Welcome to The Genealogy Trails Chuckwagon! A chuckwagon was originally a wagon that carried food and cooking equipment on the prairies of the United States and Canada. They would form a part of a wagon train of settlers or feed nomadic workers like cowboys or loggers. "Chuck" was a slang term for food. Chuckwagon food included easy-to-preserve items like beans and salted meats, coffee, and sourdough biscuits. During the 1880s to 1890s the menu consisted of beans, beef, biscuits (sourdough type), salt pork, lick (molasses), rice, dried fruit (mainly raisins, apples, and prunes), and, of course, coffee. Canned tomatoes, canned peaches, and canned milk slowly became available on the northern rangeMontana, the Dakotas and Wyomingin the late 1880s; while the southern range did not start importing airtights until the late 1890s. Various spices and herbs were available and used by many of the range cooks, even in the very early days, to give variety to the meals. [source: National Park Service] Recipes from Coos County Cupboards Recipes we've indexed from Coos County cookbooks (not just chuckwagon fare!) Compiled by Robyn Greenlund for GenealogyTrails.com has offered to do lookups for these books. COOKBOOK NAME # RECIPES YEAR Secrets from Coos County Cupboards, by the Myrtle Point Ambulance Association 156 c1980 The Art Center Cookbook, by the Coquille Valley Art Center 387 c1984 Our Favorites, by the Myrtle Point Methodist Church 371 c1982 HOME The Genealogy Trails Chuck Wagon started rolling in 2008 All data on this website is © Copyright 2007-present by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.