Red River Trails

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Red River ox cart and Métis cart driver during a break

The Red River Trails were a network of ox-cart trails connecting the Red River Colony (Selkirk Colony) and Fort Garry in British North America to the navigable border of the Mississippi in the United States . These trade routes ran from what is now Winnipeg in the Canadian province of Manitoba , across the state border and on various routes through what is now the eastern area of North Dakota and the western and central area of Minnesota to Mendota and Saint Paul on the Mississippi.

The trails were first used by travelers in the 1820s. Use reached its peak from the 1840s to the early 1870s when they were replaced by the railroad. Up until then, they were the best route between the remote Red River Colony and the outside world. It gave the Selkirk colonists access to a market for their furs and supplies, which was an alternative to the Hudson's Bay Company , which was unable to enforce its monopoly.

An extensive trade with the United States developed through free traders independent of the Hudson's Bay Company and its jurisdiction. For the Selkirk colonists, Saint Paul became the largest bonded warehouse and the most important link to the outside world. Trade on the trails between Fort Garry and Saint Paul stimulated the economy, contributed to the settlement of Minnesota and North Dakota in the United States, and accelerated colonization of Canada west of the harsh region known as the Canadian Shield . At times, cross-border trade even posed a threat to Canada's control of its western territories. This threat diminished after transcontinental trade routes were completed both north and south of the border and the transport corridor on which the trails ran became less important. Recently, traffic in the corridor has increased again.

Origins

The Red River Trails between Fort Garry and Saint Paul. Not all trails are shown; there were many connecting routes and alternative routes.

In 1812, Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk , founded a settler colony in British North America at the confluence of the Assiniboine River with the Red River , where today's Winnipeg is. Although there were already a number of fur trade bases in northwest Canada and settlements of Métis , fur traders and bison hunters also existed in the vicinity of the Selkirk Colony , the colony was the only farming settlement between Upper Canada and the Pacific . Isolated by the geological conditions of the rough Canadian Shield and many hundreds of kilometers of wilderness, the settlers and their neighboring Métis only had access to sales markets and supplies via two difficult waterways.

The first was operated by the Hudson's Bay Company (of which Lord Selkirk was a major investor) and consisted of a route across the sea from Great Britain to York Factory on Hudson Bay and then 1,250 km upstream across a series of rivers and lakes from salt water to the Assiniboine River. The alternative was the historic North West Company route from Montreal across Lake Huron to Fort William on Lake Superior . Above Lake Superior, the route followed rivers and lakes to Lac la Croix , west along the state border over the Lake of the Woods to Rat Portage and then down the Winnipeg River to the Red River. The distance from Selkirk Settlement to Lake Superior was approximately half a mile, but from Lake Superior it was still a long journey to Montreal, where furs and supplies were reloaded for shipment to and from Europe.

None of these routes were suitable for heavy transport. Lighter cargo was transported in york boats to Hudson Bay or in canoes on the route along the border. Both routes required navigation over large lakes with dangerous spots, rivers with shallow depths and numerous rapids, marshy smaller rivers and bogs, as well as numerous connecting points over land where cargo and boats had to be carried on the back.

But the geological conditions also made an alternative route possible, albeit over foreign territory. The river valleys of the Red River and Minnesota Rivers lie in the bed of Lake Agassiz and its prehistoric outflow, the River Warren . The retreat of these waters had exposed land in which there are flat plains with prairie grassland between high altitudes. At the Traverse Gap , just over a kilometer of land separated the Bois de Sioux River , a tributary of the Red River (which flows north to Hudson Bay), from the Little Minnesota River , a tributary of the Minnesota River (tributary to the Mississippi, which flows south into the Gulf of Mexico flows). The river plains and high elevations of the watercourses along this gently graded route offered natural access to the south. So the colonists turned to the newly formed United States, both for supplies and as an (illegal) outlet for their furs.

Development of the routes

The fur-rich areas along the Upper Mississippi in Minnesota, the Des Moines Rivers and the Missouri Rivers , which otherwise were only inhabited by Native American peoples (the First Nations ), became a destination for independent fur traders from Prairie du Chien were based in Wisconsin . In the early 19th century, these traders established bases in the Minnesota River valley at Lake Traverse , Big Stone Lake , Lac qui Parle and Traverse des Sioux . The major fur trading companies also established bases, including those of the North West Company in Pembina and St. Joseph in the Red River Valley. The paths between these bases became part of the first Red River Trail.

