1937 Trailer- What?

[Ray Eklund]

I have three photographs of a trailer. Two photos are dated July 1937. The one photo with the trailer being towed is dated May 30, 1938.

These came from a load of geology books I purchased. These photos were taken in Oklahoma in the Arbuckle Mountains.

The first to identify the trailer gets first pick. The second to confirm that the first identification is correct, second pick. And... you guess... the third confirmation gets the third.

[Bubba L]

Looks like Sherman’s Covered Wagon.

[GMFL]

It’s a 1937 Hayes Covered Wagon 17’

[Stormalong]

Is that a 1937 Pierce Arrow Travelodge? Back in the day, this iconic car mfg was on hard times and searching for products to mfg. I've heard less than 200 were produced.

[Ray Eklund]

Mount Clemens Public Library- Local History Sketches:

The Covered Wagon Company
(©2008 by Mount Clemens Public Library. All rights reserved.)

From 1935 to 1945, Mount Clemens was home to one of the largest travel trailer manufacturers in the United States, the Covered Wagon Company.
Covered Wagon was founded in Detroit in 1929 by scientist and inventor Arthur G. Sherman. Sherman was a bacteriologist who had inherited Sherman Laboratories in Detroit from his biologist father. Sherman's idea for a travel trailer grew out of an unsatisfactory experience with a tent trailer during a family camping trip. Sherman resolved to design a better camper for his family, and his children dubbed it "the covered wagon" after prairie wagons of old.
Seeing a potential market for his design, Sherman rented a garage, hired a couple of cabinetmakers, and began building travel trailers. His prototype was exhibited at the Detroit Automobile Show in January, 1930, and garnered an enthusiastic reception. The next year, the fledgling concern sold 117 trailers. In 1934, 320 Covered Wagons were produced, and it was time to move the company to larger quarters.
In December, 1935, Covered Wagons began to roll off the new assembly line in Mount Clemens. The plant was located at 332 Cass in the former Copeland Products factory. By the spring of 1936, production was running at the level of 1,000 units per month, and additional shop space was leased at two other locations in town. The machine and metal shops were moved to quarters on Grand Avenue, and the milling department was moved to a former lumber yard at North Ave. and Elizabeth. The company was Mount Clemens' leading employer, with over 500 workers on the payroll, and the industry leader in the manufacture of trailers nationwide.
Despite the economic hardships of the Great Depression, sales of Covered Wagons continued to set records throughout the 1930s. The company was responsible for several innovations in the industry, including the use of electric brakes as standard equipment, and an exclusive patented exterior covering called Shermanite, which was formed by stamping zinc-coated steel and plywood together to create a weatherproof skin.
The company offered several models of trailers from standard to deluxe, and ranging in price from $395 to over $1,200, depending upon options selected by the customer. Eventually the product line was pared to three models in order to facilitate mass production. The company's 1937 color catalogue provides specifications for the Master, DeLuxe, and Custom trailer models.
In 1940, labor relations at Covered Wagon turned sour. The Covered Wagon Workers Association, by now affiliates of the UAW-CIO, staged a 10-day shutdown at the plant and picketed the company. Issues included a wage dispute and worker dissatisfaction with production changes.
The entrance of the nation into World War II changed operations at Covered Wagon greatly, as it converted its production efforts to wartime needs. The company produced truck cargo bodies and was granted the Army-Navy "E" award for high achievement in war production in the spring of 1945. Additionally, forty-two Covered Wagon employees served in the armed forces during the war and one

was killed in action in the Pacific.
Following the Allied victory in Europe, the War Department decreased its order for truck bodies from Covered Wagon. The company was apparently idled in mid-1945, for by September of that year the plant was leased to the Ironrite Ironer Company, and by December, 1945, Ironrite ironers and not travel trailers were rolling off the assembly line at 332 Cass. Covered Wagon officials expressed their intentions to resume trailer production after re-evaluating the company's position, but this apparently never occurred, and the Covered Wagon Company passed into the pages of Mount Clemens history.
The former Covered Wagon factory building at 332 Cass Avenue was razed in July and August 2013.

[Ray Eklund]

Each of you deserve a photo. Please PM me with address and I will send first pick to Bubba. Second pick to GMFL and the third to Stormalong.

What detectives! If I find any other vintage trailer photos... I will do the same with them.

[Ray Eklund]

GMFL has claimed... his prize.

Anyone who has any creature comfort complaints, of any year Airstream, may want to spend a few days in the Sherman's Covered Wagon in an Oklahoma Summer.

This family were among the early pioneers of the Oil Business in Oklahoma. When you can afford a trailer during the 1930's... A barrel of oil was $1.18, which would be $19.14 a barrel today. Average Salary was $1,780 a year and average rent... $26 a month.

[Ray Eklund]

Bubba has claimed... his prize.

Stormalong has not. His guess was better than my... what? I will give it a few days and then send the photographs on their way.

I will go through this photo album a bit more and if there are some photographs that ties some of these to others... it will all be in the hands of the US Post Office... First Class, of course.

[Ray Eklund]

I found three additional photographs of this trailer... in use in 1937. Also... for those who are hunters... remember the days when hunters would drive around town to show off their 'hunting skills'?

Look closely at the 'homemade awning' to keep the trailer cooler at the Drilling Site.

Look at the large buck and a... bear. This hunting group used their...front bumpers.

[Ray Eklund]

Have not heard from contestant Stormalong, so will have the photographs sent to the two that had nailed it right away and sent me a PM.

Thanks for helping me find a home for the original and some others I found in this album dated 1937-1938.