Point blankets and capotes on Blackfoot Indians, unknown photographer or date. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
A good idea always moves. Point blankets were used for more than sleeping by French-Canadian fur traders. To cope with being outdoors in the harsh winters, voyageurs fashioned a wool point blanket into long wrap-style coat with a hood by cutting off one end (for sleeves, hood and optional tassel or fringes). It required only a few seams to create this warm coat, which they called a capote (also capot). A voyageur sash was tied around the waist.
Not surprisingly, their practical style spread. Capotes became winter outerwear for many First Nations peoples as well. Hudson’s Bay Co. trading posts even sold capotes in the 1700s.
Indigenous people quickly realized how useful wool blankets were — highly insulating in relation to their weight, quicker than leather to dry, supple. As the outer layer of clothing, point blankets were easy to move in and hunt in. They could drape it to reflect their style or sew it into capotes — either way they became indispensable.
Note the capotes in gray, white and brown in “The River Road” by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1855, National Gallery of Canada (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Fun Fact: The wool capotes of the Metis were of different colors; blue was preferred by the Catholics and white by the Protestants while gray was worn by both.
[Most capotes had no pockets so a fire bag was either tucked in the folds of the sash or hung around the neck by a shoulder strap. The fire bag held flints, steel and tinder to start a fire as well as tobacco, pipe, knife and other personal items.]
But very surprisingly, capotes were worn by British troops!
[Reading in Wikipedia about Fort St. Joseph on Lake Huron piqued my interest because that location is an important site in “Uncharted Waters,” my Book 3!] As the War of 1812 was looming, the British troops serving at Fort St. Joseph faced a shortage of greatcoats. To prepare for the upcoming bitter weather, the commanding officer thought creatively.
On November 20, 1811, when all hope had disappeared of being resupplied by ship, British Army Captain Charles Roberts wrote to the adjutant general in Quebec:
“I am this day obtaining, upon my requisition to the storekeeper of the Indian Department, a consignment of heavy blankets, for the purpose of making them great coats, a measure the severity of the climate strongly demands and one, I trust, the commander of the forces will not disapprove of when he is informed that not a remnant remains of the coats served out to them in the year 1807 and that they have received none since.”
[Fort St. Joseph possibly used its own Indian Department which traded with Native Americans.]
A greatcoat worn by a re-enactor at Mackinac State Park, the regulation color, not the red-and-black plaid which was substituted when they ran out of blue..
Captain Roberts received HBC 3.5-point blankets and hired John Askin Jr., a Métis and keeper of the King’s Stores at the fort, and his wife and up to 10 local women to design and manufacture the woolen greatcoats. They finished the job in two weeks.
The troops appreciated their new greatcoats, perhaps because they were made of heavy blankets and thus of superior quality to the standard-issue greatcoats. Whatever the reason, Canadian coats made from point blankets helped to increase their morale.
Those greatcoats were so successful that for the next winter Captain Roberts ordered a new supply of point blankets to produce more greatcoats. He ordered blue but the stockpile was inadequate and supplemented by a red-and-black plaid.
[Can you guess what is coming?]
Over time, dispatch runners between Fort Mackinaw and Montreal advised the officials that, due to snow drifts, deep forests and narrow trails, a greatcoat was too long to be practical. They requested something shorter — a jacket. The new design was much easier for traveling through woods so orders were received from people located throughout Canada.
My dad and uncles in many kinds of Mackinaw jackets and shirts. (From left in back) Bill, Hub, Ben (my dad) and Art with Don in front.
This style became known as — the “Mackinaw jacket.”
While the first ones were produced in blue (like those requested by the British officer), later Mackinaw jackets were made in a red-and-black pattern.
Heavy wool plaid jackets were a boon for those who worked outdoors in winter, including many voyageurs who became lumberjacks — Paul Bunyan is often depicted wearing a Mackinaw jacket. They spread to farmers, fishermen, longshoremen, trappers and outdoorsmen everywhere. (The photo shows my dad with his brothers, all woodsmen.)
Did you notice?
- During the 1954 movie “On the Waterfront,” the actor Marlon Brando wore a Mackinaw jacket.
- Archie Bunker wore one on cold days in the 1970s TV sitcom “All in the Family.”
- Ernest Hemingway’s character Nick Adams wears one in the short story “The Last Good Country.”
- It’s one of the best jackets acquirable in the game “The Long Dark.”
The Mackinaw jacket, created as a child of grim necessity for cold weather conditions, had a short poem written about it (adapted from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade”).
“When can its glory fade?
Stout little coat of plaid,
All the north wondered.
Honour the coat they made
Down at the old stockade,
Still made by the hundred.”
Recently Mackinaw jackets have morphed into buffalo plaid shirts, much lighter in weight and now in a variety of colors. Besides on clothing, the red-and-black plaids have become popular on goods from tableware to Christmas decorations, even earrings!
But remember: they all started as point blankets, which became capotes, which became Mackinaw jackets, and finally buffalo plaid everything.
Final Thoughts
- Book 3, “Uncharted Waters” is available, in paper and ebook. Ask your library, local school, gift shop to buy copies.
- Start from the beginning with Books 1 and 2 — buy “Waters Like the Sky” or “Treacherous Waters” through PayPal. Or the ebook.
- Subscribe to this blog and read posts as they are published!For quirky discoveries and more, visit me on Facebook or Instagram: @nlnlnraj
- Book me as a speaker.
- Be a voyageur for an hour — come to one of my presentations. I’m also offering presentations on Women in the Fur Trade and A Closer Look at A.C Riggs’ Fur Trade Journal.
Sources:
“The Blanket: An Illustrated History of Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket” by Harold Tichenor. (A Quantum Book, for Hudson’s Bay Company, 2002).
Crazy Crow Trading Post article
Greatcoats at Mackinac State Parks
Wikipedia: Capote_(garment)
Wikipedia: Mackinaw jacket
This is a delightful article trading the interesting history of the “buffalo plaid shirt Jacket. Thoroughly fascinating how the grim historical necessity and shortage of uniform jackets led to the use of Hudson Bay Point blankets to create warm coats for the British colonial troops.
Thank you It was amazing to find that HBC blankets linked French workers to British soldiers and that coats became jackets through the same channels. Who would have thought?