Any settlement had to have access to supplies as well as transportation. Individuals or families could come from the prairies by wagon, covered wagon, or by foot, but once settled they had to have supplies, and that meant a railhead with connecting trails or roads. The early settlements in western Beltrami County (Clearwater County was not formed until 1903.) were served by Fosston, though some were served by the Northern Pacific at Detroit by way of the Red Lake Trail.
Dr. Charles Vandersluis notes Henry Welte's reporting that "Bob Neving hauled supplies from Fosston on the "old Walker road" which ran from, Fosston and Fertile east to" How's stopping place. He also reported that Freeman Dowd "drove on the Walker road in 1891-94" from Fosston to Bemidji.( Mainly Logging, p.121). These trips would have been on the Fosston Trail since the Fosston County Road had not been authorized at that time.
The first county commissioners had and gave little money for maintenance. Settlers could help where the road went by their claims or draymen could help clear the path; otherwise constant use made the trail clear. Sand, clay, mud, bog, and wet weather added to the travelers' difficulties. Many homesteaders walked, leading their animals.
The travel is so large on the Fosston and Black Duck road that the large hotel of O.A.Nosen, fifteen miles from Fosston, is crow[d]ed to its full capacity most of the time. Mr. Nosen is a favorite with the public and no one will go by his place without stopping.
A few miles beyond Thayers', the road branched. The Red Lake Trail continued north, and the Fosston Trail went east. It crossed the Bagley Dam over the Clearwater River very close to the present Clearwater - Beltrami County line. The road dropped south then followed generally the present Beltrami County 22. There were two stopping places beyond the dam crossing. Berry's or Berrie's, the earlier of the two, was on the Eccles township side of the road; A.P.Blom's Travelers' Rest was on the Liberty township side. The trail continued east until the Big Meadow; one branch, called by Amanda Wickner Grow the Yellowstone Trail, went southeast to Bemidji. (North Country History, III.4 (1986), pp. 13f.
The main trail went northeast past Little Fraction and on to Little Turtle Lake and Buena Vista, where it met the Leech Lake Trail. At Buena Vista by 1896 there were two stopping places: Speelman's Summit Hotel and La Brie's Turtle Lake Hotel. In 1904, Peter Malterud opened a third place, the Scandia Hotel.
At Buena Vista the road continued east and north as the Black Duck County Road. The Fosston Trail was a popular way for those going into the Black Duck country and for those interested in the country north of Little Turtle and Buena Vista.
The Fosston Trail was the most direct route for settlers coming from some areas of southern Minnesota and for travelers coming from North Dakota; otherwise after 1891, the closest railhead for most travelers and for supplies was Park Rapids. Although Park Rapids was the most popular supply point; a large traffic came through Fosston and on to the Fosston Trail.
Mr. [Henry] Langord and I heard there was homestead land east of Red Lake. In the spring of 1893 we packed our knapsacks and canteens (we both belonged to the North Dakota National Guard) and took the train as far as we could go, which at that time was Fosston, Minnesota. From there we had to walk. According to the trails at that time it must have been about one hundred and twenty-five miles to the place I took my homestead [north of Black Duck Lake].We arrived at Fosston in the afternoon, so the first day we walked only five miles and then camped. The second day we walked to a place called Henry Howe's which was later called Klondike. From there we took a wrong trail which led us to the town of Leonard. We continued on this trail until we arrived at Buena Vista near Turtle Lake.
There were almost no settlers east of Fosston. At Buena Vista we connected with the Old Hudson Road [a local term for the Leech Lake Trail]. We found no human beings until we met an old Indian at Buena Vista, but he was of no help as he could not speak English. That evening we met a man by the name of Peterson, a settler, where we were given meager food and lodging.
The third day we struck Red Lake three miles east of Red Lake Agency where we stayed with an Indian priest by the name of Mike Heart . . . .
After three weeks on my homestead I left for Grand Forks and the wheat fields. I walked to Fosston which took me two days and one night, a hundred and twenty-five miles by way of mail route [the Red Lake Trail] from Red Lake. There were only three stopping places on the route, about twenty miles apart. These people were not always home, which was unfortunate for the traveler. My weight at that time was one hundred and thirty-five pounds.
On May 15, 1896 the Chippewa Indian Reservation was opened for homestead settlement and the town of Fosston was filled with oxen drawn carts and covered wagons. People came from Iowa, southern and Central Minnesota. Among them was my mother Jennie and her parents, Ole and Anna Stevenson, who came from Kensington, Minnesota. They traveled about three days through the roadless wilderness on Indian trails with a team of oxen, five chickens and milk cow to their homestead three miles south of present day Clearbrook.
