River Road History

The winter of 1831-32, Joseph Renshaw Brown built an Indian Trading Post on the St Croix River about where Wolf Creek joins the river. This post was on the MN bank of the river, but within a decade, a trading post was located on the Wisconsin bank, near where Wolf Creek is now located. It served as an Indian trading post as well as a river road stopping place.

In 1837 a treaty was signed by the US Government with the Ojibwe Indians that allowed logging in the upper St Croix valley. The valley was filled with millions of white and red pine trees, that were in huge demand in cities down the St Croix and Mississippi rivers.

Almost no one lived in the area other than Native Americans and a few traders before that. Suddenly many logging crews moved in and started cutting the pines.

There were no local farms to support the loggers with food and no local stores for supplies. All came from the south up the Mississippi by steam boat and on north as far at the falls on the St Croix where rapidly a town of Taylors Falls and St Croix Falls sprang up.

Above the falls about 6 miles were rapids that also were prevented navigation. So at the falls, food and supplies were unloaded onto wagons and in winter bobsleds for transportation to the logging camps in the north.

The road from St Croix northward along the river, followed old Indian trails, widened to allow a team of oxen and their load. Oxen traveled about 2-3 miles per day, and horses who came later, 6-10 miles per day. To accommodate the teamsters early settlers built stopping places, houses and barns with extra room for the travelers.

For more about the River Road