When the pikes peak gold rush called, Samuel Peppard answered in a most unusual fashion. In the 1860s when a pioneer family headed out west, they usually did so in a covered wagon pulled by horses or oxen. One man, Samuel Peppard, didn't have horses or oxen - but that didn't stop him. On May 9, 1860, Samuel Peppard set out for Colorado. This was during the time of the Pikes Peak gold rush, and Peppard wanted to do some prospecting. He didn't have any horses or oxen, and he didn't want the obligation and expense of taking care of them.
But he did live in the Kansas Territory. And anyone who has been through Kansas knows it's pretty flat and the wind tends to blow rather strongly. Being a creative person, Peppard 10oxen decided to take advantage of the resources at hand, and so he designed the world's first wind wagon. Built like a small boat, it was about 8 feet long and 3 feet wide, and it had four large wagon wheels. Weighing about 350 pounds, it was designed to hold four people.
The first time out, the wind blew the wagon over. So Peppard reconstructed the sails, rudder, and brakes. By now everyone called it "Peppard's Folly. " With three of his friends aboard, Peppard raised the sails and Peppard's Folly took off across the prairie. Depending on the strength of the wind, it got up to 30 miles per hour. On days when there was no wind, Peppard and his three friends just sat back, smoked a cigarette, and swapped stories. They traveled about 500 miles before a dust devil came along and turned the wind wagon into a pile of rubble.