In 1815, 1822, and 1823, herds of cattle were herded from Missouri to the Red River Colony, the route going up the Des Moines River valley to the Minnesota River and then down the Red River to the Selkirk Settlement. When the settlers ran out of seeds to sow in 1819 after a devastating plague of locusts, an expedition with snowshoes was sent to Prairie du Chien to buy seeds. On the return trip they took a flatboat up the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers and down the Red Rivers and arrived back at the settlement in the summer of 1820. In 1821 five disaffected settler families left the colony to move to Fort Snelling , a precursor to later migration movements in both directions between the states. Two years later, in 1823, Major Stephen Harriman Long arrived in Pembina as the first official representative of the United States. His expedition came across the Minnesota River and the Red River. These early expeditions along the two rivers are among the oldest known journeys on the route of the first Red River Trail.

West Plains Trail

The West Plains Trail went back to Native American origins. Before becoming the ox cart route, it was used as a link for the fur trading bases of the Columbia Fur Company . In fact, this company introduced the Red River ox cart to carry their furs and goods. She also paved the trails, and in the early 1830s a Selkirk Settlement expedition driving a flock of sheep from Kentucky to the Assiniboine River reported that the trail was well marked.

The trail ran south from the Red River Settlement, upstream on the west bank of the Red River to Pembina, which was just across the state border. Pembina had been a fur trading post since the last decade of the 18th century. From there, some of the traffic continued south along the river, but most of the wagon trains either went west along the Pembina River to St. Joseph near the border and then south, or took a shortcut to the southwest and switched to the from Bump St. Joseph trail leading south. This north-south trail ran parallel to the Red River about 50 km west. By staying in the highlands west of the Red River, the route avoided crossing its tributaries near their mouths and stayed away from the swampy, flood-prone and mosquito-plagued lower-lying areas in the lake bed of Lake Agassiz, which drained the river.

The fur trader and trucker Norman Kittson

In what is now southeastern North Dakota , the trail swung south-southeast and rejoined the Red River in Georgetown , Fort Abercrombie, and Breckenridge , Minnesota, all of which arose as a result of continuous wagon traffic. From Breckenridge, the trail continued upstream on the east bank of the Red River and the Bois de Sioux River to the continental divide at Lake Traverse. Some of the traffic continued along the lakeshore through the Traverse Gap, over the continental divide and then down both sides of Big Stone Lake, the source of the Minnesota River, while others took a shortcut just south of the Bois de Sioux River through the open prairie Occupied what is now Graceville , Minnesota, avoiding the humid land in the Traverse Gap.

The trail continued on winding paths on either side of the Minnesota River Valley past fur trading posts and downstream locations, the Upper Sioux and Lower Sioux Indian Reservations, and Fort Ridgely , all of which were founded in the 1850s. After Fort Ridgely, the trail crossed the open prairie to the Minnesota River at Traverse des Sioux near present-day St. Peter , Minnesota, where furs and goods were initially transferred to flat boats. In later years, most of the wagon trains moved to the east bank and moved northeast along the wooded river plains and highlands to Fort Snelling or Mendota, where the Minnesota River flowed into the Mississippi. From there the furs were shipped down the Mississippi to Saint Louis and other markets.

Trade between Fort Garry and the Mississippi was sporadic at first; In 1835 it became more regular when a train of merchants came from the Red River to Mendota. The efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company to enforce its monopoly only had the effect of causing the fur traders to evade their jurisdiction across the border with the United States. Among them was Norman Kittson , whose huge fur trading and transport company started in 1844 with a six-car train. In later years trains with hundreds of ox carts set off from Kittson's base in Pembina, which was barely in United States territory, beyond the reach of the Hudson's Bay Company. Although some of the fur trade was shifted to other routes in 1854, the forts, missions, Indian reservations, and remaining through traffic kept the trails busy. They were expanded in the 1850s and supplemented by military roads.

Woods Trail

The West Plains Trail was fairly flat, but ran a longer stretch through the country of the Dakota and the shorter East Plains Trail also ran along the edge of their country. The Dakota were enemies of the Ojibwa , to whom the Métis charioteers were related by ancestry and marriage. These tensions created conflict. One such bloody confrontation (due to an attack by Métis drivers on Dakota fighters) occurred in the summer of 1844 when the annual free traders' expedition was in Saint Paul . This meant that they could not return safely on their normal route. The traders therefore moved to the northwest, up the Mississippi to Crow Wing to the mouth of the Crow Wing River , up this river and across the watershed to the fur trading post at Otter Tail Lake and then to the northwest across the prairie to cross the Red River near its confluence the Forest River . The next year a train south followed their tracks and a year later (1846) a definitive route inland away from the Red River plains was established. The trail was called Woods Trail or Crow Wing Trail , local names were also Saint Paul Trail and Pembina Trail .

