Peter--all changed the landscape forever. New tracks sprang up all around the Coles. The symbol of industry and expansion may have appeared in the distance as the wagons negotiated the boggy ruts. The use of the trails ended in 1872 when the Northern Pacific was opened to Moorehead, Minnesota. The Coles may have been some of the last pioneers to actually use the trails, and to emigrate by covered wagon.
Once off the ferry and onto the Middle Trail, they aimed for Frazee City. The Middle Trail was composed of several tracks and offshoots. The various tracks evolved during different time periods. How did they know which of the myriad paths to follow? They may have taken the section known as the Stage Road to Sauk Centre and then onto the Old Middle Trail that dipped below the Stage Road. It’s not certain at what point they crossed the Pomme de Terre River. The river flows south from Pomme de Terre Lake, and north of that was Pomme de Terre station on the Stage Road. It was subsequently renamed Fort Pomme de Terre, a more lyrical name than Fort Potato, when it became an active site in the wars against the Dakota.
If they were approaching Fergus Falls south of the
Stage Road, on the Old Middle Trail, they would have had the opportunity to rest at the relatively solid shores of White Bear Lake. The marshy, squishy route had to be wearing on people, not to mention their horses. The area beyond the lake, going towards the Chippewa and Pomme de Terre Rivers, was a pioneer’s nightmare. Wagons often avoided the water-laden, roller-coaster topography by going twenty miles out of the way in order to gain ten miles on the actual trail. And small items were often thrown out of the wagons, often only 4 by 15 feet, to lighten the load. The prairie must still hold some of these belongings, cast off in the cause of progress.
It was well into May as they made this section of the trip. Prairie schooners did not so much sail as lumber across the prairie, over tussocks and through the tall grasses of western Minnesota. The most common plants were the grasses, with their own minute flowers as well as the ground-hugging forbs: prairie violets, violet wood sorrel, yellow-star grass and the slightly taller valerian. If Sarah had kept a journal during the crossing, she might have provided more details of the colors on the prairie, and about her niece’s near-drowning. Too chilly to swim in May, the girl must have fallen in, unable to swim. The incident probably made all the adults extra vigilant about the activities of the children for the remainder of the journey.
Whether they followed the Stage Road the whole way, or took a link onto the Old Middle Trail, they had to get off the main route to go through Fergus Falls. As of 1870 none of the Middle Trail’s branches
