If You REALLY Want to Learn About the Red River Trails...

When I wrote Ox Cart Angel, one of the most helpful books I used for research by far was a book put out by the Minnesota Historical Society by Rhoda Gilman, Carolyn Gilman, and Deborah Stultz:

Red River Trails : Oxcart Routes Between St Paul and the Selkirk Settlement 1820-1870

It's full of detailed trail maps, lots of background and history on the trails and the people who rode them, as well as historical pictures. There are a ton of references for further reading in the back of the book, too.

While I hope you get some fun information from this blog, the above book is highly recommended if you want to get to know the trails in a much more intimate way. It's available at many historical museums in Minnesota and North Dakota, as well as on the usual online shops. (The link above takes you to Amazon, if you're interested.) I'm guessing a lot of libraries carry it, also.

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Delmar Hagen's 1958 Journey by Ox Cart Along the Red River Trails

In 1958, to coincide with Minnesota's centennial, Delmar Hagen recreated the historic ox cart journey that thousands of Metis had taken before in the 1800s. He accompanied a Red River cart and an ox named Napoleon.

I found picture of Delmar in a 1955 yearbook called The Aggie, which was for the University of Minnesota Northwest School and Experiment State, Crookston, MN. Now I think it's just called U of M, Crookston.

Delmar on the right and, um - Stephen Colbert on the left?

Delmar left Pembina, North Dakota in the early afternoon of July 10th, 1958 and arrived at the State Fair Grounds in St. Paul, Minnesota on August 23rd of that same year. He timed his trip to arrive during the Centennial Exposition held at the fair that year. Along the way, he camped at various stops and took a couple detours to attend the Marshall County Fair in Warren on July 18th, and the Summer Water Festival in Glenwood on August 9th and 10th.

Here's the only picture I could find of Delmar dressed for the trails with Napoleon:

Photo by Jim Thompson of Holt, MN

The above picture is located in the booklet pictured below, called Red River Carts Trek, Historic Pembina Trail, of which I have a copy. It was written by Neil Mattson, and was published as a way to fund Delmar's trip. Interestingly enough, Neil Mattson's daughter, Jean Larson was recently elected to the Executive Council of the Minnesota Historical Society.

The booklet is full of great information about the trails and about the Metis who drove the Red River carts. It also has a map of Delmar's proposed route to the State Fair.

My copy is signed by Delmar, and is inscribed "To a sweet little girl" (though I'm not sure if the word is 'sweet' or 'smart'? It looks like it starts with an S and a T, but that doesn't make sense.) Anyhow, I believe one of my aunts was at the State Fair and met him, and received the book. It eventually found its way to me.

During Delmar's journey, a photographer from Life Magazine captured his journey on film, and eventually Delmar and Napoleon earned a noteworthy spread. Those photos used to be online, however I can no longer find them. They were beautifully done, and maybe I can find a copy of that issue in the future.

It must have been quite a journey, only now with not only mosquitoes and the hot sun, but also cars whizzing by and the paparazzi following him. 

A seventeen-year old boy helped Delmar prepare for the trip (Hagen spent two years preparing) and Delmar told the boy that perhaps in 50 years, he should take the journey.

In 2008, that seventeen-year old boy was now a 67-year old man named Orlin Ostby, and he actually did travel the trails. You can see his blog about the journey here. (I met one of Orlin's helpers at one of my talks. I blogged about that talk here.)

Who knows? Maybe in 2058, someone else will walk in the footsteps of the Metis and Delmar and Orlin.

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Bonebag - or - What is an Ox?

Bonebag is a character in Ox Cart Angel; an old, flatulent ox with only one full horn, the other having been broken off when he was younger. Some people have told me that Bonebag is their favorite character (which I'm not sure is a good or a bad thing!)

I didn't grow up on a farm, nor spend much time on one, so when I sat down to write Ox Cart Angel, I didn't know an ox from a rutabaga.

This is a rutabaga...with eyes!

Well, okay, I did know that an ox was some sort of cow-like creature, maybe a bull of some sort, but that's about it. I only knew that an ox cart was pulled by an ox. Otherwise it might have been called a rutabaga cart.

So what is an ox?

