Sheepwagons have always been a big "Want" of mine. They are often said to be the original RV, although I don't think there was much that could be called recreational in their use back in the early days. It is believed that the first Sheepwagon was built in Douglas, Wy and I want to say it was on an old Studebaker frame and box.
You don't see them in use as much anymore, but I do know a woman (very recently passed) who lived in one for two years while she and her husband got their ranch started back in the late forties and fifties. The thought of living in onewhile starting a ranch and a family is not something most folks today would like to think about, much less actually do. There are still quite a few of the bigger ranches that use them, although we will rarely see them as we drive down the highways.
If I had $12,000 I could play with, I would seriously think about buying the one listed above, simply so I could take it aart and rebuild it. There is a very neat history with almost all Sheepwagons, but the old horsedrawn Sheepwagons are especialy neat. As some of them have been rebuilt, there have been small discoveries opening windows back in time that would tell about the day to day lives of the herders who called them home. Sometimes people have found an old grocery list that would tell of the simple needs of the men who lived in the middle of nowhere all alone and other times a person has found a stack of old letters the herder had saved from family found back home in the Basque country of Spain and France.
Occasionally, a person can find one for sale and the prices I've seen have been anywhere from a couple grand up to the $25,000 price tag I saw recently for one up in Buffalo. If a person had the money and wanted a piece of history that probably represents Wyoming better than anything else this side of Devil's Tower, buying and refurbishing a Sheepwagon is the way to go. It is becoming popular these days to buy one and refurbish it to use as a guest room for visiting friends and family who want a true Wyoming experience.
Bzrk, I hope your father in law is able to find it a good home as I would hate to see something like this just sit out in the pasture and fall apart, like I've seen so many others do. If you can get some pictures of it, I would be very interested in seeing them, for no other reason than I am a huge history buff and this type of history most especially.
There is a book simply titled, Sheepwagons, that I would encourage folks to pick up. I just went to look for one of my copies to see who it is by, but my collection is in disarray at the moment and I didn't see it right off. If I'm not mistaken, it is put out by High Plains Press out of Glando and it can usually be found in quite a few places around the state that sell books about Wyoming and Western History. If you come across a copy, buy it and check it out. It isn't a big book, but it does have alot of historical photos detailing the lives of sheepherders in early Wyoming.
Tex