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How did you get started building wagons? We can’t tell you how many times we have been asked, but we do enjoy answering the question!
Chuckwagons, wagons and related items were always being built around the Fenter household. Being collectors of fine antiques (tongue in cheek), we always had to move an ancient article out of the way in the barn to find something we needed. From these humble beginnings the first wagon was construed and rebuilt many years ago from a local bread delivery wagon that was used in Jacksboro, Texas. This wagon is still on the Fenter properties today, and is occasionally hitched to a horse for airing out!
To rebuild and build wagons requires a variety of skills, the least of which are wood and metal working abilities to fabricate boxes, hide seams, forge steel and meld all the items together into a working wagon that looks and is authentic. From time to time, a request is made by a customer that requires a bit of research and some bloodhound abilities to locate parts if we don’t have them nearby.
In our small series of shops, each one used for a different purpose, be it woodworking, metal fabrication, painting or canvas sewing, we are able to turn out a variety of products and parts sold by Prospect Wagon Works to our customers..
The Fenter family as a whole, truly loves the Western life that Texas still offers, and in fact it is often said among us that we were born about 100 years too late. These days, when the Goodnights and Lovings no longer blaze the trail, it is up to all of us with interests in our past, the cattle herds, the plains, the drives and struggles, to keep the memories alive for current and future generations. History truly abounds around all of us, few ever slow down to discover it, in doing so, they miss out on an important part of the present.
Our family arrived in Jack County, near the present town of Jacksboro, Texas in the middle 1800’s. Like it was for so many people at the time, life was hard, and a living was barely scratched out in this frontier territory that was still hostile. From this Fenter, a woman with her children, the Fenters in Jack County made their humble beginning and still populate the area today.
Within our family history, there have been territorial governors, roughriders, lawmen, cattle rustlers, failures and ... carriage-wagon builders. This generation of the family is proud to carry on the tradition of horse drawn wagons, we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.. (Read about other Fenters in Texas History)
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