A History of the Chuck Wagon
In 1866, when cattleman Charles Goodnight needed a way to keep his drovers fed while trailing cattle from Texas to points north, he merely took an old Army supply wagon, and bolted to its back a wooden box divided into different compartments. He covered the box with a hinged lid that when opened and supported by a single leg could serve as a work table or wide shelf.

The box was a simple contraption, but it revolutionized the cattle industry. Food and
cooking utensils were stowed in the pigeonholes of this traveling kitchen cabinet. There were other uses for the wagon as well. Bedrolls, medicine, lariats, branding
irons, whiskey and water--they each found a place attached somewhere on the wagon.

It was no difficulty coming up with a name for Goodnight's invention. Since early 17th
Century England, individuals involved in the meat business referred to a lower priced part of the beef carcass as the "chuck."
Although less glamorous than other cuts, the chuck was an important source of nutrition for the working man.

By the next century "chuck" became a catch-all phrase for good, honest, heart-warming
food. The term encompassed beef, vegetables, bread, dessert, coffee and anything else that could be eaten. On the ranch, the hands ate "chuck" at the "chuck" house.
Goodnight's all-purpose compartment on the back of the Army wagon became the
"chuck" box. And a wagon with a chuck box became a "chuck" wagon.

The chuck wagon quickly gained independent status. While the wrangler or trail boss set
the rules outside the camp, he and all the other hands obeyed the cook within the sphere of the chuck wagon. The cook brooked no interference with his cooking or his
utensils, but the cowboys never rebelled against his rule. They paid him tribute each day
by roping dead mesquite or oak wood and dragging it into camp for the fire.

After ranchers fenced the open range with barbed wire, and the extension of railway lines made the trail drive unnecessary, the chuck wagon lived on. Many times, neighboring ranchers helped with the roundup, the branding, the doctoring and other chores in return for the same consideration during their time to ship. When this happened, one chuck wagon might make the rounds of all the area ranches and be out for weeks at a time throughout the working season to feed dozens of persons.

Today, the chuck wagon remains a vital part of the cattle industry. It not only is it used
to feeds working cowboys on larger ranches, but it also is a social gathering place during cowboy celebrations, fairs, meetings and other important events. For everyone, even those who
are eating behind a wagon for the hundredth time, the chuck wagon is a special place,
and the time spent there eating, meeting and greeting with friends is forever filed away in the catalog of that person's special memories.

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