Red River Ox Cart Trails
RED RIVER
OX CART TRAILS
For some 40 years in the mid-19th century. two-wheeled wooden
carts drawn by slow-moving oxen creaked and groaned over the rough
trails from colonies on the Red River near Lake Winnipeg to St. Paul.
400 miles to the southeast.
The overland trade between the Canadian settlements and St. Paul
began in 1835 as an illegal trade bypassing the Hudson's Bay Company
monopoly in the Red River of the North region. Within a few years
trains of several hundred carts hauled more than $250.000 worth
of furs. pemmican. and buffalo robes to St. Paul and carried back
food. medicine. dry goods. and other supplies.
The six-foot high cart wheels. held together by wooden pegs
and rawhide, wer ungreased and set up a squeal that could be
heard for miles.Driven by the mixed-blood Bois Brule traders in
their red sashes. beaded caps and moccasins. the carts traveled about
15 miles a day. Mud and mosquitoes were an almost constant plague.
Their mid-summer arrival in St. Paul provided steamboat passengers
to the frontier city of St. Paul an unexpected attraction.
Over the years the trails were changed, some times alternative
routes were used because of weather and at times it was dangerous
for the Ojibway -related traders to pass through the Dakota Indians
territory. The first trail used moved south across the plains of North
Dakota. turning eastward into the Minnesota River Valley and finally
winding northward into St. Paul. A later trail called the Woods Trail
moved up the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Crow Wing River
near Brainerd, turned west to Detroit Lakes and then north into
Canada. Yet another trail followed the Red River to near Moorhead
and then turned southeast towards St. Paul.
Today's I-94 followS parts of that trail.
Traces of the old trails can still be found
today In Otter Tall, Wadena, and Crow Wing
counties: as well as, in other locations.