This story is courtesy of Kimball Area Historical Society member Duane Stanley whose pioneer family arrived in Maine Prairie in 1857. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ The Red River ox cart always announced itself, and did so long before it actually made its appearance. Such was the case when Julia Frost(1) saw her first cart in the spring of 1863. It was one of those “I shall never forget” moments, recounted as she put memories to paper more than a half century later. Frost describes being on the side porch at Pearl Lake Place, the family farm on the western shore of Pearl Lake, when “from over the lake we heard a strange noise, unlike anything we had ever before heard. Soon our entire family was out to divine if possible what the sound could be. The loud squeaking, screeching, seemed to be approaching nearer and nearer and louder and louder; then we heard the brush cracking and the heavy tramp of an animal, and at last from the hazel bushes emerged the head of an ox, and then a cart loaded with furs.” It is reported that the ox-cart train could often be heard from three to five miles away. Built entirely of wood, the carts’ wooden wheels turning on wooden axles cried their pain in shrill and continuous tones for all to hear. Maine Prairie was not on the main trail that the Metis followed as they plodded their way slowly from Pembina on the Red River close to the US-Canadian border down to St. Paul. But it also was not so far from the trail(2) that it would deter at least one ox cart from making the detour to pick up “the furs collected by Mr. Stanley and other trappers and hunters. All winter the Stanleys had been trapping muskrats, weasels, raccoons, skunks, etc. This Red River half-breed was gathering up the accumulations of the winter’s trappings.” Thomas B. Stanley had come to the prairie in 1857, almost exactly a year from the time the first settlers had broken their way through the dense brush and heavy timber of the Big Woods to found a settlement on this abundant prairie. “T.B.” and his teenage sons “D.B.” and Joe soon gained a reputation as capable hunters and trappers. Frost notes that the Stanleys were seldom without fresh meat. They were among many on the prairie who supplemented the fruit of their farming labors with the abundant supply of wild meat available in the heavy woods surrounding the prairie. The St. Cloud newspaper frequently reported the number of deer killed by settlers at Maine Prairie, with Rev. Inman reporting at least 22 deer shot one winter. The paper also reported “T.B.” bringing a bear to town that weighed “250 pounds net,” which one of his sons had shot. Historians describe three primary ox-cart trails from the northern corner of the state to St. Paul. The southernmost followed the Red River and the Minnesota (then called St. Peter) to Fort Snelling. The other two main trails were less precise, with a variety of branches, links and alternates for avoiding hazards caused by weather or even just reflecting the preference of individual leaders. The Middle Trail was the most direct and covered more miles in open prairie, even though it required additional effort negotiating lakes, streams and wetlands. It was the most heavily traveled, particularly as tensions with the Dakota increased. (Today, Interstate 94 follows the general path of much of the Middle Trail.) The old trail left the Red River about where Breckenridge is today and wound across the state southeasterly, skirting lakes Minnewaska, George and Henry, before reaching the more wooded area beginning at Richmond. The trains followed the Sauk River valley, either east or west of the river to Waite’s Crossing west of St. Cloud, before following the Mississippi southward to St. Paul.(3) Many of the cities we now know grew up as trading posts along the trail, from Coon Rapids and Elk River in the south to Detroit Lakes in the northwest. While the loads heading south were almost exclusively furs, on the way back north the trains took supplies of all kinds, including manufactured goods, ammunition, food supplies, liquor and tobacco. One account even tells of a piano riding north in one of the rocking carts. Always a final outfitting stop for the journey north, St. Cloud became the trail’s terminus in 1867 once the expanding railroad reached Stearns County. Soon the prairies would forget the sound of the advancing ox carts, often as many as 200 to a train. They would leave as their only reminder miles and miles with three deeply rutted tracks – two from the wheels and one from the oxen – to give evidence of their years of service. Still today, historians are trying to find some way to preserve the final vanishing evidence of years of ox-cart travel. The carts themselves were versatile and stable. Each cart could carry eight hundred pounds of furry cargo. Linda Stelling describes their construction: “The carts were designed for the wide variety of travel conditions. The cart was easy to draw through bogs, buoyant at river fords, strong on rock-strewn hills and hard to upset in stumpy forests. The body was made of tough, well-seasoned oak. Although the particulars of construction varied with each cartmaker, most builders started with two squared 12-foot poles. Six feet of their lengths served as the shafts for harnessing the ox, while the other six feet supported the frame of the cart. Crosspieces were firmly mortised into the shafts to underlay the floor, and upright rails were fitted into poles. Front, side and tailboards to hold the load complete the cart’s body.”