An ox cart at the end of the trail in Saint Paul

As can be seen from the first name ( English woods "forest"), the path partly led through wooded areas, as its southern foothills crossed the transition zone between prairie in the west and forest areas in the east. Car trains heading south followed from Fort Garry on the east bank of the Red River and crossed the Roseau River and the state border . In Minnesota, the trail joined a route that ran northwest from Pembina and continued south on flat prairie in the former lake bed of prehistoric Lake Agassiz. It then rose and followed a gravel ridge that once belonged to the shoreline of this ancient lake, crossed the Red Lake River at Old Crossing near what is now Huot, and then turned south-southeast to the fur trading post in White Earth . At Otter Tail Lake, the route left the plain and headed east into a forest in the Leaf Mountains on the continental divide. The trail crossed the Mississippi at Old Crow Wing on a difficult but scenic path through the forest . Then it led down the east bank of this river on a gravel plain south to Sauk Rapids and East Saint Cloud .

The last stage of the trail to Saint Paul, which Mendota had replaced as the main customs warehouse for the ox-cart trade, ran along the sandy plain on the east bank of the Mississippi. This route led a few kilometers from the river to the Saint Anthony Falls and a settlement of the same name that arose on the east bank of the Mississippi. Then the trail left the river and went through open country to Saint Paul. In the period between the delivery of the furs and their return to the north with supplies and merchandise, the wagon drivers camped on a high altitude to the west of the steamship landing stage.

Although the Woods Trail ran through more difficult terrain than the other routes, it was safer because it was within the Ojibwa area. It was therefore used less in quieter times. In the late 1850s it became a more interesting alternative as it was expanded by the United States Army, which straightened and improved the winding ox-cart path through the woods along the Leaf River and Crow Wing Rivers, and also the old Mississippi trail between Fort Ripley (near Crow Wing) and Sauk Rapids were replaced by a military road.

East Plains Trail

Red River carts in Saint Cloud

The East Plains Trail or Middle Trail was also widely used from the 1840s onwards. It was shorter than the West Plain Trail and became the route of choice for the great wagon trains from Pembina after the well-known dealer Henry Sibley retired from the fur business in 1854. His successor and former partner, Norman Kittson, relocated their company's wagon trains from the West Plains Trail in the Minnesota River Valley to the East Plains Trail.

The East Plains Trail followed the older routes of the West Plains Trail from Pembina to Breckenridge, Minnesota, and then headed east out of the Red River Valley via a number of different routes across the high valleys of the Pomme de Terre River and Chippewa River (tributaries of the Minnesota River) to Saint Cloud and Sauk Rapids on the upper reaches of the Mississippi. After a short time, however, a junction was created that connected the East Plains Trail with the Woods Trail. This connection ran along the western slope of the Leaf Mountains and met the routes of the East Plains Trail in Elbow Lake or near the Otter Tail River . There were times when this connection in the east was the busier of the two variants.

In Saint Cloud, a few wagon trains loaded their furs onto ships going on the Mississippi to Saint Anthony Falls near Minneapolis . Other wagon trains crossed the Mississippi and drove part of the Woods Trail to Saint Paul.

Most of the East Plains Trail ran through post-glacial landscape of lakes, moraines, and drumlins , which was scenic, but with wetlands difficult to traverse. During the time when Minnesota was a territory and in its early days as a part of the state, routes were expanded, stagecoaches operated, cities were founded and permanent settlement began as immigration increased .

economy

First the trails were used by the Selkirk colonists to collect seeds and supplies. Soon they became trade routes for local fur traders, and from the 1830s onwards they were used extensively by US fur traders operating from the border area south of the state border. The Americans bought the pelts from Métis fur traders in British North America who were circumventing the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly rights granted to the Hudson's Bay Company within the territory specified in its charter .

