The Wyker Prairie Schooner at Space Farms Museum
Went West and Back ‘Agin’

A well traveled Prairie Schooner is finally at rest in the Space Farms Museum in Sussex, N.J. . The Prairie Schooner is a fleeter, lighter version of the famous Conestoga Wagon. Both the Conestoga and the Prairie Schooner helped settle the western United States. The Conestoga wagon was named for the valley in Lancaster Co. Pa. where it was developed by German Pennsylvania settlers The Conestoga was the chief freight carrier in the East from 1750 until the development of the railroad system. The Prairie Schooner has a slightly smaller wagon box (or bed), and smaller 3 foot diameter front wheels to enable the lighter 1300 pound (empty) vehicle sharper turns and an easier climb up the mountains. The Prairie Schooner was specifically designed to take emigrants, not just freight, west.

In the mid 1800’s families in the eastern United States were on the move - going west to the frontier. Visions of landed prosperity were in their hearts. The Wyker family, from what is now Wykertown, Sussex County, N.J., purchased their Prairie Schooner, packed up and headed out from the little crossroads near Beemerville, the home of Space Farms Zoo and Museum.

Packing a prairie schooner was not easy. Household items, furniture, food staples, family heirlooms, clothes for all types of weather, meager medical supplies and perhaps the family Bible were stuffed into the 15 feet long, by 4 feet wide, by 3 1/2 feet high wooden bed of the schooner. The sides of the schooner bed were sloped slightly outward and chinked with tar to facilitate fording rivers.

On the outside of the schooner wagon bed were fastened other staples for the journey. Water for travelers and livestock was kept in barrels securely fastened for the bumpy ride. Kerosene and lamps also adorned the sides, often next to a chicken coop full of noisy fowl clucking at each bump in the trail. A smaller ‘Jockey Box’ was attached to the side of the wagon box. It was full of the necessary tools and parts to fix the wagon if it broke down. Extra iron bolts, linch pins, skeins, nails, hoop iron and a jack were found inside and at easy access for emergency repairs. Emigrant wagons also carried a shovel , axe, tar bucket, butter churn and a feed trough for the livestock. All of these items were securely fastened to the outside of the Prairie Schooner.

The Prairie Schooner, in contrast to the Conestoga Wagon, had one set of springs underneath the driver’s seat. The Conestoga Wagon did not have a driver’s seat or springs. The springs of the schooner did not make the ride any smoother for the inhabitants of the wagon. Most chose to walk. Accounts tell of filling the butter churn with fresh milk in the morning and having the chore done by the jostling schooner at the time of the evening meal. Both the Prairie Schooner and the Conestoga Wagon had lazyboards, a pull out shelf under the bed of the wagon on the left side. This is where the wagon master rode if he was so inclined. This left hand seat forced the wagon to the right when/if it let others pass to his left. The custom of driving on the right hand side of the road in the United States was born from this simple fact.

The hardwood wooden wheels had iron rims forged by a blacksmith. The hand hewn wooden axel of the Prairie Schooner at Space Farms is 8 to 12 inches thick and carved to fit the joining falling tongue that was attached to the oxen. Cross beams for support underneath the wagon box are also hand hewn. The hand brake controls wooden 1 foot square brake pads that pressed against the rapidly spinning wheels. The hand brake was ratcheted so it would hold to the wheel if thrown by the driver or by someone walking alongside the wagon. The nails of the Prairie Schooner are square, indicating that they were produced by a blacksmith.

The trademark bonnet of the Prairie Schooner at Space Farms is an oiled canvas cover that was machine sewn in eight sections. Rope attached to grommets hold the bonnet snuggly in place. Twelve foot hardwood staves hold the watertight bonnet erect crowning the wagon box. The staves are attached to the wagon box by blacksmith made hand forged brackets. The Prairie Schooner at Space Farms has an interesting history. The Wyker family left for Kansas in the mid 1800’s. Due to drought, grasshoppers and chintz bugs the family returned to their New Jersey home in 1872, in the Prairie Schooner. Each side of the wagon is marked: thirty nine hash marks for the days going to Kansas and forty one for the trip home.

