Freight Wagons Crossing the Great Plains near Fort Fetterman, Wyoming Territory, 1885

In the 1880s, towns in the western United States that were isolated from river and rail transportation networks relied on freight haulers to supply needed goods. Heavy, product-laden freight wagons were hitched to teams of mules or oxen and pulled to their destination. Skilled drivers--known as teamsters, muleskinners or bullwhackers--navigated these teams safely over mountains and across lonely, open expanses to deliver their cargo.