The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-05-13
The Rsd.River Valley Il tho North.

The Red.River Valley u the North.
Dismiss from your mind all the asso-
Citations that are called up by this word.
Understand that in the West q valley is
not necessarily s' q hollow between hills
or mountains" That is narrow East
ern conception. As we looked out
from the car window for the first time
upon this famous valley, we saw
broad level plain covered with short
grass. and flooded by the rising sun
with red and golden light. Doubtless
there were hills somewhere in the
world, but they were invisible. Far
away on the left dim blue line of tim
Der marked the course of the Red River,
and another line far in front of US indi-
Gated the approach of q tributary
stream. This was all that broke the
lake-like expanse. We realized at once
what we had heard before, that it was,
IN TACT. lake without any water in it.
A few words will explain the charac-
ter and probable formation of the Red
River Valley. 1t is about three hum
dred miles long and fifty miles wide-a
hat prairie, extending northward from
Lake Traverse, in Minnesota, until it
passes by a gentle slope beneath the
water of Lake Winnipeg. About thirty
miles north of the southern and higher
extremity of the valley the Red River
comes meandering in from the east. 1t
is sluggish stream, flowing in ditch
in the middle of the prairie, and is al
together inadequate in size and force to
have made the valley which bears its
name. When we seek an explanation
of this vast alluvial plain, we must find
. much larger body of water to account
for its formation, and this is done by
the theory which connects it with the
great Mississippi system. There are
many indications that the whole
drainage of this region was at
one time southwark. The valley
OF the Mississippi, with its true line of
continuation along the Minnesota, must
have formerly contained a vastly larger
body of water than now flows through
it. This valley, beginning at Big Stone
Lake, is separated only by a slight bar
rier from Lake Traverse. Now imagine
that a few thousand years ago the level
of the continent was little different
from what it is now, q few hundred feet
higher at the north and lower at the
south, then this barrier would be over
come, and all the waters of the VIM
nipeg Basin would flow southwark
through the Red River and Minnesota
Valley into the Mississippi. The pres
ent northward outlet through the Mel
son River would be stopped. There
would be mighty stream draining the
whole central region of the continent
into the Gulf of Mexico. Now imagine,
again, that the continent is gradually
depressed at the north and elevated at
the south-a change which we know
from observation Is still continuing
along the sea-coast; the result of such
an oscillation will be to diminish the
slope and velocity of the great south
ward river. 1t will have less and less
power to cut its way through obstacles.
1t will be damned by the granite lodges
out into a vast lake larger than Superior
and Michigan put together. The wa
tiers of this lake will be shallow and
muddy, and the deposit of alluvium
very rapid. As the northward depress-
ion continues the outlet toward the
south will become more and more fee
BILE. 1t will degenerate into mere
driblet. And at last the great body OF
water will cut a new channel northward
into Hudson BAY. The Nelson River,
with its rocky channel and numerous
rapids, bears all the marks of an outlet
thus recently formed.
This is but rough and hasty ontlin
of the theory which has been advanced
by General OK. Warren, of the United
States Engineer Corps, and supported by
him in series of admirable reports.
It may seem dry, but it offers an ex-
PLANTATION of two very important facts
the immense fertility of this ancient
lake bed, which is now called the Red
River Valley, and the impossibility of
route from Manitoba, through the
Nelson River and Hudson Bay, to En-
gland. These facts have direct bear
ing on the commercial welfare of the
United States for they put the trans
portation of the products of the rich
Northwest into the hands of our railways
and steamboats,.
More than two-thirds of the Red Riv.
er Valley lies in Minnesota and Dakota;
the remaining third is in the British
Province of Manitoba. Two railroads
have been opened into the valley with
in the past six years-the St. Paul,
Minneapolis & Manitoba, which now
runs parallel with the river to st. Vim
cent, on the British border, where it
connects with the Pembina branch of
the Canadian Pacific to Winnipeg, and
the Northern Pacific, which crosses the
valley at right angles, and opens up
the wonderfully fertile land lying on the
west side of the river, in Dakota
Henry j. Fan Dyke, Jr., in Harper
Magazine for May,