Ramsey County History – Spring/Summer 1975: “How St. Paul Came to Lose the “Red River War””

How St. Paul Came to Lose the “Red River War”
Author: Dennis Hoffa

The Selkirk or Red River Colony, later Winnipeg, so far from St. Paul, was a vital source of commerce and wealth in the city’s first few decades. Starting in 1844, the ox carts trundled south laden with furs, then north again piled with supplies purchased from St. Paul merchants. The St. Paul trade route at first competed with and then conquered, the Hudson’s Bay Company’s northern route. In 1858 the Company adopted the southern route, enriching St. Paul still further. The Red River Colony was so important that prominent Minnesotans pushed for its annexation in the 1860s. When the Hudson’s Bay Company ceded the Colony to Canada in 1869, Louis Riel launched a rebellion in opposition. Both annexation and rebellion failed; the colony became part of Canada in 1870.
PDF of Hoffa article