Long before a paved highway ran past this spot, the Red River Trail was an important road. From the late 1830s through the early 1870s, thousands of heavy wood carts bearing furs and other treasures passed over the trail from the Canadian wilderness to the commercial center of St. Paul, and on the return trip they hauled supplies and barter. The trail had three main branches: the northerly Woods Trail left the Red River near the Canadian border, followed the Crow Wing River to the Mississippi River, and proceeded downstream along the path now followed by U.S. Highway 10; the East Plains Trail left the Red River near Breckenridge, ran roughly parallel to the route now followed by I-94, then forded the Mississippi and joined the Woods Trail a few miles north of here; and the West Plains Trail followed the Red River to Lake Traverse, then the Minnesota River to St. Paul. The carts were massive two-wheeled vehicles made entirely of wood, held together by wood pegs and rawhide, with spoked wheels designed to pass over rocky river bottoms without breaking and through soggy marshes without sinking. Each cart was pulled by a single ox or horse, and the drivers, known as métis, generally walked beside the carts. By tying each animal to the cart in front of it, one driver could handle as many as ten carts. Like prairie freight trains, the Red River carts traveled in caravans, some with more than a hundred carts, and because no grease was used on their axles, the creaking of a caravan on the move was a deafening screech that could be heard for miles around. It cost about $15 to build a Red River cart. A cart in regular service traveled about 1600 km (1000 miles) each season and often lasted several years. The metis, of mixed European and Indian descent, lived in what is now northeastern North Dakota, and meti is the French word for "mixed blood." After the Civil War, with the development of more efficient forms of transportation such as stagecoaches, steamboats, and railroads, the Red River Trail fell into disuse. A fully loaded cart could carry 360 to 450 kilograms (800 to 1,000 lbs.) of freight.