The settlement at Fort Garry was isolated at the end of a 1,100-mile (1,100-mile) route over land and water from York Factory, on which only one or two ships a year passed. Goods from the UK had to be ordered a year in advance. From Saint Paul, on the other hand, goods could be procured within one summer. As a result, transportation via the trails was more economical and the Hudson's Bay Company was unable to force all trade to go through York Factory on Hudson Bay. By 1850 the company's monopoly was broken. In 1857, the company almost abandoned the York Factory route for transporting heavy goods and moved its own goods under bondage through the United States and over the Red River Trails.

The main exports of the Red River Settlements were pelts, but after the colony developed from subsistence farming to surplus farming, the agricultural surpluses were also transported south by ox carts. The imports were more varied: at first it was seeds, spices and other staple foods, spirits, tools, implements and hardware. In the middle of the century the number of buffalo herds declined and the movement of furs was replaced by the agricultural products and necessary goods of the settlers. In the course of the further development of the settlements, the trails became a general trade route for all kinds of goods that could be transported by ox cart: including lamps and associated coal oil, fine fabrics, books, general merchandise, champagne, tin cookers, agricultural machines dismantled into individual parts, at least a piano, printing press and other equipment for the first newspaper in the Fort Garry area.

Life on the trails

Axle repair on a Red River ox cart in Pembina before leaving for Saint Anthony Falls

The typical wagon driver was one of the Métis , descended from French voyageurs of the fur trade and their Ojibway wives. His vehicle was a Red River ox cart, a simple vehicle derived either from the two-wheeled charrettes used in French Canada or from Scottish carts. From 1801 the cart was modified so that it could only be built from local materials. It did not contain any iron components. Instead, it was made entirely of wood and animal skins. Two 12 foot (approx. 3.7 m) long parallel drawbars made of oak ( trams ) held the draft animal in front and formed the frame of the cart at the back. Cross members held the floor boards, the loading area was enclosed from the front, back and sides by boards or a railing. These wooden components were held together by mortise and tenon joints . The axle was also made of seasoned oak. She was lashed to the cart with strips of wet bison skin, known by its Cree name, shaganappi , that shrunk and tightened as it dried. The axle connected two spoked wheels with a diameter of five or six feet (about 1.5 to 1.8 m), which were concave or had the shape of a flat cone with the hub at the top, which was further inward than the rims. Initially, the carts were pulled by small horses obtained from the Indians. After cattle were brought into the colony in the 1820s, oxen were used as draft animals. They were preferred for their strength, stamina, and their cleft hooves, which distributed their weight better in swampy areas.

Because the cart was made from local materials, it was easy to repair. A supply of shaganappi and wood was always carried, as half a dozen broken axles could occur on one trip. The axles were not lubricated because grease would have attracted dust that acted like sandpaper and made the cart inoperable. The result was a squeak like that of a detuned violin, which earned him the nickname "Fiddle of the Northwest". One visitor wrote that “a den of wild animals cannot be compared to this abomination.” The sound could be heard several kilometers away. The carts were completely unsprung and only their flexible construction dampened the bumps caused by the bumps and potholes of the trail.

On the drive south, the carts were loaded with furs, which were packed in bundles weighing 40 kg, which in the fur trade were called pièces . A cart could carry 360 to 450 kg. On the return trip, the traders transported staples, merchandise and produce that were not available at Fort Garry. The cargo was covered in both directions with animal skins or canvas. The carts were tied together in groups of ten carts, each group had three drivers and one supervisor. The groups together formed a train of wagons up to three kilometers in length. In the 1840s there were wagon trains with a few hundred carts, many hundreds in the 1850s and several thousand in the late 1860s. The wagon trains had a speed of about three kilometers per hour and covered about thirty kilometers a day.

Red River Ox Cart, drawing by Frank Blackwell Mayer (1851)

After the demolition of the camp in the morning, the drivers marched through the prairie. A crossing of unprotected open prairie between two protected places was called a traverse . Large rivers often had to be crossed at a ford. Where the water was too deep, the cargo was unloaded, the wheels dismantled and tied together or fastened under the cart, and the composite was wrapped in animal skins. Then the cargo was reloaded onto this makeshift raft and the river was crossed by swimming. The traders preferred to cross a ford at the end of the day so that the carts could dry overnight.

Camps on the river offered wood, water and some protection from the dangers of the open land. The prairie could be dangerous during Indian riots and trade stalled entirely during the Dakota War of 1862. During dry periods, prairie fires spread by wind were a danger. In rainy periods, rivers swelled into flash floods, the river surroundings turned into swamps and rutted paths into swamps. Traders could get stuck in blizzards and starve. Insects tormented the traders and their draft animals, deprived them of sleep and weakened them.

