prairie schooner

When people asked him about that big old ship he was building, he’d ask them, “Haven’t you ever heard of a prairie schooner?”

“In coming along the Lincoln Highway, we are simply traversing the old overland road along which the prairie schooners of the pioneers passed,” Gladding wrote.

The order was given and after moments that seemed hours, down the long hill they rushed pell-mell, without lock or brake, the prairie schooners tossing like their namesakes on a stormy sea.

The wagon had been transformed by a canvas canopy over the bed into what was popularly known as a "prairie schooner."

It was along the lines of the old American "prairie schooner," except that it was much bigger and heavier in every way.