bink and I drove 60 miles north of the Twin Cities, through the cornfields...
to the North West Co. Fur Post, from 1804.
The British company (out of Montreal) hired French-Canadian voyageurs. They paddled canoes 12 hours a day, at 50 to 60 strokes a minute.
This was the farthest-south post of the Great Lakes fur trade. Door hinges, nails, and the like had to be canoed in.
Beaver pelts were the point, but they bought everything from skunk to bear fur.
Local Ojibwe men caught the animals. The women bound branches into circular frames for preparing the furs.
The Voyageurs were poorly paid laborers.
Their travel rations were corn and grease.
The company's officers were educated British men.
Trade goods included glass beads from Italy, ostrich feathers from North Africa, and rum from the West Indies.
English sheep and mill workers produced textiles for trade. The red marks indicate how many beaver pelts a blanket is worth.
During the winter trading season, the Ojibwe lived near the post in wigwams, which means "birch houses".
They sewed sheets of birchbark into housing material.
And stalks of cattails into mats.
________
Me, below, holding a beaver pelt, wearing a gentleman's beaver top hat. These expensive hats, made from beavers' soft undercoat, were the main driving force behind the whole shebang. I'd read copiously about these things for the French and Indian War book, but had never even touched one before. I was so hepped up being there, I didn't even mind the 94 degrees, 80% humidity heat.
bink twirling in a coat an Ojibwe hunter had bought from the British in trade.
to the North West Co. Fur Post, from 1804.
The British company (out of Montreal) hired French-Canadian voyageurs. They paddled canoes 12 hours a day, at 50 to 60 strokes a minute.
This was the farthest-south post of the Great Lakes fur trade. Door hinges, nails, and the like had to be canoed in.
Beaver pelts were the point, but they bought everything from skunk to bear fur.
Local Ojibwe men caught the animals. The women bound branches into circular frames for preparing the furs.
The Voyageurs were poorly paid laborers.
Their travel rations were corn and grease.
The company's officers were educated British men.
Trade goods included glass beads from Italy, ostrich feathers from North Africa, and rum from the West Indies.
English sheep and mill workers produced textiles for trade. The red marks indicate how many beaver pelts a blanket is worth.
During the winter trading season, the Ojibwe lived near the post in wigwams, which means "birch houses".
They sewed sheets of birchbark into housing material.
And stalks of cattails into mats.
________
Me, below, holding a beaver pelt, wearing a gentleman's beaver top hat. These expensive hats, made from beavers' soft undercoat, were the main driving force behind the whole shebang. I'd read copiously about these things for the French and Indian War book, but had never even touched one before. I was so hepped up being there, I didn't even mind the 94 degrees, 80% humidity heat.
bink twirling in a coat an Ojibwe hunter had bought from the British in trade.
Great photos! It wasn't that long ago, was it?
ReplyDeleteI just don't quite grok how people survived the winter in this area before the advent of down coats.
What fun! I love that history museum stuff. You both look natty in your yesteryear garb.
ReplyDeleteOh kewl!
ReplyDeleteTree-sewing!
. . . the long-fingered human re-sourcing, in-venting.
(your next blog-mission must be done wearing a top-hat)
MOMO: Yeah, in the imaginable past.
ReplyDeleteI think fur is at least as warm as down.
But no central heating... The British gents got their own fireplaces, but the Voyaguers didn't.
Wigwams had a central fire, and a bunch of people to generate body heat.
MOMO: Being a completely chilled person at the best of times, I can testify that furs are at least twice as warm as down... if not warmer.
ReplyDeleteI learned this when I was given a hand-me-down 1920's raccoon coat. Years later (and that coat long gone) I finally broke down and bought a sheepskin coat because despite having super-cold rated goose down coats I was never, never, never as warm as I had been in that ratty old fur. I will never again be without a fur coat in MN.
The major drawback of fur is it's weight. Fur coats are quite heavy. The Indians, in complete fur outfits would have stayed very warm; but they would have been very weighed down in their movements.
Fresca: Great photo essay. Really captures the day.
Was it smelly in there with all the animal pelts?
ReplyDeleteLove these photos of your field trip.
POODLE: No smells, it was all quite hot and dry.
ReplyDelete