A buckboard is a simple, lightweight wagon with a flat wooden platform for a seat, mounted on four wheels. Instead of heavy metal springs, the seat sits on long, flexible wooden boards that bounce and flex over bumps.

Buckboards were popular in America during the 1800s and early 1900s, especially on farms and frontier settlements. They were cheaper and easier to build than fancy carriages, and their simple design made them practical for rough country roads. A farmer might use a buckboard to carry supplies to town, or a family might ride one to church on Sunday. The ride was famously bumpy: passengers had to hold on tight as the wooden boards flexed and bounced over every rut and rock in the road.

Though buckboards have been replaced by cars and trucks, you can still see them in Western movies or at historical demonstrations. The word buckboard sometimes appears in old stories and songs about the American West, representing that era's simpler, tougher way of life.