Re: MtMan-List: red river carts?

[gottfred@agt.net (Jeff Gottfred)]

Jon Towns wrote (in part):
> DID THEY USE THESE OX AND CARTS <Red River Carts> BELOW THE 49TH
>PARALLEL? I DON'T THINK SO.  THE HBC AND NW CO. DID.  THEY WERE TOO SLOW
>FOR THE AMERICAN TRADERS,  OXEN WAS FEW AND FAR BETWEEN EVEN IN CANADA.
I'm sorry I can't supply specific refernces, since widespread use of Red 
River carts comes a little after my time (pre-1821).  I have picked up the 
following in passing: 
The first Red River carts were used in the area of modern Winnipeg, Manitoba 
about 1805 (mentioned in the journal of Alexander Henry the Younger). They 
soon became quite useful, due to the flat open terrain. They were initially 
pulled by horses, although later oxen may have been used (the first pair of 
cattle, called Adam & Eve, made it to Red River ca. 1816, with the Swiss 
settlers, and they would have been quite uncommon for many years after). Red 
River carts  were adopted by the Metis for buffalo hunting and the HBC for 
overland transport. Trails for Red River carts stretched all the way from 
Edmonton and Rocky Mountain House, Alberta to York Factory on Hudson's Bay 
and  St. Paul (Minneapolis?), which was the southern terminus. They were 
used as late as 1874, when they were utilized by the newly-formed NWMP (now 
RCMP).  They were notorious for their incredibly loud shrieking. They used 
no metal parts (not even nails); the outside of the wheels were covered in 
shaganappi (rawhide), all other parts were pegged, making them easy to 
repair with local materials when travelling across the plains when following 
the buffalo. To this day, the Red River cart is a powerful symbol of the 
Metis people. 

Your humble & obedient servant,
Angela Gottfred
gottfred@agt.net-->soon to be gottfred@telusplanet.net