Me! Me! Pick me!

An ox is basically a bull who has been castrated, and then trained to work. They also must have horns so that when they are pulling something, the yoke won't slip off of their heads. Luckily, Bonebag still has enough horn left to keep the yoke on his head!

An old wooden yoke

What does it mean to be castrated? It is when the testicles have been cut off of a bull calf. Usually this is done well before he's a year old.

"Wait, what?!"

This might sound cruel - and the bull might agree with you - but this has gone on for thousands of years, and is a way to make bulls less aggressive and to prevent them from breeding.

Oxen in an 11th-century illustration

So now you know what an ox is! 

"Did you know rutabagas have eyes?"
"Nope. I did not know that."

Thanks for stopping by!

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The Capote Coat

A popular clothing item for the Metis (as well as many other Native Americans and Voyageurs) was the capote.

No, not this Capote!!!

Ah, that's better...

Some were made of leather, some of blue wool, some white, some gray. Many were made from a single Hudson Bay Blanket, like the one pictured above. As you can see, they are long - thigh-length, with long sleeves, a hood, and were often held together by a Metis sash. Some incorporated buttons and thongs, as well. 

The wool worked great in the winter, since it could hold the wearer's heat, even when the wool got wet.

Hudson Bay Blankets were (and still are) very desirable. You can still buy them today.

This is called a Hudson Bay Point Blanket - the black lines on the left side are called 'points' and helped shopkeepers determine its size even while it remained folded on a shelf.

You can still buy Hudson Bay Point Blankets. Here's a link to a variety on Amazon.

Blackfoot Man wearing Capote circa 1910

Pictured here are members of the Montreal Snow Shoe Club in 1886.
Who knew capotes could make you fly?

Here's an 1845 painting by Paul Kane  with men wearing non-Hudson Bay Blanket capotes:

Portrait of Captain John Henry Lefroy

Lefroy's capote looks like it could be made of leather, and his companion with his back to us wears one of grey wool. Both of them wear a sash with a fire bag attached to it.

In case you're interested in making your own capote, here are a couple websites I found with instructions. 

http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/winter/gear/capote.htm

http://www.nwtrader.com/patterns.html

http://www.scoutingvermont.org/pubs/c/27_capote.pdf

Here are some other patterns to check out.

If you decide to make one, or already have one, send a picture of you wearing it, and I'll put it on my blog!

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The Frog Grease Rumor

As I speak with more and more groups, one thing I've heard more than once is this rumor about how the drivers used to cut down on the noise of the large squeaky Red River cart wheels.

Spoiler alert - the rumor is just a tad gross.

What I've heard from a number of old-timers is that -

"Wait! No! Don't say it! Think about the children!"

- the drivers would take a frog and -

"You're really going to say it?"

- shove it between the wheel hub and the axle of the cart to lubricate the wood to stop the loud squeeeeaaaalllll of the wheel.

"Ribbit?"

Like I said, I've heard this from about three or four people so far. I'm guessing it's one of those stories that got passed down over the generations, and the original tellers were just pulling somebody's leg. But you never know. If they did do this, I don't think it would've worked for very long, and they would've needed a lot of frogs!

"It ain't easy being grease!"

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Red River Cart Wheels

In an earlier post, I talked about why the wheels of the Red River oxcarts were so squeaky.

In this post, I'd like to tell you a few more cool things about them. Here's a picture of the wheel of an actual Red River oxcart. This particular oxcart is only one of four known to still exist intact. It's located at the Kandiyohi History Center Museum in Willmar, MN.

Notice how it's all made of wood? (The chain you see is just to keep people from climbing on the thing.) I think the band that is holding that hub together may be metal, but originally, it would've been of animal hide. The hide would've been soaked in water, wrapped around the wood, and allowed to dry. When it dries, it shrinks and tightens up. The axle was often made of strong oak, while the rest of the cart was typically pine. However, any wood would do in a pinch.

Now here is what's really unique about the Red River cart's wheels:

See how the spokes and wheel form sort of a bowl shape? It allowed for better movement across the marshy land of the Red River Valley. Again, animal hide would've been used where the metal strip is now circling the wheel rim.