(4) The wheels were 5-6 feet high, providing a stable, if very rough ride for the cargo. When necessary the carts could even be floated in a river crossing. The carts traveled from sunrise till mid-afternoon when camp was re-established for the night. A good day’s journey was 10 to 15 miles. The carts served as a fort at night, sitting wheel to wheel in a large circle with their shafts turned outward. Families and oxen both spent the night safely surrounded. Covered with hides or canvas, carts also provide a suitable shelter from the elements. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Despite obvious differences, the Red River ox carts and the Pony Express had some similarities. The former never gained the aura of adventure and romance later attached to its swift and nimble cousin. But both grew up on the frontier to meet an urgent need on the leading edge of the western migration. They were manifestations of ingenuity in service to the American entrepreneurial spirit. But both were doomed to a short existence, unable to compete with advancing technology – the trails of steel that were soon to connect the distant east and west. The ox-cart trains flourished for about 30 years, beginning in the early 1840s. The iron horses with their steel carts would soon carry the settler, the supplies, and – of course – the mails, keeping pioneers in touch with those they had left behind. The telegraph, too, would serve for urgent messages. Nonetheless, during their years of service, the ox carts and mail riders both served as a lifeline with the East. The ox carts carried the mail sacks as well as their cargo of supplies on the return trip after depositing their loads of fur in St. Paul. The carts were much slower than their speedy young counterparts on swift ponies, of course. They covered in a day what the ponies traversed in less than an hour. The Pony Express recruited young boys, mostly orphans, to race the mails across the country. The ox-cart train was often the home for entire families of Metis as it made its month-long trip each direction. But the bags of mail each brought were equally treasured at the end of the trail. When the early ox-cart trains returned to Pembina, the letters they brought might often have been the first word from loved ones in many months. Even before the railways were complete, stagecoaches had taken charge of a considerable portion of travel needs, including the U.S. mail. Much of the established ox-cart trail had been converted to stage roads with bridges replacing fords, all providing quicker and more regular service. These trails were now more heavily traveled and o
ften exhibited a military presence. The stages, too, lost their role to the faster and safer railroads, unlimited in their carrying power. But both the stages and the railroads relied significantly on the trails established first by the plodding oxen that helped shape the communities on the expanding Minnesota frontier. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Does anyone know? When phone service first came to Maine Prairie, it is reported that only one phone existed in the immediate area. Does anyone know where that first phone was located? Please reply to the Kimball Area Historical Society. Your new and renewed memberships are the lifeline of the Kimball Area Historical Society. Thank you for yours! Meetings at Kimball’s Historic City Hall take place on the fourth Tuesday of Feb., April, June and Oct., plus field trips and the annual popular History Exhibit featured during the Kimball Days festival, August 8-10 this year. See you there, so keep watching for details in the Tri-County News. For more information, call Mary Johnson or Carol Newman at (320) 398-5250 or 398-5743, or toll-free at (800) 252-2521. Or you can write us at P.O. Box 100, Kimball MN 55353. FOOTNOTES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (1) Julia (Watkins) Frost came to Maine Prairie as a newlywed in 1861. In 1912, at the age of 75, she penned to share stories of her family’s rich 150-year heritage for the younger Watkins generations. Julia was the sister of J.R. Watkins of Watkins liniment fame. Their father was B.U. Watkins, who was the primary leader in founding the Kimball Church of Christ. (2) Some trains of ox-carts traveled along the east side of the Sauk River, crossing at Cold Spring, making Rockville the closest point to Maine Prairie. Other trains kept west of the river until they forded at Waite’s Crossing. (3) In her article “Ox cart trails shaped early settlements” on the Paynesville area Web site, Linda Stelling describe three branch trails in the area between St. Cloud and Richmond. (4) Constructed in original design, an ox cart is on display at the Minnesota History Museum, with additional information about its use a century and a half ago.
