Postcard from the Past: Other Uses for the Sheep Wagon

by Dick Perue

In conclusion of a brief history of the sheep wagon, we pass along further comments by Agnes Wright Spring in her feature article “Sheep Wagon Home on Wheels Originated in Wyoming, which appeared in the December 1940 issue of the Wyoming Stockman-Farmer. 

The story concluded:

The Schulte Company has continued to make sheep wagons for 40 years and is now turning out, on order, a new type for around $600 – an all metal, flat-bottomed wagon which is streamlined in every detail and is insulated with cellatex. It is mounted on rubber tires. 

Herders living in these wagons enjoy radios and many modern conveniences, and they keep snug and warm while blizzards rage.

In some locations, automobile pick-ups are displacing the faithful, plodding teams used to move sheep wagons about. In fact, sheepmen themselves are using airplanes to go on sheep buying expeditions.

The sheep industry, including the sheep wagon, unquestionably is keeping abreast of the times.

In 1993-94, Mark Junge, then editor of Wyoming Annals, launched a project to update the history of the sheep wagon under the title of “Sheep Wagons: Folk Housing in Wyoming.” It included much of the information provided by the Carbon County Museum, as well as the spring article. Junge noted:

One of the more fascinating aspects of the sheep wagons is the fact people other than herders made the wagons their home.

Although the image is that of the lone herder and his dog, the reality is the sheepherder’s wives and children often shared the wagon. In a six-and-a-half foot by 10-foot space, one wonders how this was possible.

Additionally, the sheep wagon served as temporary housing for folks unrelated to the sheep ranching industry, such as Bill Hudson who lived in a wagon parked on a vacant lot in Douglas when he attended high school. 

A sheep wagon was Jessie A. Bryant’s first home, shared with her mother, a Saratoga school teacher.

Sheep wagons apparently served as temporary housing for many people, especially during the depression years of the 1920s and 1930s. See accompanying photograph.

In fact, my first home in the Saratoga area was a sheep wagon. 

My father, Bob Perue, tells of not being able to acquire a house in 1938 when the family moved from the Laramie Plains to the Pick Ranch below Saratoga, so dad, my mother, a younger brother and I shared a sheep wagon for six months when I was about three years old. 

Plus, my dad used to tell me I was born in a sheep wagon, and I was about 10 years old before I knew the true story.