Red River cart

[1] 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.

Crosspieces hold the floorboards, and front, side and rear boards or rails made of willows or dimensional lumber enclose the box.

Also of seasoned oak is the axle, lashed to the cart by strips of bison hide or "shaganappi" attached when wet, which shrink and tighten as they dry.

The axles connect two spoked wheels, 5 to 6 feet (1.5–1.8 m) in diameter, which are "dished" outward from the hub, in the form of a shallow cone, for extra stability.

[4][2] The resultant squeal sounds like an untuned violin, giving it the sobriquet "the North West fiddle"; one visitor wrote that "a den of wild beasts cannot be compared with its hideousness.

[8] Invented and developed by the Métis and Countryborn peoples the Red River cart became a symbol of their heritage rooted in mobility and social networks.

The Remington Carriage Museum, Cardston, Alberta, also has a full-size replica of a Red River cart,[citation needed] as does Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site in La Junta, Colorado.

[citation needed] The Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta displays a full-size replica of a Red River cart in front of their home in Pembina Hall.