviving manufacturers by that time."
This answer gets just enough information correct to sound authoritative. Likewise, it leads folks to believe that the industry’s own reports are not worth mentioning. They answer leans heavily on Census records which tell only a fraction of the story. Period directories from the wagon industry go into extensive detail, listing – by name – far more than the 10,000 establishments in 1900 that are mentioned above. Going beyond the limited and easily skewed Census reports is just the kind of primary source research our Wheels That Won The West® Archives are grounded in.
Now, check out a different answer to what is basically the same question below...
HOW MANY HORSE-DRAWN VEHICLE MAKERS WERE IN THE UNITED STATES?
AI Overview
"The number of U.S. horse-drawn vehicle makers varied significantly, peaking around the turn of the 20th century with roughly 6,200 companies in 1899, including thousands of small shops alongside larger manufacturers, though by 1920, only about 90 remained as automobiles gained popularity, marking a rapid decline from their peak production."
HOW MANY HORSE-DRAWN WAGON MAKERS WERE IN AMERICA?
AI Overview
"America had thousands of horse-drawn wagon makers, peaking around 1900 with over 3,400 businesses, ranging from tiny shops to large factories, with numbers growing from around 3,800 makers in 1879 to a peak of 6,200 by 1899 before declining with the rise of automobiles."
Can you believe these answers? The first one indicated the U.S. had around 10,000 carriage and wagon makers at the turn of the century. The second answer puts that number at “roughly 6,200,” and the third query says that in 1900, America had over 3,400 makers. Each of these three responses for the same basic question is radically different and I’ll tell you this... NONE of those turn-of-the-century amounts are correct. NONE! Even so, I'm going to give the AI processors a little room here because these are numbers that even the most studied scholars have a little trouble with. In fact, the April 1904 issue of "The Carriage Monthly" had yet another total to consider for the year 1900. According to that issue, there were just over 7,600 makers at that time. The challenge with many of these numbers is that they are created from Census records which do not present the whole picture. It's why I prefer the industry directories. They appear to be much more thorough.
Shown is a portion of the U.S. patent for the first reach plate. Courtesy Wheels That Won The West® Archives.
WHO INVENTED THE REACH PLATE ON HORSE DRAWN WAGONS?
AI Overview
"While the reach plate evolved, Targe (T.G.) Mandt of Stoughton, Wisconsin, was a prolific inventor known for patenting and popularizing significant innovations in wagon running gears, including a specific reachplate (often called a reach brake-plate) around the late 1870s that integrated with wagon brakes, improving wagon design for widespread use by companies like Moline Plow. Mandt's designs were foundational, though other manufacturers like International Harvester (IHC) later added their own patented versions to their horse-drawn wagons."
This answer uses a bit of slight-of-hand and misdirection, never answering the answerable question. (yes, we have the answer in our files) The reason AI couldn’t answer it is because some of these details remain unpublished online. The largest problem with AI is that some have falsely assumed that everything a person can know is online. When it comes to horse-drawn history, there is a vast and massive world of knowledge that’s not online and it may never be. The sheer volume of historical data related to America’s horse-drawn vehicle makers is astronomically overwhelming. From original literature and photography to patents, business ledgers, trade publications, marketing efforts, industry correspondence, legal maneuverings, and so much more, it might take a literal eternity to put a rope around all of it.
WHEN WERE THE FIRST METAL HUBCAPS USED?
AI Overview
"Metal hubcaps, initially simple "dust caps," emerged with the first automobiles in the early 1900s to protect wheel bearings, evolving from nickel-plated brass to aluminum in the 1920s, with larger, decorative styles appearing in the 1930s, and full wheel covers (true "wheel covers") debuting in 1938."
Metal hubcaps clearly existed on wagons LONG BEFORE THE EMERGENCE of automobiles. In fact, they were common on many Conestoga freight wagons. This is an answer that AI should have easily answered correctly. I placed a second query asking more specifically about hubcaps on a Conestoga wagon. The AI response was that the metal coverings on the ends of many Conestoga wagons “weren’t exactly” hubcaps. Well, that’s interesting. AI was now arguing with me. For the record, one of the most learned studies on Conestoga wagons was published in multiple editions between 1964 and 1968. The book is entitled, “Conestoga Wagon 1750-1850.” It’s an extraordinary work and very well done. Multiple times in the book, the metal coverings on the wheel hubs are authoritatively defined as 'hub caps.' There are other studies which also corroborate this period nomenclature.
DID HORSE DRAWN WAGONS EVER USE AUTOMOTIVE STYLE STEERING?
AI Overview
"No, traditional horse-drawn wagons and carriages did not use automotive-style steering. The steering mechanisms of horse-drawn vehicles actually provided the basis for early automobile steering systems, which were later improved upon for motorized use."
This answer speaks from both sides of the mouth, first saying that wagons didn’t have auto-style steering and then saying that, well, automobiles got their idea for automotive steering from wagons. Come on, AI... Did they or didn’t they. This is yet another false and confusing answer that I’ve written about multiple times. (the answer is “yes,” auto-style steering existed on wagons well prior to the automobile. We’ve also covered this in multiple, in-person presentations)
How many Studebaker vehicles were built in 1878?
AI Overview
"While the exact number of Studebaker vehicles built in 1878 is not specified in available records, the company had the capacity to build 75,000 horse-drawn vehicles annually by that year."
Another poor answer from AI... and, for the record, that manufacturing documentation has been published. The details, with footnotes, can be found in the book, “The Carriage Trade,” by Thomas A Kinney, page 221.
It strikes me as just a little more than ironic that ‘AI’ is an acronym for “Artificial” Intelligence. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word, ‘artificial’ is tied to synonyms like fake, imitation, and poseur. When I was growing up, those terms were not the kinds of things we leaned on for confidence.
So, is there a purpose for AI? Yes, there are certainly places where AI can be and is of remarkable assistance. Unfortunately, the historic world of America’s old wagons and stages is not a place for the uninitiated to be in charge of handing out answers. Regrettably, that’s the position that AI tends to take with this subject.
At the end of the day, we live in a world with a lot of voices vying for our attention. Knowing which ones are beneficial to listen to may be the most valuable skill any of us can acquire. It’s why all of our Wheels That Won The West® research is focused on original, primary source material. We’re not basing our writings on hearsay, which is generally what AI is doing. Our advice to those looking for online answers related to horse-drawn history? Slow down, do your homework, and Consider The Source!
Proverbs 3:5-6