Ramsey County History – Fall 1969: “Norman Kittson and the Fur Trade”

Norman Kittson and the Fur Trade
Authors: Clarence W. Rife and Holly Walters

Few Minnesota pioneers painted on a bigger canvas than Norman Kittson (1814–1888). He traded furs around Fort Snelling in the 1830s, then he moved farther and farther north and west, to Pembina. He battled with the Hudson’s Bay Company (and later worked for it) and established the Red River oxcart caravans in the 1850s. He dealt in St. Paul real estate, served as the city’s mayor and in the territorial legislature. He ran steamboats on the Red River and went into the railroad business with James J. Hill. He built an office building, a hotel, a stable, a race track, and a mansion where the Cathedral of St. Paul stands today. He fathered as many as twenty-six children.
PDF of Kittson article