A Conestoga wagon, first type of American wagon used after the old British army wagon, is in Campus Martius Museum. It is one of the early ones built in Pennsylvania where the name "Conestoga" was given this type of vehicle because it was first built at Conestoga, Pa.
Marietta Boy Scouts are responsible for uncovering the relic which is in the museum basement. It was found in the loft of an old dilapidated barn on the old Buck farm near Swift. The Buck farm is now the Boy Scout reservation.
The wagon was brought to the lower section of the Muskingum Valley in the early 1830s by John Buck, who settled on a farm of 300 acres that remained in the Buck family generations until the Boy Scout organization bought the farm. Buck was one of the contractors who built Luke Chute dam in the Muskingum when the state of Ohio made slack water improvements in building all the dams between Marietta and Zanesville. He brought his family to the lower Muskingum Valley in the wagon. For many decades it lay forgotten in the old barn, until it was discovered and restored by the Boy Scouts.
The wagon bed was in good condition when found by the scouts. It was necessary to put in new parts underneath, including wheel axles. It still has the genuine handwoven fabric top and the tar bucket hangs underneath.
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