THE LADY CHUCK WAGON COOK
“It’s kinda like camping but it has a western and historical flair to it,” says Kellye Duncan of San Angelo who started cooking by chuck wagon after spending 35 years in the restaurant business. She is the proud owner of two chuck wagons.
“The first one was actually a hay wagon that came out of a Sears Roebuck catalogue in 1900,” says Kellye. “Is that just too cool? The other one is from the 1870’s and has only been owned by two other people. For most of its life the same family in Iowa owned it. It was a working wagon. A man in Hawley, Texas bought it and he completely renovated it. If something authentic was missing he searched and searched and replaced it.”
She has both a two-board wagon and a three-board wagon. “The number of boards determines the height of the wagon. A three-board wagon is for short stays because they are heavier. These might be used for a branding session. The two board wagons are for long distances like a cattle drive.”
Her 1870s wagon is fully equipped. “This one was used for cattle drives that lasted six months or longer. They didn’t have a Wal-mart that they could run off to. The chuck wagon was their house, their kitchen and their washroom. There was a water barrel to fill the washbasin, a leather strap to sharpen a straight edge razor, a bar of lye soap and a broken mirror so the cowboys could clean up. The wagon had all the tools on there, some big hammers, an axe, a saw, a large tree saw for two men, a possum belly under the wagon to pick up firewood as they go along.”
She has had the 1870s wagon just a few months. “I think it’s absolutely beautiful. I put photos of it on social media and people started calling me and wanting me to bring it to their wedding, their church or school. I had all kinds of requests for it.”
Chuck wagon cooks had to bring the basic ingredients like beans and coffee. “And sometimes it was very weak coffee because they had to make it stretch. They would take flour, salt, lard, and if they were lucky they would have sugar. Sometimes the cooks shot wild game and cooked it. Sometimes they got honey from a beehive. A farmer might give them vegetables. Stew, hash and chili were popular dishes, along with beans and biscuits. They cooked what was available.”
Kellye got involved with chuck wagon cooking while attending a western event at Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River a few years ago. “One morning I got up to make coffee over our camp fire and there was a man with a chuck wagon nearby and asked if I wanted to help prepare a meal. I said OK. As it turned out we cooked 3 meals a day for a lot of people for three days. We cooked 1,200 pounds of meat. Since then I’ve done several events for the San Angelo Rodeo Association and other organizations. I got involved with doing research on the chuck wagons. I went to Cheyenne, Wyoming and looked at the chuck wagons for the big rodeo and in the western museum there. Once you start studying these things it gets in your blood.”