Steam Wagon: The Amazing Story of the Nebraska City Prairie Motor

“STEAM WAGON: The Amazing Story of the Nebraska City Prairie Motor” is the tale of a fascinating quest in territorial Nebraska to create a “railroad without rails.”

Nebraska City in the Civil War was proving a vital supply link, shipping millions of tons of supplies and goods from the Missouri to the gold fields of Colorado and beyond. Speed, quantity, and reliability was of essence, but it would be years before a transcontinental railroad would be built to replace the oxen and wagon. Enter the Prairie Motor, a steam tractor developed by Minnesota pioneer and statesman Joseph R. Brown, to haul up to seven fully loaded wagons from Nebraska City to Denver. Impacting his dream was war – the demand for ironclad ships from the Union Navy and the Dakota Uprising back home, threatening his family in Minnesota. This is a talk touching on national and regional conflict, the emergence of Industrial-Age technology, and prairie ingenuity and personalities.