While on vacation, I was trying to explain to my cousin, who has lived in Iowa his entire life, that the Red
River runs north. The more I explained it to him, the more confused he became.
After explaining it another way regarding elevation, he was able to grasp on to the fact that yes, the Red
River of the North, flows north into Lake Winnipeg and finally into Hudson Bay.
That goes for any tributary in the Hudson Bay drainage including the Des Lacs River, the Souris River,
the Goose River, the Pembina River, the Sheyenne River, the Tongue River, the Turtle River, the Bois de Sioux River, the Forest River, the Maple River and the Park River.
There are other creeks and rivers on the Minnesota side that also drain into the Red. The Hudson Bay drainage lao includes Lake Traverse, the southernmost part of the Hudson Bay drainage located near the town of Browns Valley, Minn., and very near the South Dakota state line.
That north flowing river is what actually got the northern part of Dakota Territory established. In 1797, the Northwest Company located a fort on the Red River and the community of Pembina sprang up as did a competing Hudson’s Bay Company fort on the east side of the river, which later became Noyes, Minnesota.
The establishment of Pembina happened six years before the Louisiana Purchase. But it wouldn’t have mattered because the entire Hudson Bay drainage wasn’t part of the Louisiana Purchase. In other words, all the rivers named above weren’t part of Jefferson’s grand vision.
So, from 1803 until 1818, when the Canadian border was established, that slice of northern North Dakota was neither United States or Canada, but was part of British America and it was called Rupert’s Land.
When the Hudson’s Bay Company was established in 1670, it had exclusive right to the area that includes the geography of North Dakota around Grand Forks, Minot, Fargo and Bottineau. In 1811, a good portion of Rupert’s Land was renamed the Red River Settlement and when the 49th Parallel became the international boundary in 1818, the Red River Settlement on the U.S. side, became part of the Minnesota Territory.
As most of us know, Dakota Territory was established in 1861 and when those boundaries were set, Minnesota relinquished it’s portion of Rupert’s Land to Dakota Territory. By that time, Pembina and St. Joseph, which later became known as Walhalla, were thriving communities. Others that got started early on were Fort Abercrombie, 1858, Grand Forks, 1870 and Fargo, 1871.
In addition, Pembina County was the first county in North Dakota, that initially encompassed a good portion of northeastern North Dakota.
On July 1, 1867, the nation of Canada was formed, but the Red River Settlement sat smack dab in the middle of the country and gobbled up 39 million acres of mostly Manitoba and Ontario, and formerly that sliver of North Dakota. In 1870, Canada purchased the Red River Settlement from the Hudson’s Bay Company and it was dissolved.
It goes without saying that the Red River had a parallel purpose back in those days. Major Métis cart trails followed the Red and beyond.
In the 1870s, there were cart trails all over western Canada that started as far west as the Rocky Mountains and all pushed south and east to the Red River Settlement, which by 1860 was known as Winnipeg.
From Winnipeg, two trails led south. One followed the Red as far south as about Wahpeton before turning east and going into St. Paul. The other went from Winnipeg to St. Joseph, then angled its way into Minnesota and down to St. Paul. There appeared to be one route going back to Winnipeg or the Red River Settlement. It almost always went through Grand Forks and St. Joseph.
Most of us think there wasn’t much happening back in those early Dakota Territory days. But there were things happening in addition to the Métis cart trails. The railroad reached Fargo, Father Bellecourt came to the area to minister to settlers and Manitoba Rebellion leader Louis Riel was holed up at the Gingras Trading Post near Walhalla.
It was also the time of the Civil War so numerous Army posts were popping up in the Missouri River drainage, and the northern part of Dakota Territory began to grow rapidly.
