 "Prairie schooner" is a fanciful name for the covered wagon, drawing on their broad white canvas covers, romantically envisioned as the sails of a ship crossing the sea.For "overlanders" migrating westward, covered wagons were a more common mode of transportation than wheelbarrow, stagecoach, or train.Oxen were the most common draft animal for pulling covered wagons, although mules and horses were also used.