As a young man Fred Space recalls many stories told by "Uncle John" Wyker "Uncle John" was a close family friend, who went to Kansas and returned to New Jersey as a young child in this wagon. The family had traveled nearly 5,000 miles roundtrip. When the nearby Wyker farm was to be sold, founder Ralph Space inquired as to the Prairie Schooner. He found it hoisted up into the beams of the old barn on the Wyker property. Ralph Space purchased this piece of local history for the Space Farms Museum. A copy of a letter from John Wyker’s mother to the editor of the local paper is on display with the Wyker Family Prairie Schooner in the Space Farms Museum complex.

On their trip west the Wyker family observed the countryside and the animals that inhabited the land. White tail deer, raccoons, squirrels, skunks, black bears, bobcats, river otter, beaver, muskrats and opossum surely crossed their paths. Wolves and possibly coyotes could be heard nightly in the distance.

Space Farms Zoo has a new wolf and coyote compound for visitors to view these predators this year. The new compound is a quarter acre of grassy New Jersey countryside. In the center of each compound is a raised domed earthen den for nesting.

The coyote is a fascinating animal, having amazing abilities to adapt its range in order to coexist with our expanding human population. Originally a south western animal, the coyote has slowly but surely expanded it’s range to include the continental United States and the lower sections of Canada and Alaska.

The adult male western coyote averages 30 pounds in weight, standing approximately 25 inches tall. Amazingly the eastern coyotes are larger, due to more available food and less energy needed to hunt than their western relatives. Females are slightly smaller.

There are coyotes in New Jersey. Coyotes are often mistaken for feral dogs and come in a variety of colorations. Light tan, reddish brown, dark brown to black coyotes have been observed. The Space Farms Zoo has four coyotes, one male and three females including one rare black female. These coyotes were born at the Space Farms Zoo and recently moved into the new enclosure where they have been enjoying romping and running in the grass. Coyotes are playful by nature, leaping and playing chasing games within the compound.

The coyotes at the zoo are used to human interaction of the keepers and friendly, whereas the wild coyote is elusive and shy. Seldom seen in the wild, the coyote’s ability to slink into the shadows has protected them from detection. Wild coyotes are dusk to dawn hunters in the east, enabling them to avoid the growing human population. Wild coyotes in the western open prairies hunt both night and day for food, resting in the heat of the afternoon.

Wild coyotes eat a variety of prey including rodents and birds. The coyote’s large ears and acute hearing enables the coyote to hear a mouse under a foot of snow or a squeak at several hundred yards. Fred Space, (co-owner of the zoo with his son Parker), says he often sees evidence of coyotes having eaten sections of road killed white tail deer as he picks up road kills for the zoo’s carnivore inhabitants.

While the zoo’s coyotes are yearling pups, coyotes in the wild will reproduce at eighteen months. Pups are born in April after a sixty five day gestation. During this time the female stays with the pups in the den and the male hunts, supplying his family with food. At four weeks old the pups are able to crawl from the den, playing and fighting similar to domesticated dogs. Pups are trained by their mothers to improve on their instinctual hunting skills. By December the family splits up, until the next breeding season.

Siblings stay together for a while, coyotes have been observed hunting together. Coyotes share the kill, unlike the wolves that eat in a pecking order. The coyotes do not stay together as long as the wolf families do nor do they run in large packs. There are native coyotes in New Jersey but there are no native wolves at this time.

Next door to the coyote enclosure at the zoo are the wolves. The wolves at Space Farms are light in color, while wild western wolves may vary in coloration from pure white to coal black. The most common color is grizzled gray. Long time residents at the zoo, the pair is also enjoying their new digs. Constantly on patrol of their new territory, the wolves are ever vigilant of their surroundings, interacting with the public and their new neighbors.

Visitors this spring will enjoy howling with the coyotes and the wolves. Howling is a communication between the species themselves and also a way to tell other species that the wolves and coyotes are in the area. The wolves and coyotes often pick up the distant fire whistles and alarms with their superior hearing, responding with their own howling. Human neighbors to the Space Farms Zoo and Museum Complex delight in the nightly symphony of the zoo’s creatures.