WAGON WHEELS

 


Using old wooden wagon wheels for decoration.  These wheels came with the house we bought in Oakhurst, CA, and really added to our backyard décor.

There was a pizza place in Oakhurst called Wagon Wheel Pizza with a big ol' wagon wheel out front.  They made the most wonderful pizza with lots of cheese on top.  We ate there with the family several times.  This isn’t it.  I went online hoping to find a picture of the place in Oakhurst, but no luck.  I did find a ton of pictures online of places called the Wagon Wheel Café or Wagon Wheel Restaurant.  This is one of those but I have no idea where it is.  It looks like it’d be a fun place to go to, though.

This was another Wagon Wheel café or restaurant I found online, but again I have no idea where it is.

There was another place up the highway in Oakhurst called The Snowline Restaurant serving delicious food.  We went there a few times too.  Unfortunately, while the building is still there, it is no longer called The Snowline Restaurant.  It is now The Snowline Saloon which is kind of appropriate in a way seeing as the Golden Chain Theatre, presenting melodrama plays in the summer months, is right across the highway. A deck has apparently been added to the saloon and the railing is cleverly done with wagon wheels filling in the gaps.

This old weathered wagon wheel may be a marker for a road or driveway to some place?

So where else do we find wagon wheels?  On a stagecoach.  This is the stage out of Milton, Calif.  When my great grandfather, J.K. Smedley made his trip to Yosemite in 1874 he and his friends took a private hired coach from Milton to Yosemite.  But some of the folks he met on the train from Sacramento to Milton took the stage to the park.

The Stagecoach on the Big Oak Flat Road to Yosemite at what is now called the “Rim of the World” lookout.

This is the biggest stage coach I’ve ever seen.  Looks more like a bus to me!

And this is my Grandfather, Frank Herbert Bradley’s wagon-wheeled coach when he made his trip to Yosemite in the early 1900s.  I'll bet he was inspired to make the trip by his wife, my Grandma Bradley, Hattie Bell, telling him all about her father, J.K. Smedley's trip to the Park in 1874.

An old wagon-wheeled farm wagon

Wagon wheels on a typical covered wagon.

This is one heckuva big covered wagon!  It probably fits the term “prairie schooner” more than the smaller one?

A romantic painting of covered wagons heading west.  It looks so peaceful and perhaps there were some peaceful moments at times, but probably not that many!  It was an arduous journey.

Another idealistic painting of a covered wagon on the move.  On a steep, decent like this one they might have had something heavy – such as a log – dragging behind them to try to slow the wagon down so the driver didn’t have to use the brake so much – kind of like a car being in second or even first gear.



Other things need wheels to be moved around such as this Civil War cannon.

Old sailing ships used wooden spoked wheels for steering.

The wheelhouse on the M.S. Dixie paddle wheeler out of Zephyr Cove, Lake Tahoe, Calif.  The wooden wheel is an attractive prop, but not actually used to steer the ship. 

And last, but not least, a calmer way to use a wooden wheel.

:->

La Nightingail

Comments

  1. B. RogersJanuary 8, 2026 at 10:44 AM

    What a nice journey you've offered of wagon wheels! I like the idea of restaurants with them, somehow they suggest lots of steaks. Many of my ancestors used wagons to emigrate around the US, but they didn't get further than Texas, I believe. Love your parting photo, the wheel which so many of our ancestor mothers used to spin thread, to then weave into cloth then sew their clothes. Whew, just thinking of all the time that a weaver takes to make a length of cloth wears me out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. La NightingailJanuary 8, 2026 at 1:03 PM

      I don't sew anymore. I used to sew quite a few of my clothes - especially back in my single days. But even though I no longer sew, I still love to roam around a fabric store imagining what I'd make out of certain fabrics if I still sewed. :)

      Delete

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