The Red River Valley is a "vast plain, twenty-five to fifty miles wide and 300 miles long, lying half in Minnesota and half in North Dakota, thence continuing into Manitoba and so stretching from Lake Traverse and Breckenridge north to Lake Winnipeg." A variety of authors contributed to this massive, two-volume set, which examines a wide range of topics including: geographical history, topography, development, the Old Settlers' Association, biographical sketches of Old Setters, botanical investigations, agriculture, Norwegians and Icelanders, Indians, the Sioux War, higher education, the river cart, boating, railroads, lumber and timber, the Hudson Bay Fur Company, churches, newspapers, political history, the National Guard of North Dakota, and more...This comprehensive work is completed by a section of brief biographical sketches. The sketches are arranged alphabetically by surname, some with portraits. An index to full names, places and subjects; and numerous photographs of people and places enhance the text.

The 1st volume (1896) includes important publications of 1895.

The many difficulties and occasional rewards of early travel and transportation in Minnesota are highlighted in this book, along with the state's relations with what became western Canada and insights into the development of business in Minnesota. The meeting of Indian and European cultures is vividly manifested by the mixed-blood Mtis who became the mainstay of the Red River trade.

Vols. 2-6 include the 19th-23d Biennial reports of the Society, 1915/16-1923/24 (in v. 2-3 as supplements, in v. 4-6 as extra numbers)

Winner, 2017 Oklahoma Book Award, sponsored by the Oklahoma Center for the Book Winner, 2016 Outstanding Book on Oklahoma History, sponsored by the Oklahoma Historical Society At the beginning of America’s Great Depression, Texas and Oklahoma armed up and went to war over a 75-cent toll bridge that connected their states across the Red River. It was a two-week affair marked by the presence of National Guardsmen with field artillery, Texas Rangers with itchy trigger fingers, angry mobs, Model T blockade runners, and even a costumed Native American peace delegation. Traffic backed up for miles, cutting off travel between the states. This conflict entertained newspaper readers nationwide during the summer of 1931, but the Red River Bridge War was a deadly serious affair for many rural Americans at a time when free bridges and passable roads could mean the difference between survival and starvation. The confrontation had national consequences, too: it marked an end to public acceptance of the privately owned ferries, toll bridges, and turnpikes that threatened to strangle American transportation in the automobile age. The Red River Bridge War: A Texas-Oklahoma Border Battle documents the day-to-day skirmishes of this unlikely conflict between two sovereign states, each struggling to help citizens get goods to market at a time of reduced tax revenue and little federal assistance. It also serves as a cautionary tale, providing historical context to the current trend of re-privatizing our nation’s highway infrastructure.