Another thing about this wheel shape is that when the cart and its driver came to a river they had to cross, the wheels could be taken off, wrapped in buffalo hide, and used to float the cart across the river. The two wheels would be placed beneath the cart in order to accomplish this.

I've seen a couple replicas of these Red River carts, and they often get the bowl shape of the wheel wrong. They usually just put on wheels that are almost flat up against the wagon, more like a regular cart.

If you're ever near Willmar, MN, I recommend heading into their museum to see one of the only authentic carts remaining up close and personal!

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Pembina, ND (E. Grand Forks visit - pt 1)

I gave a presentation on Ox Cart Angel in East Grand Forks, MN on August 11th as part of their 125th anniversary. I went up a day early, however, so that I could drive an hour farther north to take a look at Pembina, North Dakota. Pembina is right in the upper northeast corner of ND - you could almost spit into Canada from there, and then turn around a bit and sneeze into Minnesota.

I've wanted to visit Pembina for a long time, because the earliest ancestors on my mother's maternal side - that we know about - lived there. Also, it's where Ox Cart Angel starts out. The main character's home is Pembina.

I finally made it! Note the Red River cart.

Pembina was once quite a bustling place - a transportation hub for the oxcart trails. My great-great-great-great grandfather - a French Canadian - and his wife - an Ojibwe woman - lived there back in the early 1800s.

Here's where the Red River and Pembina River merge:

My g-g-g-g-grandparents surely saw this same view, although without the bridge in the background. And different trees.

They also probably lived near this spot:

Although now, this is what is there:

I'm thinking the g-g-g-g-grandparents didn't have the jungle gym.

I stopped at the Pembina State Museum, which is a nice place. They have a replica of a Red River cart there:

I went up in the tower, where there's a viewing platform.

The hard part was rapelling back down.

Here's the best view from the tower:

Pembina!

Anyway, it was very cool to see the place. It felt like a connection to my past; like the past had come up to meet me. I left as the sun started to set - the motel there was booked for the night, so I stayed in Drayton, which is a bit south of Pembina. The next day I headed down to East Grand Forks for my presentation at their library. It went well, and the people hosting the event were incredibly nice. I'll talk a little more about that at another time.

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Where the Heck is Pembina?

Ox Cart Angel’s main character, Claire Dumont, comes from the town of Pembina, now part of North Dakota. In 1862 when the novel takes place, however, North Dakota was part of Dakota Territory, which took up South and North Dakota, as well as much of what are now the states of Montana and Wyoming. The Dakota Territory was formed in 1861, only a year before the events in the novel take place, so for most of Claire’s life, Pembina was part of the Minnesota Territory. It’s a bit confusing, I know. However, despite which country, territory or state Pembina used to belong to (Canada once even thought it belonged to them in the early 1800s) it is still in the same place it always was; hugging the Red River and snug right up against the present-day Minnesota border on its eastern side, and almost touching Canada on its northern side. In fact, the Pembina State Museum has an observation tower from which you can see Canada.

It’s a small town, its population under 600 in 2010, but what it lacks in size, it certainly makes up for in its importance to our country’s history. I hope to make it up there this next summer. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to find it. If I get lost on the way, I can always listen for and follow the ghostly squeaking of ox cart wheels that once plied the area. Surely they can still be heard if you listen hard enough. 

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Oxcart, Ox Cart, Ox-Cart - Which one is right?

When working on Ox Cart Angel, I wasn't quite sure of the correct way to spell ox cart. Was is it oxcart, ox cart, or ox-cart? As I dug a little, I found the word spelled each of those ways, and finally decided to settle on it as 'ox cart' - two words - but it seems that any of those ways are acceptable.

For example, there is an Ox Cart Days celebration in both Crookston, Minnesota and Star Prairie, Wisconsin.

There's a well-loved picture book called Ox-Cart Man written by Donald Hall and illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

Winner of the Caldecott Medal!

However, Merriam Webster's online dictionary has the word appear as oxcart. (Hey, did you know the first known use of the word oxcart was in 1749?)

Wikipedia has it listed as both oxcart and ox cart.