But there was also a balance: there was plenty of game and the traders almost always had fresh meat. Some saw a colorful ocean of grass in the seemingly limitless prairie, and summer storms could be impressive, if dangerous. Although the prairie had its own grandeur, the rivers, lakes, and forests of central Minnesota were a welcome change after weeks of traveling through the treeless steppe .

After about six weeks the wagon trains reached Saint Paul. There the wagon drivers camped on the steep slope above the city that spread out along the river bank. It wasn't just harmony. For the locals, the dark-skinned traders up on the hill had something of a gambler, with their "strange mixture of civilized clothing and primitive jewelry". A trader from the north called the town a “wretched little village” where “drinking whiskey takes at least half the time of the honorable citizens” while the rest is spent “cheating on one another or imposing on strangers.” The economic benefits of trade and the separation of the merchant camp and the town below arguably helped the relationship remained largely peaceful. After about three weeks of trading, the “wild” cart drivers from the north, now laden with goods, made their way back and left the “robber's cave” of Saint Paul in order to travel to what they saw as a more civilized world. The townspeople, on the other hand, were of the opinion that they were returning to an uncivilized and frozen wilderness.

End of the trails

Red River carts hit the bottom of their decline: carts and traders at a railroad station.

Occasionally some ox carts did not go all the way, but were supplemented by watercraft. First flat boats , later shallow steamers , traveled up the Minnesota River to the Traverse des Sioux and other upstream locations, where they met wagon trains traveling along the West Plains Trail. In 1851 a steamship connection was added on the Mississippi between Saint Anthony Falls and Sauk Rapids on the Middle Trail and Woods Trail. In 1851 steamboat machinery was transported overland to the Red River, where a ship was built, but it was not yet in regular service. The Dakota War of 1862 and the Civil War delayed further development.

After the Civil War, the steam age dawned in the region. After the Ojibwe gave up their land rights in the Red River Valley in 1863 in the Treaty of Old Crossing on the US side of the border, steamboat connections were resumed on the Red River and a railway line west of Saint Paul and Duluth , Minnesota, on Lake Superior built. A branch line of the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad reached St. Cloud in 1866. Their main line reached Willmar in 1869 and Benson , Minnesota a year later . Each town at the end of the railway line became the end point for numerous wagon trains. In 1871 the railroad reached the Red River at Breckenridge, where the resumed steamship service took over the remainder of the route to Fort Garry. The long trains of oxcarts were replaced by steam-powered trains and the trails became wild.

A few traces of the disappeared trails still exist. Some local roads follow their routes, showing depressions in the landscape where thousands of carts once passed, and even after more than a century of winters and springs, freezing and thawing of the ground, there are still places where the ground is so compressed is that he opposes the plow. A few of these remains are marked or visible to the sharp eye, but in most places the trails are gone. Signs indicate places in parks and on streets, and places are on the US National Register of Historic Places near Baxter , St. Hilaire, and West Union , Minnesota .

meaning

Minnesota Territory Centenary Postage Stamp

Today, the Red River Trails are less well known than many other pioneer North American trails and trade routes, and they don't occupy as much a place in folklore as the great trails in the western United States and the fur trade canoe routes in Canada. They were not contested or the site of battles (with the exception of the Dakota War of 1862), and while dangerous at times, other trails were more dangerous. The relatively little attention is probably due to the fact that they did not lead to the annexation of territory for the two states on whose territory they passed.

Nonetheless, the trails were significant to the development of central North America. Traffic on the West Plains Trail kept the Selkirk settlement alive in its early years. The Trails provided the colony settlers and their neighboring Métis with a migration route and highway for trade that was independent of the Hudson's Bay Company. With increasing use, old fur trading bases became settlements and new places emerged along the cart routes. The trails created by the fur traders accelerated the development of Minnesota and North Dakota, and made settlement easier in northwestern Canada.

