The high time of the trail drives lasted only about 20 years, from the end of the Civil War to the mid -1880's. In that brief period of time around 10 million cows walked the trails from Texas to the rail heads in Kansas and Missouri. Many of these went as far as Wyoming and even into Canada. In the early days of the great trail drives the cowhand had to make do with what he could carry with him. This caused some rather hungry, uncomfortable times on the trail. Texas rancher Charles Goodnight saw an opportunity to fill this basic need and in 1866 created the prototype for the chuck wagon. Goodnight rebuilt an army surplus Studebaker wagon for his creation. The Studebaker was a sturdy wagon with steel axles that could withstand trail drives that could last up to 5 months. Goodnight designed and added a chuck box and boot to the rear of his wagon and this became the prototype for all the chuck wagons that followed. The name chuck wagon came by the the word "chuck" which ment food. I guess the chuck wagon was an ambulatory restaurant.. excerpt from Chuck wagon central... CHUCKWAGON ETIQUETTE THESE UNWRITTEN RULES WERE STRICTLY FOLLOWED * No one eats until Cookie calls. (Cookie was the name given to the cook) * When Cookie calls, everyone comes running. * Hungry cowboys wait for no man. They fill their plates, fill their bellies, and then move on so Stragglers can fill their plates. * Cowboys eat first, talk later. * It's okay to eat with your fingers. The food is clean. * Eat with your hat on. * Don't take the last serving unless you're sure you're the last man. * Food left on the plate is an insult to the cook. * Don't even think of going back to work without putting your dirty dishes in the wreck pan. * No running or saddling a horse near the wagon. * If you empty the water bucket, refill it - pronto. * If you're refilling your coffee cup and someone yells "man at the pot" you're obligated to serve refills. * If you come across any decent firewood, bring it back to the wagon. * If you ride by the campfire and cookie's nowhere in sight, stop and stir the beans. * Strangers are always welcome at the wagon. All the textures are home made except for the bryce metals. Modeled in Rhino v.2 and rendered in Bryce.. I want to thank my good friend UVDan for his consultation on UVMapper pro... he was inspirational and I want to also thank Waldomac for not just providing some great photos of a chuck wagon but actually talking the images himself.