| Summary: | THE LONG AGO. 61 We had two canoes and a Hudson Bay company barge. When.wind and weather was favorable we sailed with the barges, halted geese, ducks pigeons in the woods and duck eggs on the drift wood piles. As to the quantity of game we could have killed.and the eggs we might have gathered—they would have been a fortune to us in—well, say the New York market. Take it all in all, we had mostly a grand and good old time. The haif-bloods from the River O'Marrais would occasionally visit us in our canoes and spend the night i i yarning, feasting and playing cards. The "Grand Major" was the only game they could play, as draw poker had not yet dawned upon them. Sometimes, as a rare treat, a canoe-load of pretty black-eyed daughters of the half-bloods would invade our bachelor quarters, and then, figuratively speaking, the fatted calf would be killed. I must now come to the story I started in to tell you as to why they were called Red. Wnile on our acquatic excursions in the canoes in crossing over the prairies, then under water, I noticed a peculiar red color to the water, as it was so different from that of the river in its natural state, while combined within its banks. I most naturally commenced theorizing as to the cause. The water in the big river was then of the same color as that on the flooded prairie, while the water of the Pembina river was the same muddy coior as before, but more intensified bv the fresh working of the yellow clay from what is now Hyde Park, but then called Point Michael. Hence I reached the conclusion that the red color of the Red River at that time came from the steeping of the vegetables and grass leaves on the flooded prairies as it passed on to the Red River rapids, four miles above lower Fort Garry, then called the "stone fori." Having noticed after the floods of other rivers, say the Ohio, Wabash and Mississippi, etc. the water kept in the valleys after a fev days always takes the r&d color of our Red River. It left m doubt in my mind that the color was- owing to the .coloring matter abstr?c ed from the leaves and vegetable matter during the overflow. In all the ordinary floods of the Red River the water thickens with mud or clay, and it is only in the lowest stage that you can see to spear fish in it, while during the oveiflowing of our greatest floods when the waters are red, the bottoms can be seen plainly and fish could be easily speared in 'our feet of water. Under this title of "Our Oldest Settlers." we wish to include the story of Hon. Charles Cavalier, given by himself. While he is now a resident of Pembina, he was among the earliest of Walhalla settlers and thus entitled to a first place in her history. The following is from the Record of May. 1896, and written by Mr. Cavalier. "I came here in 1851. in company with N. W. Kittson and others. After being here a few years Mr. Kittson asked me to act as assistant postmaster, he having been appointed postmaster sometime in 1849. Joseph R. Brown was contractor to carry the mail from Pembina, Wisconsin Territory, to Crow Wing, in the same territory, via Thieving river, at its mouth at Red Lake river, thence by land and canoe to Red Lake village, making short portages, thence making short portages between small lakes to Cass lake and then by the same order of travel to Leach lake and so on to Crow lake and to the end of the route at Crow Wing village, which was the headquarters of the Northwestern Fur Company for all that section of the country claimed by the Chippewas from Crow Wing to Pembina northwest and northeast to Sandy lake, and Fon du Lac at the head of Lake Superior. The contract was a go as you please, on foot, horseback, cart, or canoe, any way to get there affair. The contract price for carrying it was $1,100 a Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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