Welcome To Expedition Range Camps!
Looking for a Sheep Wagon, Sheep Camp, Camp Wagon, or Off Road Trailer? You have come to the right place. We build the finest remote area camps on today’s market; we call them RANGE CAMPS to reflect their many uses, while retaining their historical roots.
Why an EXPEDITION RANGE CAMP you might ask? How about all those other trailers out there, and why let EXPEDITION RANGE CAMPS LLC build me a modern version of one of those old Sheep Herders Wagons? Take just a minute to compare “Our Range Camps vs. Their Sheep Camps” or refer to “Better Answers” to see just a few of the reasons why knowledge gained from years of housing people in the “Hard Places” of the world on both land and sea has led us to improve the sturdy old Sheep Camps.
Nancy Widel’s seminal book on the subject “SHEEPWAGON – Home on the Range” had the following to say about the old Home On The Range;
“The interior of the western sheepwagon also resembles a ship’s cabin, another version of a compact, efficient living space. The similarities are remarkable: both have well designed storage areas, built-in benches, retractable or fold-down tables, and a sleeping berth.”
We concur with Nancy’s statement; those similarities between a Sheepwagon and a ship led us to utilize our years of experience in ship building when we first started constructing Range Camps. We first started using RANGE CAMPS in 1986 in our Fly Fishing guide business in Canada and Alaska. At first we bought camps from other builders, but it soon became apparent that the distances we traveled and the terrain we covered were greater than the sheep camps could stand. The wonderful old sheep camps needed some structural improvements if they were to be really used in “Hard Places” and over many road miles.
The insatiable rain of Alaska penetrated the metal corners of the first camps we bought, and wood deterioration soon followed. The Alaskan Highway was too much for some of the welds and the suspension, causing repairs to be made along the way. Then there was the matter of an official “Title” to the camp, most states and Canada require one, but some manufacturers get around providing a Title by claiming their camps will be towed only in their home state, using a red/orange triangle on the back; they can not be legally towed outside their home state or in Canada, because without a title a license plate is hard to obtain.
Again referring to Nancy Weidel’s book “SHEEPWAGON” we learn that all of us present builders of Sheep Camps or Range Camps are using plans and ideas that stretch back to the late 1800’s and that throughout it’s history they have been built by names like A. C. Rice, Douglas Wyoming; Ahlander Mfg. Co; Wm. E. Madsen & Sons, and perhaps best known of all was Studebaker Brothers Mfg. Co., South Bend, Indiana, who manufactured hundreds of the sheepwagons from 1899 to 1913…Proving that once again there seems to be nothing new under the sun; but improvement can always be made.
Be sure to look at Our Range Camps vs. Their Sheep Camps and better answers to see a few of the changes we have made to our RANGE CAMPS to make them the most durable camps manufactured today. You need to see these changes before you buy any Camp.
To learn more about the kind of people who would do something like this (make range camps, that is!), click here.
