Talk:Red River Trails

Red River Trails is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on March 30, 2009.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
November 4, 2008	Featured article candidate	Promoted

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on May 4, 2007.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ...that for fifty years the Red River Trails were used by Red River ox carts as the principal means of transportation between modern-day Winnipeg, Manitoba and St Paul, Minnesota?

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A note on sources[edit]

While an effort has been made to include a variety of sources, the definitive history of the trails is the publication of the Minnesota Historical Society by Rhoda Gilman et al. entitled Red River Trails, which is cited over two dozen times. (Google Books reproduces parts of this work.) And at least one of the other sources which postdate that work relies on it. (The Hess NHRP form, listed in the references, clearly relies on Gilman's book.) Although not lengthy, the Gilman book is richly sourced, and is based on extensive research into old records, including orginal surveys, railroad plats, and letters from pioneer users of the trails. It "occupies the field" as a comprehensive history of the trails, and to suppress some of the citations to it, in favor of derivative or less scholarly works, would be a disservice to a reader who wants to research further. Kablammo (talk) 01:35, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Varieties of English[edit]

The article was originally written in American English, but was changed to Canadian English spellings. While the Red River Trails were of regional importance in the United States, they may be said to have been of national importance in Canada, for the reasons discussed in the article. Kablammo (talk) 01:35, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Song[edit]

Excellent article, very well written and comprehensive. Even though I'm a native of L'Étoile du Nord, I knew little about the Red River Trails.

One question: Wouldn't it be appropriate to mention the Red River Valley (song)?

Sca (talk) 16:02, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If a good source links the song to the trails and you can work that into the article, please do so. Jonathunder (talk) 19:56, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I was never aware of the possible connection with Red River "of the North". (Mitch Miller never mentioned that!) I do not see any specific connection to use of the trails. The song may be associated with the Wolseley Expedition, which as a military expedition was unable to cross US territory, so it used the Dawson Road rather than the Red River trails.[1] Perhaps mention of the song should go on the Red River Valley page. Kablammo (talk) 14:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Trish Lewis 21:49, 12 January 2010 (UTC) - This is what I have discovered in my own research on the song: As was shown by the research of Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke, the song originated among British troops who came to Manitoba, the Red River Valley of the North, to put down the Metis rebellion of the late 1860s. Like "Fraulein" and all the other soldier's-sweetheart songs that were popular country standards in Cold-War America and on Armed Forces Radio, "Red River Valley" is a song of military occupation. - From the The Great Plains Songbook[reply]

Lubrication[edit]

What would a teflon axle collar or some powdered graphite have fetched, had they existed then ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.218.201.141 (talk • contribs) 19:26, March 30, 2009

MW2010[edit]

When I was at the Museums and the Web 2010 conference last week, I met someone from the Minnesota Historical Society and I was happy to be able to tout Wikipedia using this article - he was impressed by it. Hopefully we'll be able to recruit people from their Society to write articles, contribute references, etc. :) Awadewit (talk) 19:07, 20 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for this pleasant note! The Historical Society is older than the state, and had amongst its founders some of the territory's influential pioneers. There is at least one employee of the MHS in Wikipedia, and it would be great to cooperate with others at the society to develop further articles. Kablammo (talk) 20:11, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Possible additional sources[edit]

Compendium of History and Biography of Central and Northern Minnesota, G.A. Ogle & Co., Chicago 1904

External links modified[edit]

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Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080220000512/http://www.info.co.clay.mn.us/history/cart_squeak.htm to http://www.info.co.clay.mn.us/History/cart_squeak.htm

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The archive link has the text, but not the sound which was the purpose of the cite. I will look for a substitute. Kablammo (talk) 22:15, 1 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

urls checked and updated where needed. Kablammo (talk) 16:50, 29 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified (February 2018)[edit]

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I have just modified 3 external links on Red River Trails. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

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urls checked and updated where needed. Kablammo (talk) 16:50, 29 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Merge with Pembina Trail article?[edit]

I would like to suggest the merging of the Pembina Trail article into this one, under it's own subheading. I think it would be more beneficial to have the history and descriptions of the major trails in one place to create cohesiveness and avoid repetition. As well, the Pembina Trail article on it's own is very short. S.cacciotti (talk) 05:00, 29 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sort of neutral on the idea; I don't know the topics well enough to have a stronger opinion. I think that the big question is whether or not Pembina should stay as a sub-article of this one. A few notes: if a merge is decided, it would take some work to nicely merge it in, since it already has some coverage in this article. I'd be happy to work on that. Sincerely, North8000

This is a Featured Article, and any additions to it should not endanger that status. I oppose a merger, at least until we see what is intended to be merged. It may well be that a fully-developed article one on part of the trails is too much detail for this overview, and should be separate. Kablammo (talk) 15:48, 30 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"Pembina Trail" also has been used to refer to the Red River Trail in what is now Minnesota. Gunderson, Dan, "Reliving 150-year-old history a step, and a creak, at a time". MPR News, June 7, 2022. Kablammo (talk) 05:51, 8 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]