Dear Mav: Thanks for the suggestion. Whale oil was indeed used as a lubricant, but it was so valuable for indoor lighting, it would have been too expensive and too hard to obtain for the wagoneers going West who started many miles from the ocean. I remember once reading that watchmakers used it.

The whale oil was principally exported to Britain where it was used for lighting and as an
industrial lubricant. The whale-bone or 'baleen' became the mainstay of the fashion
industry, being used to make skirt hoops and corsets.