Red River Cart

The Red River cart is a large two-wheeled cart made entirely of non-metallic materials. Often drawn by oxen, though also by horses or mules, these carts were used throughout most of the 19th century in the fur trade and in westward expansion in Canada and the United States, in the area of the Red River and on the plains west of the Red River Colony. The cart is a simple conveyance developed by Métis for use in their settlement on the Red River in what later became Manitoba.

According to the journal of North West Company fur-trader Alexander Henry the younger, the carts made their first appearance in 1801 at Fort Pembina, just south of what is now the Canada–United States border. Derived either from the two-wheeled charettes used in French Canada or from Scottish carts, it was adapted to use only local materials.

Because nails were unavailable or very expensive in the early West, these carts contain no iron at all, being entirely constructed of wood and animal hide. The cart is buoyant and can be floated across streams, yet it is strong enough to carry loads as heavy as 1,000 pounds (450 kg). Two 12-foot-long (3.7 m) parallel oak shafts or "trams" bracket the draft animal in front and form the frame of the cart to the rear. Crosspieces hold the floorboards, and front, side and rear boards or rails enclose the box. These wooden pieces are joined by mortices and tenons. Also of seasoned oak is the axle, lashed to the cart by strips of bison hide or "" attached when wet, which shrink and tighten as they dry. The axles connect two spoked wheels, five or six feet in diameter, which are "dished" or in the form of a shallow cone, the apex of which is at the hub.

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