Once you are inside the stockade walls, you will notice that the location of each building at Fort Abercrombie is clearly marked by a post at each of the building's corners.  The grass inside these corner posts is allowed to grow freely and has not been mowed.  This concept is called foot printing.  The building's footprint allows us to see the shape and size of the building or buildings that would have been located at a particular location or area in the fort.

Our trail of discovery begins on the Old Red River Ox Cart Trail.  This Trail was used from 1844 to 1857.  The Red River Ox Cart Trail ran from Pembina, North Dakota, which is in the northern Red River Valley down through Minnesota to St. Paul.

The Ox Carts used on the Red River Ox Cart Trail were very unique.  As far as researchers can tell, they were the only carts of their kind in the world.  The carts were made primarily of oak and cost about $15.00 to make.  They could carry a large number of furs or supplies.  Weights of a thousand pounds per cart were not uncommon.  The Red River Ox Carts were pulled by an ox or a horse and ran tandem, two three, or more carts together with a driver for each three to five carts.    The drivers were called, "boisbrule" and they were half-breeds.  Their ancestry was Indian, Scottish, and French.

The Ox Carts could be heard five miles away when they were traveling on the trail because of their squeaky wheels, and they would sometimes travel as many as 200 carts in a line at a one time.

In 1857, the Red River Ox Cart Trail became known as the U.S. Military Road. By 1859, it was shown as such on most maps.  It is also referred to as the Road to Fort Totten.

As we enter the fort, the first structure to our right within the stockade walls is the Granary. A granary is simply a storehouse for grain. It was twenty-eight feet long by twenty feet wide and like many of the buildings on the post, the granary was constructed of rough hewn oak logs, of the type that we will observe in the original Guardhouse later. 

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 James V. Acker, Pres.

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