Featured Museum Artifacts

The object from the Benton County Historical Museums collection was found on the Glenn farm near Corvallis in 1933. Would you know what it was if you discovered it on your land? 

This photo of another item from the collection might help:

 Both pictures show ox shoes.

Like horses, working oxen need shoes to protect their hooves from wear, especially when traveling over rough or rocky terrain. Ox shoes found on the 1846 winter camp site of the ill-fated Donner Party on headwaters of the Truckee River in Sierra Nevada Mountains. The shoe in the second photograph was found in the vicinity of the 1846 Donner party winter camp site on the  headwaters of the Truckee River in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California.  

Unlike horses, oxen have a cloven or separated hoof with two separate toes or “claws”. As a consequence, ox shoes consist of 2 separate pieces for each hoof.  The second photograph thus shows a complete shoe for one hoof.  The wide end fits on the back end of the hoof and the smaller end on front. The nature of ox hooves also requires the shoe be attached with short strong nails. Consequently, the individual pieces often come off and are found individually as was the case with the one in the first photograph. 

The raised pieces on the end help keep the shoe in place as well as providing additional traction.

Oxen are difficult to shoe as they do not like to stand on only three legs.  They must be restrained in some fashion for the shoes to be fitted.  Today, many who spend time in grassy fields are not shod with metal shoes.

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon