Abstract

I am a 5th generation Flint Hills rancher. My grandfather, Kenneth Hoy, drove cattle from Texas to Kansas as a teenager, and my great-uncle, Marshal Hoy, was as famous for his sourdough biscuits as he was for the horses he raised. So it is with pride and an acute awareness of my heritage that I inform you that we Hoys are kin to Charles Goodnight, the trail-blazing rancher and inventor of the chuck wagon. It is a distant kinship, but we claim it with pride. My great-great-uncle, Frank Goodnight, was Charley’s great-nephew. The chuck wagon was an essential piece of equipment for cowboys and ranchers during the trail-driving years and the era of open range ranching.

Keywords:

• chuck wagon,
• heritage,
• trail,
• travel,
• cowboy,
• rancher,
• ranch,
• farm,
• cattle,
• cow,
• trail-driving,
• cattle-drive,
• range,
• food,
• mobile,
• kitchen,
• cook,
• Charley Goodnight,
• Charles Goodnight