In the 1840s and 1850s, Old Crossing was a ford (crossing) of the Red Lake River in Minnesota used by Red River ox cart trains traveling from Pembina and Fort Garry in the Red River Colony in Canada to St. Paul, Minnesota. After negotiating the sometimes dangerous crossing, the cart trains used this area as a regular layover and resting site on the “Pembina” or “Woods” trail. Old Crossing became the location of the Treaties of Old Crossing where the Ojibwe were induced to cede the land known as the Red River Valley of the North to the United States. A statue now memorializes this event.