Wagon To Be Built at Heritage Center

Mountain Mail reports

El Camino Real International Heritage Center will be hosting an on-going demonstration on building a carreta, or wagon, by Gary Williams.
Williams will be at the Center, located at 300 East County Road 1598 in San Antonio, demonstrating the building of a carreta Wednesday through Friday with the exception of closed state furlough dates. Williams is set to begin work on Jan. 13.
The carreta was the two-wheel, wooden wagon used in local transport of items in communities along El Camino Real, the 1,500 mile trail that connected Mexico and New Mexico .
Carros or carrotones were the four-wheeled wagons that were used on the long haul journeys of the trail.
Wagons played a very critical role in the transportation of goods and people on El Camino Real for hundreds of years. Transportation on these wagons was a long and treacherous journey that took as long as eight months, one way from Mexico City to Santa Fe.
With the introduction of the railroad into New Mexico during the late 1880s, the use of the carreta on the trail faded away, but still thrived as a form of transportation within the communities along El Camino Real until it was finally replaced by the automobile.

Wagon To Be Built at Heritage Center