Preparation

Download and copy the combined worksheets for this lesson.

Session 1: Wagon Ho! What Is A Conestoga Wagon

Begin this lesson with a discussion of the methods of travel in Pennsylvania in 1750. (water, Indian foot paths, pack horses). You might want to show Source 10: Map of Early Indian Paths as a transparency and refer to it later to show how roads developed along these paths. You may refer to the story timeline or sub-stories "Early Turnpikes and the Old State Road" and "Toward a National Road" for information for a chronology of road development. Points to be discussed are trade along the coast with little or no contact with the interior for a hundred years, the need to venture westward, the fact that market agriculture to a larger area would replace the individual self-sustaining farms. Money could be made by selling farm produce to cities. How could the farmer haul his produce to markets in the west, Pittsburgh, and in the east, Philadelphia? What obstacles would he face? (natural barriers–flooding from the rivers, Allegheny Mountains; human barriers-unfriendly Indians, and Europeans) How could the farmer cross the Allegheny Mountains to get to Pittsburgh? Why not just use pack horses? Conclude the discussion by telling the students that they are going to explore the type of transportation that played an important part in the development of our overland transportation system.

1. Ask the students to draw a picture of a Conestoga wagon labeling its parts. This is not to be researched but to be drawn from what they already know. After 5 minutes ask students to set the drawings aside. Ask, "What words can you think of that would describe a Conestoga wagon?" Write the words on the board as they provide them. Distribute Worksheet 1: Graphic Organizer Concept Map. Work with the class as they decide which major concepts to use to categorize the words on the board. Each student should make his own concept map.

2. Distribute Worksheet 2: KWL Chart. Ask each student to complete the "What I already know about the Conestoga Wagon" section. Using Worksheet 1: Graphic Organizer Concept Map, ask students to brainstorm what they would like to know. Divide students into groups of four to complete this section of the KWL chart.

3. Distribute Source 1: Reading on the Conestoga Wagon. Ask students to read the information. As they find answers to any of their questions, they should fill them in on their chart.

4. Ask students to share what they learned from the reading and added to their "learned" column of the KWL Chart.

5. Tell students that very few journals were kept of experiences in a Conestoga wagon. However, a man traveling from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in 1830 kept an excellent account of his experiences as he traveled on foot, stage coach, and sleigh, while his goods and baggage traveled by wagon. Distribute Source 2: Fortesque Cummings, Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, Worksheet 3: Traveling with Cummings Chart, and Source 11: Map of Pennsylvania. Discuss what a journal might contain (places visited, daily happenings, descriptions of landforms and scenery, interaction with people…). Tell the students that they will be transcribing the information in Cummings journal to learn what it was like to travel from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in 1830. Read and discuss the information in the first journal entry. Locate with the class the starting point of the trip in Philadelphia. Discuss why Cummings chose to begin on foot. Ask students to follow along on the chart as you model the first entry. As you read the entry, ask students to listen for examples of physical features mentioned (hilly land between Philadelphia and Lancaster, woods, varieties of soil…) and examples of human-environment interaction (bridge over the Schuylkill, roads, turnpike road, cultivated farms, well-inhabited). Ask students to write the information on their charts under the proper headings and to locate Philadelphia, the Schuylkill River, and Lancaster on their Pennsylvania maps, placing dots at each stop.

6. Divide the class into groups of four. Assign each group a journal entry to read and discuss transcribing the information to the chart. Ask students to follow his journey on the Pennsylvania map, marking the places that he passed through. Distribute Worksheet 4: Places to Plot, a list of places to be marked on their maps. Ask students to add information to their KWL chart as they read. Teacher discussion questions might include: Why did Cummings decide to start his trip by foot? Describe the scenery between Philadelphia and Lancaster.

7. Bring the class together and share the information from each entry. Instruct students to connect the point marked on their charts to view the trip. Source 10: Map of Early Indian Paths and have students compare the road traveled to the early Indian paths.

Session 2: Reading a Photograph or Print

1. Ask the class to observe Source 8: An Early Tavern Scene: "The Rifle Frolic" by Gayle Hoskins.

2. Show this photo as a transparency. Use Worksheet 5: Reading A Photograph or Print. Distribute a copy of the picture to each group of four students to observe as the teacher goes through each step using the overhead transparency.

3. After students have completed analyzing the picture, teacher should distribute Source 3: Tavern Talk, and read this with the students to provide more information on taverns.

Session 3: Blueprint of A Conestoga Wagon–Can You Identify Each Part?

1. Display on the overhead Worksheet 6: Parts of a Wagon, the picture of the Conestoga wagon with each part numbered for identification.

2. Divide the students into groups of four. Ask each group to research two parts of the wagon on the "Crossing the Alleghenies" site. Students may use information sheets, Source 1: Reading on the Conestoga Wagon

3. Distribute the part names from Worksheet 6: Parts of a Wagon and the picture of the wagon from this link.

4. After 10 minutes, conduct a class discussion of the parts, labeling each part given on the transparency as students label their wagons on the worksheet.

5. Students can link to the following site to take a quiz on the parts of a wagon.

Session 4: Interviewing an Artifact

1. Discuss the meaning of an artifact–man-made item representing a part of the culture during the period it was made.

2. Ask how artifacts can help us understand cultures of the past.

3. Distribute Worksheet 7: Interviewing an Artifact. This is the photo of the "hames bells" and the questions to accompany it.

4. Divide the students into groups of four. Ask students to observe the picture of the artifact and discuss the questions in their groups.

5. After fifteen minutes, bring the students back together and lead a class discussion on the artifact photo.

6. Distribute Source 4: Conestoga Horse and the Bells. Read and discuss this sheet with the students.

7. Conclude the lesson by asking the students to identify one artifact of today in each group that would help people of the future understand our culture. Ask for explanations for why the object was selected.

Session 5: Conestoga Quotes

1. Teacher should begin the lesson by distributing Source 6: Hazzard's Register–Tollkeeper's Record Sheet–1830, a tollkeeper's account of trade carried by wagons over the turnpike road from Franklin County to the east in 1830. Discuss with the students the items sent to the east (flour, butter, eggs wool, lard, bacon…). Further analyze the traffic that passed through Fort Loudon gate to give students an idea of the trade that was being done. To help the students understand that trade was also being done through canal traffic, analyze the report from the Pittsburgh newspaper on freight sent from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia in May, 1830 contained in Hazzard's register.

2. Continue the lesson by discussing military use for the Conestoga wagons. Ask students to speculate how they would be used. (To carry supplies for soldiers) Discuss advantages and disadvantages of the wagons over pack horses. (Pack horses couldn't carry as much but could climb mountains faster.) Further analyze the traffic that passed through Fort Loudon gate.

3. Read the ad for wagons that was run in the Pennsylvania Gazette of May 22nd, 1755, and the quote from the Pennsylvania Gazette which was written in response to the wagons Ben Franklin procured for General Braddock. This is in Source 7: Conestoga Quotes. Write the following headings on the chalkboard: German Farmer in Lancaster, Traveler Across the State, Ferry Boat Operator, and Tavern Owner.

4. Divide the class into four groups and assign each group a person they are to represent. Then distribute Source 7: Conestoga Quotes. Ask students to read the quotes related to their person to gain information. Allow each group 20 minutes to prepare a five-minute "Conestoga Caper" skit from the point of view of their person.

5. Students should present their skits to each other.

6. In closing, ask each student to write one statement telling what role they would have liked to represent in 1750 and why. Statements should begin: "I would like to have been a _______________ in Pennsylvania in 1750 because…"