Oxcarts

From the 1820s to the 1860s, oxcarts carried trade goods between St. Paul and Fort Garry, present-day Winnipeg, traveling northwest through Minnesota and then north through the Red River Valley, and on the return trip carrying furs and pemmican south to be sold or traded in St. Paul. Organized into trains of nearly 100 carts driven by Metis, people of Native American and European descent, they started at dawn and traveled about fifteen miles per day. Several trails linked St. Paul with Fort Garry, including the Minnesota Valley Trail, the Middle Trail, the Stage Road, the Woods Trail, and the North Dakota Trail. The Red River Trail followed the western bank of the Red River and passed through present-day Grand Forks. After the valley was opened to settlement, pioneers followed the visible oxcart trails with horse teams and later automobiles, and the trail eventually became the primary route of U.S. Highway 81 and remained an important traffic corridor near the Red River.

Grand Forks, North Dakota · United States