In case you do not know, our title, The Oxcart, was chosen because it is a historical reference to the founding of the region. In the 1840s oxcart trains would move furs from the Hudson Bay Co.’s Red River Colony near Pembina to the Mississippi River at Minneapolis-Saint Paul in order to transport the furs to the east coast and to Europe. The ox cart trains would then carry much needed supplies back to the Red River Colony.

 

By the mid-19th Century, the Red River Ox Cart trail had three different trails — the Woods, the Middle (East Plains), and the Western Plains. The Middle/East Plains Trail ran right through what is presently known as the Saint Cloud urban area.

 

The bluffs above the Mississippi River upon which the Saint Cloud urban area now sits was a kind of waystation where the oxcart trains – sometimes composed of hundreds of individual oxcarts – would often camp overnight. It was at the convergence of the Sauk River and the Mississippi River near Sauk Rapids that the Middle/East Plains and the Woods ox cart trails would join and follow the Mississippi River south to its final destination.

By the 1870s, the ox cart trains had largely ceased operations due to a decline in the fur trade market as well as the use of steamboats to transport goods up and down the river. Since that time, the old ox cart trails have undergone several transformations including being used for farmland and railroad travel.

 

Today, portions of the ox cart trails have been developed as regional recreational trails — allowing residents and visitors the opportunity to enjoy the scenic views of the region and retrace part of our area’s history.

 

To us, The Oxcart is symbolic of the intertwining of transportation and economic development that modern transportation modes still serve. A nod to both our region’s history and the important connections this area continues to make.