A Red River cart train on the Carlton Trail

The Red River ox cart was a large two-wheeled cart made entirely of natural materials, and typically was drawn by oxen. "CARTS" redirects here For the transportation system see Capital Area Rural Transportation System, or Chautauqua CARTS. Oxen (singular ox) are Cattle trained as draft animals. Often they are adult castrated males The carts were used throughout most of the 19th century in the fur trade and in westward expansion in Canada and the United States, in the area of the Red River of the North and on the plains west of the Selkirk Settlement. The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal Fur. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Red River (rivière Rouge is a North American river Formed by the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement) was a colonization project set up by Thomas Douglas 5th Earl of Selkirk in 1811 on 300000 km² of land granted

Description

Red River ox cart (1851), by Frank Blackwell Mayer

The cart was a simple conveyance developed by Métis for use in their settlement on the Red River of the North in what later became Manitoba. The Métis are descendants of marriages of Cree, Ojibway Algonquin, Saulteaux, and Menominee aboriginals to Europeans, The Red River (rivière Rouge is a North American river Formed by the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States Manitoba (English ˌmænɨˈtoʊbə French /manitoba/ is a province of Canada, spanning 647797 square kilometres (250116  sq mi of North America Derived either from the two-wheeled charettes used in French Canada or from Scottish carts,^[1][2] it was adapted from 1801 on to use only local materials. "CARTS" redirects here For the transportation system see Capital Area Rural Transportation System, or Chautauqua CARTS. ^[3] Because nails were unavailable or very expensive in the early west, these carts contained no iron at all, being entirely constructed of wood and animal hide. In Engineering, Woodworking and Construction, a nail is a pin -shaped sharp object of hard Metal, typically Steel, Two twelve-foot long parallel oak shafts or "trams" bracketed the draft animal in front and formed the frame of the cart to the rear. Cross-pieces held the floorboards, and front, side and rear boards or rails enclosed the box. These wooden pieces were joined by mortices and tenons. Simple and strong the mortise and tenon joint has been used for millennia by Woodworkers around the world to join pieces of Wood, usually when the pieces Also of seasoned oak was the axle, lashed to the cart by strips of bison hide or "shaganappi" attached when wet which shrunk and tightened as they dried. The American bison ( Bison bison) is a Bovine Mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo. The axles connected two spoked wheels, five or six feet in diameter, which were "dished" or in the form of a shallow cone, the apex of which was at the hub. ^[4]

Motive power for the carts was originally supplied by small horses obtained from the First Nations. First Nations is a term of Ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis people After cattle were brought to the Selkirk Settlement in the 1820s oxen were used, preferred because of their strength, endurance, and cloven hooves which spread their weight in swampy areas. Oxen (singular ox) are Cattle trained as draft animals. Often they are adult castrated males ^[3] The cart, constructed of native materials, could easily be repaired. A supply of shaganapi and wood was brought; a cart could break a half-dozen axles in a one-way trip. ^[3] The axles were ungreased, as grease would capture dust which would act as sandpaper and immobilize the cart. ^[3][2] The resultant squeal sounded like an untuned violin, giving it the sobriquet of "the North West fiddle"; one visitor wrote that "a den of wild beasts cannot be compared with its hideousness. "^[2][5]

Uses

The Red River Trails on which the carts were used extended from the Red River Colony via fur-trading posts such as Pembina and St. Joseph in the Red River Valley to Mendota and St. Paul, Minnesota. The Red River Trails were a network of ox cart routes connecting the Red River Colony (the Selkirk Settlement) and Fort Garry in British The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement) was a colonization project set up by Thomas Douglas 5th Earl of Selkirk in 1811 on 300000 km² of land granted A trading post is a place where the trading of goods takes place Pembina (ˈpɛmbɪnə) is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota in the United States. Walhalla is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota in the United States. For other uses see Red River (disambiguation The Red River Valley is a region in central North America that is drained by Mendota is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. Saint Paul ( abbreviated St Paul) is the capital and second most populous city in the U Furs were the usual cargo on the trip to St. Paul, and trade goods and supplies were carried on the trip back to the colony.

The Carlton Trail was also an important route for the carts, running from the Red River Colony west to Fort Carlton and Fort Edmonton in present day Saskatchewan and Alberta, with branches such as the Fort a la Corne Trail. The Carlton Trail was the primary land transportation route connecting the various parts of the Canadian Northwest for most of the 19th Century Fort Carlton was a Hudson's Bay Company fur trade post from 1810 until 1885. Fort Edmonton (also named Edmonton House was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1795 to 1891 all of which were located in central Saskatchewan (səˈskætʃəwən) is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of 588276 Alberta (ælˈbɝtə is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1 1905 Fort de la Corne was built in 1753 by Louis de la Corne Chevalier de la Corne at the same time that the second Fort Paskoya was built The carts were the primary conveyance in the Canadian west from early settlement until the coming of the Canadian Pacific Railway toward the end of the century. The Canadian Pacific Railway (

Invented and developed by the Métis and Anglo-Metis peoples, it is sometimes used today as a symbol of Metis nationalism. The Métis are descendants of marriages of Cree, Ojibway Algonquin, Saulteaux, and Menominee aboriginals to Europeans, A 19th Century community of the Métis people of Canada, the Anglo-Métis, more commonly known as Countryborn, were children of the fur trade typically

Models and replicas

Selkirk, Manitoba, has an oversized model of a Red River ox cart, and models may also be found at St. Louis, Duck Lake and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Selkirk is a city in the western Canadian province of Manitoba, located about 22 km northeast of the provincial capital Winnipeg on the Red River disambiguation for saints named St Louis and other uses see Saint Louis St Duck Lake is a town in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located 88 kilometres north of Saskatoon and 44 kilometres south of Prince Albert on Prince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. The Clay County, Minnesota Historical Society has a full-scale replica cart. Clay County is a County located in the US state of Minnesota ^[3]

See also

• York boat

References