The Trails had a profound political impact at a time of tension between Britain and the United States. Both states were concerned about the cross-border influence of the other side. The trails, which arose out of economic necessity and due to the geographical conditions, contributed to creating and increasing these international tensions. The United States sent military expeditions along the trails despite a British presence in the northwest fur trading bases on land claimed by the United States. They were also concerned about Lord Selkirk's colony and British claims to the Red River Valley. After all, the United States wanted to stem British attempts to gain access to the Mississippi. This access was in the Treaty of Paris , which ended the American War of Independence , and the British tried to save this claim into the 19th century. By reaffirming supremacy over their new territories, the United States parried and in turn took over British domination of the fur trade in the upper Mississippi Valley, which existed decades after the Revolutionary War End Agreement that awarded these territories to the new nation rule over trade.

“I have had the opportunity to see the great connections nature offers for trade between the land I propose to establish and the US settlements in the Missouri and Illinois Territories; whereby our people could be supplied with many goods via the Mississippi and St. Peters Rivers [ Minnesota River ] in a simpler way than from Canada or Europe. Although this traffic may seem small at first, it could increase as our settlements develop, creating a growing demand for many US products. "
—Letter dated December 22, 1817 from Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, to US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams

Later, the economic dependence of the Selkirk Settlement and the Canadian Northwest on the Red River Trails threatened British and Canadian control of their territory. At a time when the feeling of Canadian nationality in the Northwest was this region relied on the Red River Trails and their subsequent steamship and railroad lines for a marketplace for their produce and for supplies. An active Manifest Destiny group in Minnesota attempted to use this economic dependency to incorporate northwest Canada into the United States. This pressure led Canada to acquire the Hudson's Bay Company territory in exchange for money and land. He contributed to the formation of the Canadian Confederation and the founding of Manitoba. Another consequence was the decision that the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway should run entirely in Canada. It was only with the completion of this railroad in 1885 that Manitoba and the Northwest finally got reliable and efficient access to eastern Canada on a route that ran entirely on Canadian soil.

