| Summary: | carried notations of the Red River trails which ran north and south along each side of the Red River from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) to Lake Traverse, then through Big Stone Lake and down the Minnesota River to Fort Snelling (St. Paul); some of the trails branched east overland to the Mississippi in a more direct line from the Red River. The trails made connections with all the English and American fur trade routes throughout the Hudson Bay drainage basin, to the Great Lakes, and to the Mississippi. This entire area, originally called Rupert's Land and later Assiniboia, was opened up for settlers by the more than fifty years of heavy fur trading. The ox carts were simple boxes set between two very large wooden wheels, often simply a slice from a large tree trunk and pulled by one ox. These vehicles were a specialized creation resulting from ground surface conditions, weather extremes, and the bulky freight. The rate of travel was extremely slow, but each cart could carry about 800 lbs. of freight. A census in 1849 claimed 2000 carts and over 2000 oxen on the Red River Oxcart trail that year; but by 1875 they had come to an end, superceded by the riverboats and railroads. At the northern end of the Red River Valley were its earliest settlements, Pembina and Fort Garry, and beyond them the far northern and western reaches of the fur trade — Lake Athabasca, the Rockies and the Pacific Coast. After 1800 the settlers and traders of Fort Garry and Pembina increased their traffic up the Red River to Lake Traverse and then down the Minnesota and Mississippi to Prairie du Chien. In 1686 a French fort had been built where the Fox- Wisconsin rivers route from the Great Lakes reaches the Mississippi; and before the American Revolution this Wisconsin town across the river from southeastern corner of Minnesota was a very thriving trading center — its river front crowded with canoes from Mackinac and New Orleans. When the Selkirkers were desperate for seed grain or the supplies that only civilization could supply, they followed the Red River south — to Prairie du Chien. After 1820 they found civilization 150 miles closer, at Fort Snelling and the settlements that grew up nearby, especially St. Paul. The first trade with Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling was by Red River ox carts, although an early expedition for seed grain had proved that the rivers could be used to transport heavy loads. By 1860 — actually a few years earlier — when the railroads reached the Mississippi River, the traffic over this route became very heavy. There are accounts of trains of ox carts several miles long plodding across the Red River prairies; the squeaking of their axles could be heard a great distance and the ruts made by their wheels left trails that are still visible. Ox Cart Settlements These trails and their traffic produced some settlements in the Red River Valley, though most of them disappeared after the railroads imposed a new pattern of traffic on the area. Breckenridge, at the head of Red River navigation, was platted in 1856. It was the last stop upriver before Lake Traverse and the trail along the Minnesota River southeast to St. Paul. The next stop north was Mc- Cauleyville, which grew up on the east side of the river as a result of Fort Abercrombie. This was the first American fort in the Red River Valley and Dakota Territory, established in August, 1858 for the protection of the fur traders, settlers and early parties of explorers and gold seekers. During the 1862-63 Indian trouble Fort Abercrombie provided refuge for the white people of the upper valley on both sides of the river. Seven miles south of Moorhead the land on the Minnesota side slopes gently westerly down to river level. This natural spot for watering animals and crossing the river was called Burlington in 1860 stagecoach days. Moorhead was named Burbank to honor the stageline owner; the town was given its present name in 1871 when it acquired a post office and was officially platted in anticipation of the Northern Pacific Railroad arrival in December of that year. The county name was changed from Breckenridge to Clay County. North of Moorhead was Georgetown, the Hudson's Bay trading post, and across the trail to the east was a small American fort established after the U.S.-Canadian border was determined; Georgetown also became a Red River Grain Company S & S Construction 131 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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