Ramsey County History – Fall 1971: “Boats, Carts, Rails, Roads—The Trailways of History”

Boats, Carts, Rails, Roads—The Trailways of History

Descriptions of three early, and vital, St. Paul transportation hubs and tracks: the Lower Landing, the crossroads of the Old Military Road and the Ox Cart Trail, and the Red River Ox Cart Trail. The first was the city’s main steamboat landing, the nexus of commerce into the 1870s. The second was the crossing of the first two main overland commercial “roads,” one leading north from Fort Snelling, the other connecting the St. Paul waterfront with the trading posts of the far northwest. The Red River Ox Cart trail established St. Paul as a major trading center, where furs from the frontier and goods from the rest of the world changed hands.
PDF of Trailways article