While carts were around for years, the forerunner of the food truck in the United States was the chuckwagon, which carried food and cooking equipment for the wargon trains as they headed west. In 1866, Charles Goodnight, a Texas rancher, gathered food in a wargon to accompany long cattle drives. The chuckwagons were especially strong so they could carry a Dutch oven, a cast iron pot with legs, plus a cook’s worktable, utensils, and the food, which was known as chuck. Hence the term “chuckwagon.” Stew, roast beef , grits, boiled potatoes, beans and fruit pies were typically on the chuckwagon menus.