Today the international border is firmly established and peaceful. The feeling of a Canadian nationality has grown and the fear of the Manifest Destiny doctrine has almost disappeared. Canada and the United States have put their trade partnership with the North American Free Trade Agreement on a contractual basis, which has led to a growth in trade between the states. The trade now going up and down the Mississippi and Red Rivers exceeds the predictions Lord Selkirk made nearly two centuries ago. While at first he only sought access to US territory in support of his nascent colony, trade in raw materials and produce is now two-way. The trade corridor that once ran the long-vanished Red River Trails still serves its original purpose.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This settlement had different names over the years, including "Selkirk Colony" or "Selkirk Settlement" and later "Fort Garry". The latter was the name in use for most of the period covered in this article.
  2. ↑ Bryce, The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists (1909), pp. 27-29.
  3. ↑ a b c d Brehaut, The Red River Cart and Trails .
  4. ↑ Bryce, The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists (1909), gives this number on page 78. Eric Morse gives the route from York Factory to Winnipeg via Norway House with a total of 1040 km. Morse, Fur Trade Routes in Canada (1969), p. 20.
  5. ↑ In 1803 Fort William had replaced Grand Portage as the anchor of this route on Lake Superior, but the route via Grand Portage was still used for fast connections by canoe.
  6. ^ Bryce, The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists (1909), p. 96.
  7. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 7-8. Although founded as an agricultural settlement, the Métis neighboring the Selkirk settlement were fur traders and many colonists also turned to this more profitable activity. The only legal outlet for their furs was the Hudson's Bay Company, they were also the only legal source of supplies, as their charter gave them a trading monopoly. Kelsey, Red River Runs North! (1951), pp. 136-139.
  8. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 2-3.
  9. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 2, 4.
  10. ^ A b Christianson, Minnesota: The Land of Sky-Tinted Waters (1935), p. 114.
  11. ↑ Bryce, The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists (1909), pp. 156-58; Kelsey, Red River Runs North! (1951), pp. 102-03.
  12. ^ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 6.
  13. ^ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 5, 43.
  14. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 5, 7.
  15. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 27-33; Huck, Exploring the Fur Trade Routes (2002). P. 201.
  16. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 34-38.
  17. ↑ Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (PDF; 610 kB) (1989), pp. E – 3; Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 38.
  18. ^ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 41.
  19. ↑ On the west side of Big Stone Lake there was a fur trading post in what is now Roberts County, South Dakota . Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 45 (map); 46-47.
  20. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 44-47.
  21. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 43-50.
  22. ↑ Norman Kittson preferred to use keelboats in Traverse des Sioux to keep his carters away from the distractions and temptations of the small settlement that would later become Saint Paul. Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 12.
  23. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 43-47.
  24. ↑ Kelsey, Red River Runs North! (1951), pp. 126, 139.
  25. ↑ Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (PDF; 610 kB) (1989), pp. E – 4.
  26. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 12, 16, 43-47.
  27. ^ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 9.
  28. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 9; Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (1989), pp. E-3.
  29. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 9-10, 55-56.
  30. ↑ See e.g. B. Gunderson, Dan, Walking the Pembina Trail , Minnesota Public Radio , July 5, 2007. The trails did not have an official name and various local names were used.
  31. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 16, 55-68.
  32. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 79-87; Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (PDF; 610 kB) (1989), pp. E – 5.
  33. ↑ Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (PDF; 610 kB) (1989), pp. E – 3.
  34. ^ A b Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 56.
  35. ^ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 16.
  36. ↑ a b Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 71-75.
  37. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 71-72. Vera Kelsey even shows the East Plains Trail along this route. Kelsey, Red River Runs North! (1951), at p. 120 (map).
  38. ↑ Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (PDF; 610 kB) (1989), pp. E – 5, 6; Holmquist, They Chose Minnesota (1981), pp. 39-41.
  39. ↑ a b Kernaghan, Hudson's Bay and Red River Settlement (1857), p. 8 .
  40. ↑ a b Henderson 3, The Lord Selkirk Settlement at Red River, Part 3 (1968).
  41. ↑ In 1849 the Hudson's Bay Company brought charges against four Métis smugglers for testing; although one was convicted, the jury recommended that no punishment be imposed, and from the audience's reactions it became apparent to local authorities that none could be imposed. The other charges were dismissed; the audience shouted “ Le commerce est libre! “(Trade is free!) And from then on there was no further interference in free cross-border trade via the trails. Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 14.
  42. ↑ The company entered into an agreement with the United States Department of the Treasury to enact customs regulations that would allow corporate assets to be sealed and locked up via Saint Paul and the Trails to Fort Garry. McFadden, Steamboating on the Red .
  43. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 14. Other exports included pemmican , buffalo tongue, moccasins and other items of clothing made from animal skins that were beaded and decorated by Indians.
  44. ^ Huck, Exploring the Fur Trade Routes (2002), p. 201; Blegen, Minnesota: A History of the State (1975), 192.
  45. ^ Gillman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 13.
  46. ^ Gilman, Red River Trails (1980), p. 17.
  47. ^ Garland, The Nor'Wester and the Men Who Established It (1959-60).
  48. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 5; Berton, The Impossible Railway (1972), p. 25.
  49. ↑ a b c Piehl, A Few Thoughts About Red River Carts ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.info.co.clay.mn.us archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
  50. ^ Fonseca, On the St. Paul Trail in the Sixties . Excellent plans and schematic drawings can be found at Brehaut, The Red River Cart and Trails .
  51. ↑ Piehl, A Few Thoughts About Red River Carts ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.info.co.clay.mn.us archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Berton, The Impossible Railway (1972), p. 25.
  52. ↑ Berton, The Impossible Railway (1972), p. 25. The sound can be heard on a recording ( memento of the original from February 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of a cart on the Clay County Minnesota Historical Society website. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.info.co.clay.mn.us
  53. ^ A b Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 15.
  54. ^ Fonseca, On the St. Paul Trail in the Sixties .
  55. ^ Christianson, Minnesota: The Land of Sky-Tinted Waters (1935), pp. 193-94.
  56. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 38. The French word means "crossing", the French-Canadian voyageurs (from which the Métis drivers descended) used the same word for the crossing of an open body of water between two places.
  57. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 38-40, 51, 66, 73-74.
  58. ↑ a b Shepard, retracing the Red River Trail
  59. ^ A b Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 49.
  60. ^ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 39,44.
  61. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 49, 51, 53, 63, 74.
  62. ^ A b Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 86.
  63. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 86-87. And those weren't the worst names one group had for the other Id.
  64. ↑ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 86-87. When the governor of the Minnesota Territory Alexander Ramsey arrived in Saint Paul in 1849, he found a treeless settlement with primitive huts, with unwashed and unshaven residents. In 1851 he traveled north, and reported that Pembina (then part of its territory) had 1,134 inhabitants and more grain in the camps than in all of the rest of its territory. The Red River Colony had 5,000 inhabitants (excluding the Indians), two stone forts, a cathedral, other churches and rectories, and schools. Kelsey, Red River Runs North! (1951), pp. 127-130.
  65. ^ McFadden, Steamboating on the Red .
  66. ↑ Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (PDF; 610 kB) (1989), pp. E – 6.
  67. ↑ Shepard, retracing the Red River Trail ; Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 21-26.
  68. ↑ Walsh, Crow Wing Trail ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arch.umanitoba.ca
  69. ↑ Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (PDF; 610 kB) (1989), §§ F, G.
  70. ^ Eg, Rubinstein, Minnesota History Along the Highways (2003), pp. 245-46.
  71. ↑ Red River Trail: Crow Wing Section , Red River Trail: Goose Lake Swamp Section , and Saint Cloud and Red River Valley Stage Road - Kandota Section (the stagecoach road follows the route of the old trail). American Dreams Inc. Retrieved February 23, 2012
  72. ↑ Shepard, retracing the Red River Trail ; Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pv
  73. ↑ Several settlements along the trail were the sites of battles or skirmishes during this war.
  74. ^ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pv
  75. ↑ Holmquist, They Chose Minnesota (1981); Pp. 39-41.
  76. ↑ Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (1989; PDF; 610 kB), pp. E – 1.
  77. ↑ Lass, Minnesota's Boundary with Canada (1980), pp. 32-33, 72-73.
  78. ↑ Lass, Minnesota's Boundary with Canada (1980), pp. 12, 30, 32-33, 72-73. The 49th parallel was set as the limit in 1818 and ended older British claims to the upper Red River Valley, which was in the Hudson Bay basin and was part of Rupert's land that the Hudson's Bay Company chartered in 1670 was awarded. Major Stephen Long's expedition to Pembina led to this border and was an affirmation of the United States' claim to the area south of it. Nute, Rainy River Country (1950), pp. 27-28. Since the Mississippi originated south of this latitude, the British had no access to this river and the Treaty of 1818 terminated claims based on the Treaty of Paris, which were based on the erroneous assumption that the river originated on British territory.
  79. ↑ Lass, Minnesota's Boundary with Canada (1980), pp. 17, 19-21, 30-33; Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), pp. 2-4, 6.
  80. ^ Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 1, quoted from A Letter by Lord Selkirk on Trade Between Red River and the United States , Canadian Historical Review, 17: 418-23 (December 1936).
  81. ↑ Bowsfield, Canadian-American Relations: The Background ; Bowsfield, The United States and Red River Settlement . The Red River settlers use this fear in their efforts to break free from the Hudson's Bay Company in their petition to the Provincial Legislative Assembly of Canada:

