In a recent thread ...

[PogueMahone]

And I can't find it now, but someone asked about wagons that were essentially a room on wheels and there was some comparison to the seashore dressing rooms ...

Okay, see if this is what you were talking about:
Sheepwagons

The predecessor to the 5th wheel camper?

[Drygoods]

Re: In a recent thread ...

Mr. Smotherman,

Well, I was the person who mentioned them, but the company that makes the ones that I've seen are made here in CA. I will say though, I've seen Hansen's wagons a few times featured in magazines, and they are really nice. If I had the tin, I'd have more than one!:D

[ElizabethClark]

Re: In a recent thread ...

The two instances I've seen such caravans mentioned mid-century had to do with Basque sheepherders, and Rom Travelers... may not be as applicable in the US.

[Marissa]

Re: In a recent thread ...

The instances that I have heard of these being used were in mid-19th century by gipsies in Europe and also in the 1870-1900 by the Chinese Opium traders there is a book about San Franciscos China town 1870-1840 that has a picture of one.

[PogueMahone]

Re: In a recent thread ...

There are a lot of nice original wagons for sale on that site, too. Some are actually reasonable.

[Spinster]

Re: In a recent thread ...

The two instances I've seen such caravans mentioned mid-century had to do with Basque sheepherders, and Rom Travelers... may not be as applicable in the US.

Maybe applicable in the US, but highly limited---I've seen Roms in such a wagon in the Deep South as late as 1986, my aunt has described such conveyances when a Rom child was buried in our family cemetary in the 1930's, and Rob Murray says they are spot on to the wagons he saw with Basque sheepherders in Idaho when he was a child--except these are a LOT cleaner.

So this means if I ever get industrious enough to have my own sheep, I get a rolling house? :D MMMMMnnnnnooooooo probably not---Basque immigration was post-war to my understanding.

[ElizabethClark]

Re: In a recent thread ...

To my knowledge, it is post-war for the biggest emigration push of Basque, but Basques living in South America did come up during the Gold Rush (late 40s, early 50s) and if gold didn't pan out for them (sorry, be on the lookout for the pun police), some did turn to ranch work that early--but that would be California, and I don't know whether or not they had the caravans at that point.

Later emigration (1890s-1920s) ended up with a lot of Basque people in Idaho and eastern Oregon... I've a friend who married into a Southeastern Oregon Basque family, and the wedding lasted a week and a half. She does not get to live in a caravan for most of the year.

But, that's off topic...

[Hank Trent]

Re: In a recent thread ...

Here's an eastern antebellum connection. I don't know anything about it beyond this:

http://www.woodlandcemetery.org/GravestoneStories.htm

Scroll down to "Queen of the Gypsies."

Linda and I did a living history at that cemetery last fall, and as a railroad baron, I spent most of the day at "my" gravestone within sight of "Matilda Stanley, Queen of the Gypsies" near "her" gravestone down the way. It was the first I'd heard of the Stanley gypsies of Ohio.

In a quick search I couldn't find much more about them, but presumably the Stanley gypsies were traveling around the eastern U.S., living in wagons, based in the Dayton Ohio area, from around 1856 on. I couldn't find any further information about their wagons or even any images of the big 1878 funeral, but surely it's out there. The cemetery said they'd been in contact with the descendants.

Needless to say, the wagon would probably be the simplest part of the research for that kind of impression.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net