Although I wasn’t familiar with the Red River trails, observed by Karl and used by the fur trade companies in the 1800s, I did know about the Red River Valley.
The Red River is almost 900km long, starting around the Minnesota and North Dakota border, flowing north through Manitoba into Lake Winnipeg. The river is between a broad valley at the bottom of a former glacial lake — Lake Agassiz. During the ice age, the lake started as ice and then melted back up to Canada, leaving a low flat plain and the Red River.
As a result of this glacial lake, rich mineral deposits in the Red River Valley produced fertile soil, which became quality agricultural land. This farmland is known as the “breadbasket of the world” from the significant production of corn and wheat.
This is our last Karl Chronicle in the midwest as we leave the Red River Valley and journey into Canada. And this is how I knew about the Red River Valley, from that song — the old folk song I’m sure most Canadian students learned in grade school:
From this valley they say you are going,
I shall miss your bright eyes and sweet smile,
For alas you take with the sunshine
That has brightened my pathway awhile.
Chorus:
Come and sit by my side if you love me,
Do not hasten to bid me adieu.
But remember the Red River Valley
And the girl who has loved you so true.
For this long, long time I have waited
For the words that you never would say,
But now my last hope has vanished
When they tell me you’re going away.
When you go to your home by the ocean
May you never forget the sweet hours
That we spent in the Red River Valley
Or the vows we exchanged mid the bowers.
Will you think of the valley you’re leaving?
Oh, how lonely and dreary ’twill be!
Will you think of the fond heart you’re breaking
And be true to your promise to me.
The dark maiden’s prayer for her lover
To the spirit that rules o’er the world
His pathway with sunshine may cover
Leave his grief to the Red River girl.
There could never be such a longing
In the heart of a white maiden’s breast
As dwells in the heart you are breaking
With love for the boy who came west.
There’s been a lot of research into the origins of this song, made more complicated by the fact there are two Red River Valleys — the one we travelled through in North America and one in the South (New Mexico and Texas). But there is evidence documenting knowledge of the song in at least five Canadian provinces by 1896 confirming that it was indeed was about the northern Red River Valley.
The research speculates the song was about the sadness of a local woman (possibly a Métis) as her lover leaves the valley to return home to the east. This man may have been a soldier or an employee from the large fur companies. The original folksong transpired during the settlement of America in the late 1800s when the First Nations were displaced when the fur traders arrived.
The lyrics were adapted and first recorded by an American in 1926 and became known as the “Cowboy Love Song.” There’s no reference in Karl’s letters of this song, but it’s likely that he also learned this song in grade school. So I imagine that he hummed or sang this song while pedaling his bicycle crossing Pembina, North Dakota, into Emerson, Manitoba.
This song has been recorded continuously since 1926, so I’ve put together a short compilation playlist for you, dear reader. In the playlist, you can hear versions of the Red River Valley as sung by: Roy Rogers, Stevie Nicks with Chris Issaks, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives and George Strait. There are many more versions, but after five you may be wanting to get to the last song on the playlist, Johnny Cash, singing Please Don’t Play Red River Valley.
Let me know in your comments if you learned the song in school and your favourite version.
