Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

268 ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
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.
"The oldest inhabitant" told us this was no other than a Red
River cart away from Canada, and that they came through
for 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 trapping.
Later on in our travels about the state we met long trains
of these Red River carts. They were a home invention, made
entirely of wood and rawhide, having wheels without tires,
two in number, and single shafts for a horse or ox, generally
the latter. The ones we saw later went in long trains, with
but one driver to four carts; an ox was attached to each and
the carts were hitched tandem, thus requiring but the one
driver for all four carts. Their speed was about fifteen miles
a day, and it took a train about a month to come from Pembina,
Canada, to St. Paul. At night they formed a circular corral
of carts, with the shafts directed outward and the camp in the
center, thus improvising a fort; they watched their cattle by
turns, to prevent a stampede by enemies. When the train
arrived in St. Paul they would go into camp near some lake,
where they were a source of great interest, especially to newcomers.
The French and Indian half-breed drivers appeared
in all the glory of their picturesque costumes; this dress included
the beautiful Pembina sash. These gay girdles are gone, but
the dress of the Red River drivers is represented on the walls
of the Minnesota Historical Society and the Minnesota Club
in St. Paul in the portrait of the celebrated Joe Rolette. We
had good opportunities for seeing these figures in the early
commerce of the North when in St. Cloud, for that was an
important place on their route, and in 1867 became their terminus.
Drivers and carts have vanished with the advance of
civilization; no more will the new-comer be startled by the