    If we look at the massive wave of immigration northbound over the past six years, which has already filled the upper Mississippi Valley with settlers, and which this year will continue across the watershed and fill the Red River Valley, then there is no danger that we could be swept away by this wave and lose our nationality?

    A reproduction of this petition is Kernaghan, Hudson's Bay and Red River Settlement (1857), pp 12- 14 .

  82. ^ Lass, Minnesota, a History (2d ed.) (1978), pp. 115-16; Kelsey, Red River Runs North! (1951), p. 143; Berton, The Impossible Railway (1972), pp. 14-18, 20, 25, 497-98.
  83. ^ Lass, Minnesota's Boundary with Canada (1980), p. 72; Lass, Minnesota, a History (2nd ed.) (1978), pp. 116-19; Bowsfield, The United States and Red River Settlement ; see also Gilman, The Red River Trails (1979), p. 25.
  84. Jump up ↑ Bell, Some Red River Settlement History , Bowsfield, Canada-America Relations: The Background , and Bowsfield, The United States and Red River Settlement .
  85. ↑ When the North West Company was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, it abandoned the former company's route along the border in favor of the route to York Factory, which was easier to use and allowed transport to and from Europe in a few months. Morse, Fur Trade Routes of Canada (1969), p. 48; see also HBC Heritage, The North West Company . In 1858, the company abandoned the York Factory route for fur from the Selkirk Settlement, and instead used the Red River Trails. Hess, Minnesota Red River Trails (PDF; 610 kB) (1989), pp. E-5; Kelsey, Red River Runs North! (1951), p. 146. In 1870 the Dawson Route was laid, which ran roughly along the old border route of the voyageurs of Fort William , Ontario, but it was clearly inferior to the Red River Route. See Berton, The Impossible Railway (1972), pp. 35-38; Morrison, Dawson Road ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved August 21, 2016 ..
  86. ^ Killion, Historic Trade Corridors: Vital Links Follow Nature's Bounty .