1840s
Fur Trade by Oxcart

Métis families (formed by marriages between whites and Indians) take their furs from the Red River Valley to St. Paul in oxcarts. Long caravans of up to 200 carts travel from as far away as Winnipeg, Canada, making St. Paul one of the leading fur markets in the country from the 1840s to the 1860s.

"Within the circle of their camp is heard a strange melange of language, as diverse as their parentage. You may hear French, Gaelic, English, Cree, and Ojibewa, with all the wild accompaniment of mingled accent, soft and musical, abrupt and guttural, in such strange, startling contrasts as flings an additional interest about the mysterious people."
-Harper's New Monthly Magazine, January 1859

Built of oak, the Red River carts were first used to haul buffalo hides and meat back from the Métis' annual hunts. Later, the drivers gather carts into trains and head south. Men and women alike drive the carts along the rutted trails, traveling about 20 miles a day.

Traders pile their carts with sacks of grain, furs and hides, moccasins and other skin garments, dried buffalo meat and pemmican, a durable concoction of pounded buffalo meat, congealed fat, and flavorings. On the return trip, drivers haul manufactured goods, liquor, tobacco, cloth, food, guns, ammunition, and just about everything else needed in the thriving but distant outposts along the Red River.