IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY

CHAPTER I

HISTORICAL SKETCH AND GENERAL CONDITIONS

Scientists tell us that following the glacial period as the ice melted and retreated toward the north, what is now the Red River Valley was the southern arm of Lake Agassiz, whose surplus water flowed south through Bigstone Lake and the Minnesota River into the Mississippi. This arm of the lake averaged about forty miles in breadth, and, as the ice dam to the north gradually receded, the water in the lake fell. The heavy gravel and sand were deposited on a series of beaches which represent the levels

at which the water stood at different periods. The finer materials, silt and clay, were deposited in the deeper waters. As time went on the level of the lake became lower than the southern outlet and water began to flow northward. Finally, with the disappearance of the ice, the lake became dry, leaving only the Red River of the North with its tributaries flowing into Lake Winnipeg, a representative of the early Lake Agassiz, and finally emptying into Hudson Bay.

The community studied in this survey is located on land previously covered by this pre-glacial lake, and extends to within about seven miles

of the Red River. The country is exceedingly flat, the vision being broken only by timber along the streams, or that planted for windbreaks on the prairie farms. The gradual recessions of the lake explain the soil conditions in this community. In most of the territory covered the soil is a rich, dark, heavy, loam, or "gumbo"; on the east the soil gradually becomes sandy as a low-lying ridge is approached which formed one of the beaches of the early lake. Two tributaries of the Red River, the Marsh and the Wild Rice rivers, flow through the district as shown on the frontispiece map. The Marsh River is a small and rather unimportant stream; the Wild Rice River is a larger river, having its source among the lakes and swamps from eighty to a hundred miles east of the Red River. The beds of both streams are but little below the level of the prairie, and consequently easily overflow their banks, oftentimes causing floods which cover a considerable part of the territory studied.

The Red River Valley was included in the grant to the Hudson's Bay Company when it was formed in 1670.1 During the eighteenth and a large part of the nineteenth century the fur trade was predominant through all this northern country. It was not until 1800 that permanent settlers appeared and cultivated the soil, notably those whom Lork Selkirk brought from Scotland and northern Ireland in 1811. The present boundary between Canada and the United States was not fixed until 1818, and at that time many of the original settlement moved north of the boundary into Canada. Although the fur trade continued to be the most important source of livelihood, farming was carried on to a greater or less degree, increasing gradually during the first half of the nineteenth century. The market for farm products, which consisted largely of vegetables, was toward the north, where the Hudson's Bay Company required large quantities of supplies.

By the early fifties trade began to grow up between this section and southeastern Minnesota, which had just begun to be populated. Cartloads of furs were hauled five hundred miles across country to St. Paul to be exchanged for manufactured articles. In 1857 the Hudson's Bay Company began bringing supplies to Canada in boats by way of the Minnesota River and the Red River of the North, thus augmenting this trade. It is said that there were six thousand carts in use in this traffic by 1858. In 1859 a stagecoach began to operate between the head of navigation and St. Cloud, which was reached by boat from St. Paul. In this same year the first steamer made its appearance on the river. Previous to 1881 Norman County, which includes the territory surveyed, was a part of Polk County. In 1860 the Federal Census showed that Polk County had 2,100 acres of land in farms, of which 400 were improved. The principal crops as measured by the number of bushels in order of their importance were corn (!).

The historical data herein contained were taken largely from The Economic History of the Red River Valley by J. L. Coulter.

potatoes, oats, wheat, and rye. It was also reported that small quantities of butter, cheese, tobacco, maple sugar, barley, hay, and slaughtered animals were produced.

During the Civil War Indian massacres occurred in the Red River Valley; the steamboats stopped running; the stagecoach was attacked and looted; agriculture was abandoned; and the settlements were practically deserted. It was not until after the Civil War that settlers again began to come into the Red River Valley, the westward movement of population in the United States reaching this section about 1870.

Railroad-building began in Minnesota during the War; by 1867 the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad was built to St. Cloud and in 1871 it was pushed through to Breckenridge, thus connecting St. Paul with the head of

Cut Hay

navigation on the Red River. Stagecoaches ran north and south through the valley to Winnipeg, and steamer traffic increased. In 1871 the Northern Pacific was finished across the State from Duluth to Moorhead, only thirty miles south of the locality studied in this survey.