Most of the May, 1896, settlers staked out their claims in the area now in western Clearwater county and eastern Beltrami. Those were the lands most accessible from Fosston. The correspondent of the Fosston Thirteen Towns (May 22) reported particularly on Pine Lake and Winsor Townships, which were on the Polk County line. Many went farther east using the Red Lake Trail. It would have been difficult for new settlers to have gotten much farther on the Fosston Trail. The Thirteen Towns, published in Fosston, on May 22, 1896, reported that "Within the remembrance of early settlers this country has never seen as much rain in the spring of the year as this year." Henry Kolden at Blackduck reported it had rained for eighteen days. The rain made traveling difficult:
Mr. H.A.Langord came back last Monday and reports the roads very bad. He left Fosston with a load of goods and injured one of his horses so that he had to leave it and come home with one horse hitched to a gig. He said that the stage will be on the road in a very short time. (Eagle, May 22, 1896)
The Fosston trail provided a means of those along it to obtain supplies for themselves and for others. A.P.Blom and R.H.Dickinson toted for themselves and for others.(They also toted on the Park Rapids Trail.) Individuals could trek to Fosston and get their own supplies. Carrying flour, salt pork, beans, coffee, sugar, and the like made a heavy load. Jimmy Cyr tells of buying a grindstone in Fosston.
Rest stops -- Nosen's, Howe's, Berrie's, Blom's -- were an important part of the trail. They provided food and shelter for the people travelling, and just as important they provided rest, food, and shelter for the animals. Hedda Blom Mhyre tells how Blom's Traveler's Rest happened to get started.
Settlers were coming in and there was a lot of travel on the road past our place. First thing we knew people were stopping and wanting to stay the night and to get something to eat. Mother let them stay. We had a small brush barn and they put the horses in there, 25 cents to lay on the floor with the horse blankets. They were glad to do that, just so they got the horses in. People took better care of their horses and their cows and everything those days than they do now.That went on, and my father saw the opportunity of what he had there, so he built quite a big log barn and got it ready. That little Axel, he stayed right there and helped take care of the teams and things like that. My Dad got someone to dig a well. I don't remember who.
After he got the barn built and everything, he kept on hauling supplies from Fosston to Bemidji. Bemidji was nothing but an Indian village with their wigwams all over; it was wild! In the middle of town there was a little store to sell to the Indians and my father was hauling supplies for that little store, and for himself. Dickinson was hauling supplies from Park Rapids to Bemidji and my father hauled from there too. It was winter, you know, and the snow was deep, but they kept on hauling anyway. It took over a week to go back and forth, driving the horses.
At first, all supplies were brought into Buena Vista by tote team. I remember my father's making trips to Fosston for his supplies, buying them wholesale and hauling them with team and wagon up the old tote road. This road came almost directly east from Fosston and did not come through Bemidji. One of the stopping places on this road was run by Andrew P. Blom, Carl Blom's father. This road was just two wagon tracks with plenty of mud holes. The sand in some places was from four to five inches deep. I don't remember how long a trip took, but it seemed a long time to us children because Dad always brought home quite a few extras and we were always glad to see him. After the railroad came to Bemidji supplies were toted from there.
The stage between Bemidji and Fosston was driven by Freeman Dowd, one of the early settlers of Turtle Lake and Bemidji. Mrs. Dowd, who had lived in Fosston, was sometimes the driver on the route. Dowd at one time was also the stage operator between Bemidji and Black Duck and Langor.
The hardships the early settlers endured are made clear by Mabel Djonne Seado Forseth's recollections of her father.
There were no roads in that area when my father came and no means of transportation except walking. There were a few well known trails such as the Fosston Trail and another to Park Rapids. My father carried home all his supplies on his back the first few years. I remember him telling that one time he bought a grindstone in Fosston which was much needed to keep such tools as axes, knives, and scythes sharpened. This, of course, was very heavy and he could not carry it all the way home on one trip, so each time he made a trip he would carry it some distance farther and stash it away at some place where he could pick it up on his next trip. I don't know how many trips it took him to get it home, but I am sure he got a lot of use out of it as he had it until he sold the farm sometime in the 1940's.
The Fosston Trail seems to have been the favored route from Bemidji to Fosston.
The roads from Fosston into Beltrami County had short lives, but for six years they were an important link between Beltrami County and southern Minnesota and the life line between Beltrami County, the Red River country, and the west.