The cart in Ox Cart Angel, though, might more appropriately be called a Red River cart, even though a Red River cart is at heart an oxcart (ox-cart? ox cart?) - just a little more specialized for the area it traveled and the cargo it typically carried. But Red River Cart Angel just didn't have the same ring to it as Ox Cart Angel. What do you think?

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The Origins of Ox Cart Angel

I’m a genealogy buff. I love searching through old censuses, looking up obituaries of long lost relatives, visiting graveyards. Might sound a little morbid, perhaps, but from those, I try to piece together what little I can of my ancestors lives. Most of it is conjecture. I don’t have a famous ancestor whose life was written about in magazines and biographies, and none that I know of kept a detailed journal that managed to survive from one generation to the next, so it’s very hard to know what their lives were really like.

A couple of my ancestors have been particularly elusive to me. I don’t really know their names, other than the last name of one may have been Fallman or Tallman, and he was a photographer who came down to the U.S. through French Canada. I also have an ancestor who was Ojibwa who lived in Pembina. About her, I really know nothing else, other than that she married another ancestor of mine who was a voyageur with the last name of Demarais (or something like that. It eventually was shortened to Demar.)

When reading about Pembina, trying to find out more about this Ojibwa woman, I learned about the Metis, and about the ox cart and Red River trails. It’s quite an important piece of history, and one that doesn’t get a whole lot written about it. That got my imagination working. What was it like to travel from Pembina to St. Paul back in the 1800’s? Had any of my ancestors made that journey? What if they had to make it alone? From that sprang Ox Cart Angel. Even though Fallman/Tallman the photographer never met or knew the Demarais ancestors, I combined them for the sake of the story.

And for some reason, while plotting the story, I kept envisioning the main character, Claire, in an oversized wedding dress that had belonged to her mother, and the people whom she crossed paths with oftentimes felt that she looked angelic dressed this way.

A lot of great material for stories can be found simply by looking back at our past, or the past of our ancestors, and the times and places they lived in.

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Nice Review for Ox Cart Angel!

I recently received a very nice review from Jenna Anderson's Novella & Short Story Reviews blog.


And excerpt from the review:

"The captivating storyline carried me from the first page to the last. At times I was on the edge of my seat and others I was sad, enraged, and awed. More than once I found myself starring blankly at my Kindle screen. Mr. Arnold has a way of painting beautifully detailed scenes and situations. He sets the reader up for deeper thoughts and knocked me out of the story - in a good way. Themes of pioneer days, racism before it was called such, survival, family, beliefs, society were all presented in this middle grade book. I couldn't help but stop and reflect. An author with this skill - especially for young readers - is a fantastic find."
Click here to read the whole thing.

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Squeaky Wheels of the Red River Carts

Squeaky wheels - one of the signature characteristics of the Red River ox carts that hauled bison furs from the Dakota Territory to St. Paul in the early to mid-1800s. They say that the squeaking noise could be heard from two to six miles away. One source even mentioned 10 miles!

And you thought fingernails across a chalkboard were bad! I have heard a sample of a Red River cart wheel turning, and it reminded me of whale song. Kind of mysterious and melancholy. However, that was just one cart. Imagine a train of hundreds of them all moving at the same time!

Why were the ox cart wheels so noisy? It was because the Red River ox carts were made entirely of wood with strips of animal hide to lash the pieces together. The axle - the pole that connects the two giant wheels to the cart - was also made of wood, usually something strong like oak.

The axles couldn't be greased, because grease would pick up all the dust on the trail and quickly wear away the wood. Even so, on a typical trip along the trails and back, a driver would go through multiple axles. They brought spares along because of this.

So...when you have wooden wheels turning on a wooden axle, you've suddenly got a recipe for a loud, continuous squeak.

Why not use a metal axle and metal wheels? There were no Goodyears or Jiffy Lubes on the trails at that time, so the riders had to rely on native, easy-to-find materials - and wood was usually easy to find. If part of the cart broke, a replacement piece could be quickly fashioned, and the noisy ox cart would be on its way again.

The Metis drivers must have had a high tolerance for this noise, or at least got used to it fairly quickly. Can you imagine living along the trails and hearing this noise for hours as an ox cart train passes you by?

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