40 Nebraskaland • August-September 2025
here is heard the lumbering of these prairie schooners,
the bellowing oxen — braying of mules, creeking [sic]
of the long lariats, which for me is a show of itself to see
the dexterity with which the drivers use them."
So wrote a Nebraska City woman to her sister in 1866.
She was describing the freight wagons crowding downtown
streets. "There is the hollowing [sic], yelling of teamsters
mingled with more oaths than I ever heard before in all my
life together."
Not all the wagons crossing Nebraska belonged to would-
be settlers seeking a new home. Prior to the development of
railroads following the Civil War, teamsters drove thousands
of heavy freight wagons from Missouri River steamboat
landings to points farther inland. Nebraska City was the
territory's leading freight center in the early 1860s, followed
by Omaha and Brownville.
While horses pulled freight wagons back East, on the
plains a draft animal needed to keep up its strength on
forage alone. According to William Lass — whose 1972 book,
'T
Bullwhackers and Mu
By David L. Bristow
Nebraska State Historical Society
A woman bullwhacker was a rare enough sight to be sold
as a photographic print. The scene is along the Sidney to
Deadwood Trail in 1876. Gold seekers were fl ooding the
Black Hills, leading to war with the Lakota. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
