The Ox Cart Trail to Shakopee

The Ox Cart Trail to Shakopee. Pathways of Shakopee History. , ”The squeaking of the wheels could be heard in Shakopee before the carts crossed Murphy's Ferry over a mile away. They could be smelled almost as far away, too!" , , Julius Coller II, When Minnesota was a territory with rivers and trails across the prairies, the Red River ox carts became the way to travel., Métis, descendants of white fur traders and Indian women, used these two-wheeled carts to carry bison hides, fur, meat, and pemmican to trade. , The Métis traveled from Winnipeg, Canada and present-day Pembina, North Dakota to St. Paul, stopping in Shakopee on the way and back. The 400-mile path took about 40 days to complete. The ox carts continued on the swampy, flood-prone, and mosquito-ridden bottomlands of the Minnesota River. , On the way back, the ox cart caravans crossed the river at Murphy's Landing and Ferry and camped on the south side of the Faribault Trading Post. They then headed north, carrying barrels or sacks of flour and even an occasional piano!, By the mid-1800s, continuous use of the carts had worn trails into the prairie grass. In the 1850s and 1860s, steamboats and railways replaced ox carts as the region's main modes of transportation. , Squeeeak! , The Red River ox cart was a two-wheeled cart made entirely of wood without the benefit of nails. The cart was hitched to a single ox. The two wheels were sometimes five feet tall, which worked fine with the heavy mud and deep-rutted path. Each wheel produced its own peculiar tone, moaning and screaming like a discontented panther. The squeak of the wheel revolving on an axle that was never greased could be heard for miles on a still day or night. , Trails , An Indian trail passed south of the Faribault Trading Post. Pelagie Eliza Faribault Manaige remembered watching the processions of ponies with packs strapped to their backs. Dogs were used, too. Furs and skins formed the bulk of the freight. Later, the ponies and dogs were replaced by six oxen and long trains of two-wheeled Red River carts.