OXEN LOGGING WAGON
Stephen and Cheryl’s collection of antiques and memorabilia led them to auctions all over the west. One such auction led them to an auction of the contents of the old railroad roundhouse in Quincy, CA. Out in the back lot they found the remnants of old logging wagon. After buying the oxen wagon, along with a truckload of other collectibles, Stephen returned to the auction site the following week with his son Will, and Will’s good friend Tim Waugh. Stephen now had the help he needed to load all the heavy items.
The above photo shows the logging wagon as it was found in the roundhouse back lot in Quincy. Everything about this moving project was difficult. In the photo below you will see this oxen logging wagon as it looked when it was being pulled by eight oxen in the forests near Quincy. The photograph was found in a drawer in the railroad roundhouse after the auction.
Stephen, Will, and Tim dismantled the oxen wagon into as many pieces as they could, and then loaded it in the pickup. Every piece of the wagon is extremely heavy and sturdy, because it had to support an incredible loads of logs.
In this photo, everything that was purchased at the auction is loaded and ready for the trip home. The long wooden beams in the trailer that were found stored in an old building at the auction, were later used by Stephen as the main supports for the Marsh Walkway in the lower field.
In this series of three photos, Stephen has started to assemble the oxen logging wagon on his property. You will notice how there is very little iron in the the wagon. Iron was expensive and difficult to purchase in many remote locations in the late 1800s. So a blacksmith built the center wheels out of layer after layer of wood, and the wood was fastened with hundreds of nails. Spoke wheels could not be used because the weight of the logs would have collapsed them. The iron rims are so heavy that Stephen had to use his front end loader to move them into place.
