Mess Wagon/Mess Box = Chuck Wagon/Chuck Box

[Barry Popik]

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/mess_wagon/
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/mess_box/
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/chuck_wagon/
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/chuck_box/
...
The "chuck wagon" is the official Texas state vehicle and a vital part
of any future Texas/Southwest Food Museum. It's nice to get it right.
OED, DARE, and Robb Walsh's "The Texas Cowboy Cookbook" (2007) all
need improvement.
...
OED began its revision in the middle of the alphabet with the letter
"M," but "mess wagon" doesn't appear. "Mess wagon" doesn't appear in
DARE, either. "Mess wagon" isn't in "The Texas Cowboy Cookbook"
(2007), either.
...
"Mess wagon," in my opinion, is the same thing as the later term
"chuck wagon." Why all the mythology about the creation of the "chuck
wagon" (allegedly 1866, by Charles Goodnight) when "mess wagon" is not
recorded? One web site on the old west claims that Goodnight even
called his "invention" a "mess wagon."
...
DARE has entries for both "chuck box" and "mess box," but doesn't seem
to realize that these are the same things, for a "chuck wagon" and a
"mess wagon."
...
Just a big mess. Anyway, I worked hard on the new entries and found
some antedatings.

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