Old Crossing Treaty Park lies at the confluence of the Red Lake and
the Black River and is 13.5 miles (21.8 km) downstream from Red Lake
Falls. There are several amenities in the park including boat ramp
access, picnic tables, drinking water, and toilets. There are two
units to the park, one just north of the boat ramp and one at the
boat ramp. Adjacent to the park is a DNR Wildlife Management Area
where hiking and wildlife watching opportunities exist. Across the
river is the 40-acre Huot School Forest, owned by the University of
Minnesota, managed by the Crookston Campus. At average water levels,
the journey takes about 4 hours. The current can be swift and flows
through several Class II rapids, making travel faster pace. Canoeing
at low water levels will be difficult.
Excerpt from "The Red Lake
River" by J-D Huot-Vickery © July 2001
This small park (once a state park, now a Red Lake County Park) was
the site of an 1863 treaty between the U.S. government and Red Lake/Pembina
Ojibwe in which the Ojibwe cede about 11,000,000 acres of the Red
River Valley (an area approximately 180 miles long north-to-south,
and 127 miles wide) for $510,000 and various goods, provisions, and
presents.
In 1932 the site was commemorated with
a life-sized bronze statue of a Chippewa/Ojibwe man holding a peace
pipe. This same site was well-known even before the treaty. For about
30 years in the mid-1800s it was the chosen location by oxcart drivers--freighting
goods on the Pembina Trail between St. Paul and today's Winnipeg--to
cross/ford the Red Lake River.
A box nailed to a cottonwood tree (taken
out in 2000 by lightening; the stump is still standing) was used for
mail exchange by Pembina Trail travelers. For the last 20 years, Old
Crossing Treaty Park has been used by L'Association des Francais du
Nord/The association of the French of the North (AFRAN) to host a
multi-cultural Chautauqua and French Festival in late August. The
festival involves native Americans and Canadians, Metis, Red River
Valley residents of French-Canadian descent, and people of other ethnic
heritage.