In 1870 there were only 2,206 whites in the Red River Valley south of the international boundary. The census returns for that year showed that agriculture was making inroads on the fur business, and that a diversified system of farming was being developed in the valley. It is curious to note that for the first few years of active settlement diversified farming was the rule. The reasons assigned for this by J. L. Coulter in his Economic History of the Red River Valley were that railroad rates were too high to get grain to market and to bring supplies from distant markets, and that the ravages of grasshoppers discouraged grain culture. The grass

hoppers came in large numbers during the early seventies and all possible attempts were made to eradicate this pest. Finally in 1877 they suddenly disappeared and have never come again in numbers large enough to do any considerable harm. This period of diversified agriculture lasted until about 1876.

Then came the one-crop system and the bonanza farms for which the Red River Valley is famous. The Dalrymple farms on the Dakota side were first cultivated in 1876. The Grandin and others were started soon after. Although the region surrounding Ada was never included in any of these immense farms, one of the Grandin farms is only about fifteen miles to the west. The fame of these bonanza farms quickly spread, causing an influx of settlers and a mania for large farms and grain culture. The bonanza farm, however, was the exception; there were comparatively few that ran over two or three thousand acres apiece. The land in the particular district covered by the survey was taken up by comparatively small farmers, although a farm of five hundred acres in those days was not considered a large farm.

RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT

In 1872 there were three steamers and six barges on the river. In that year tracks were first laid northward through the valley from Glyndon on the Northern Pacific through Ada, and to a point north of Crookston on the Red Lake River. A few trains were run this first season, but the road was closed for the winter. A flat car with masts and sails was constructed by the settlers, who thereby transported such necessaries as they needed. Trains continued to be run only in summer for four or five years, the panic of 1873 retarding railroad operations, but not appreciably retarding the incoming of settlers.

By 1878 the St. Paul and Pacific was continued northward to the Canadian boundary, meeting the Canadian Pacific at that point. Winnipeg was now connected by railroad with Minneapolis and St. Paul. The day of the stage-coach and the river steamer was over.

Mr. J. J. Hill had been engaged in the river traffic since 1871. In 1879 he reorganized the north and south line under the name of St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway, and began to develop the system which later became the Great Northern. In that year through connection was made to Minneapolis and St. Paul via Fergus Falls.

Further railroad developments that particularly affected the district with which we are concerned were the building in 1883-1884 of a branch line north from Moorhead along the river to Halstad only fourteen miles west of Ada. Finally another north and south line, now the Northern Pacific, was built fourteen miles east of Ada in 1886. The building of these two lines on the west and east respectively reduced the territory tribu

tary to Ada, which has never become the important city that the early settlers hoped. For many years they thought that an east and west line. would make the town a junction point, and frequent rumors to this effect persisted even until the early nineties. No such road has ever materialized, however, and the village remains the shipping and supply point of a farming community which is more or less restricted in area, due to the presence. of railroads fourteen miles away on either side.

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS

The principal facts with regard to the general organization of agriculture and the changes that have taken place since 1890 are shown in the tables below, which are compiled from United States census returns for Norman County, in which county the community under consideration is located. For comparative purposes the figures for 1910 include also Mahnomen County, which was formed from a part of Norman County in 1906.

TABLE I

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF NORMAN COUNTY FOR 1890, 1900, AND 1910 (INCLUDING MAHNOMEN COUNTY FOR 1910)

The average size of farms in the county has been increasing, while the actual number of farms has decreased between 1900 and 1910. The average size of farms included in the survey is 291.2 acres, or 50 acres larger than the average for the county. Eighteen of the 201 farms visited have 500 acres or more, and one has 1,000 acres. Many of the farmers are "land crazy," and seem to have an ambition to add to their acreage.

The value of land and improvements in the county has increased from an average of $10.27 per acre in 1890 to $38.23 in 1910. The value of land in farms covered by this survey in 1913 ranged from $40 to $60 or $70 per acre, with an approximate average of $50 per acre. Improved land constitutes 70.2 per cent of the area of the farms visited. It will be noticed from the census figures in the table above that the total value of