Transportation Frontier
The Iron Road
Chapters 8 & 9
Transportation
Essential Idea:
0 Various modes of transportation contributed to the
settlement of North Dakota.
I can Statements:
0 I can identify the various types of transportation
and their role in ND settlement
0 I can identify the technological advances and types
of transportation and their impact on the economy
Various Types of Transportation
0 Red River (Ox) Cart
0 Steamboat
0 Stagecoach
0 Railroad
Red River (Ox) Cart
0 Invented by the Metis (mixed blood-Indian & European)
Advantages:
0 One of the earliest vehicles for moving trade goods
0 Easily built-made entirely of wood
0 Could haul up to 1,000 pounds
0 Carts could be linked using bison hide to form a brigade (10 carts)
Disadvantage:
0 Very Noisy and slow
0 Pulled by an ox
0 breaking wheels and getting stuck in the sand or mud
0 Couldn’t haul items long distances
0 Often raided by highwaymen
Who Influenced Red River Carts
System?
0 Joe Rolette: first trader to use the carts to send
goods from the Red River Valley to MN
0 Duty: tax on foreign goods entering the US
Steamboats
0 The “first highways of ND” were the rivers
0 Anson Northup: First person to put a steamboat on
the Red River called the Northstar, later renamed it
Anson Northup, awarded a $2,000 prize
Advantages:
0 Trade over longer distances
0 brought early explorers, fur traders & white settlers to
ND
0 Faster and safer way to travel
0 shallow drafted: did not sit more than 3 feet in the water
Disadvantages:
0 Only available where there was water
0 Got stuck on sandbars-grasshoppering: process of
releasing a steamboat off the sandbar
0 Yellowstone: first steamboat operated by the American Fur
Company in ND
0 Far West Steamboat piloted by Captain Grant Marsh
Carried wounded soldiers and brought the news to
the telegraph station in Bismarck of Custer’s defeat at
the Battle of Little Bighorn
Steamboat Terms
0 “Big Muddy”: nickname for the Missouri River
0 Flatboat: barges that used the river current for power
0 Packet: smaller boat, powered by a gasoline engine
0 Pilot: person who charted the course of the boat as it
steamed its way on the river
0 Mast poles: 2 large poles attached to the front of a
steamboat which included 2 other long pole with lines
attached. Used the poles to get the boat off a sandbar.
Steamboats on the Red River
Stagecoach
Advantages:
0 Carried passengers to areas where there weren’t towns or
steamboat access
0 Could carry a heavy load of both passengers and cargo
0 Deadwood, SD during the gold rush in the Black Hills
Disadvantages:
0 Four horses to pull a stagecoach
0 Robberies
0 Horses grew tired after a certain point so you had to halt
periodically to rest or replace the horses
0 Hours of bumping along in the dust and heat to arrive at your
destination
Railroad
0 Nicknamed the “Iron Horse”
0 The railroad brought about the decline of the
steamboat and stagecoach.
Advantages:
0 Most important factor in bringing settlers to the state
0 Only dependable means of moving both people, freight,
commodities
0 Transcontinental-railway connection across the continent
Disadvantage:
0 Spewed clouds of smoke and the strong odors of burning wood
were not pleasant
0 Expensive to build the lines
0 3 Railroad companies: Northern Pacific, Great
Northern, Soo Line built most of the lines in ND
0 Northern Pacific Railroad: first railroad to cross
ND-June 1872
0 First crossing of the Missouri River was the RR
0 Congress gave the NP over 10 million acres of land
0 Encouraged colonies of people
0 Branch lines: stations built 5-6 miles apart,
built to serve communities not on the main line
track, also important for hauling grain
0 Land grant: money given to the railroads to
build rails for the Transcontinental Railroad