by Nikki Rajala | Aug 25, 2019 | Featured
Q: What piece of US currency is linked to the French-Canadian fur trade? A: The Sacagawea dollar! Her baby, peeking over her ear, is half French-Canadian. His father is Toussaint Charbonneau. The Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06 wouldn’t have had its success...
by Nikki Rajala | Jul 14, 2019 | Featured
Looking for summer reading? Here are four stories of adventure in the northern woods and waters. The voyage changed the lives of the young canoeists — and the others had been hoping for years to make this trek. I paddled only a few times in the Boundary Waters or on...
by Nikki Rajala | Jun 28, 2019 | Featured
After five weeks traveling in 1793, John Macdonell and two others arrive at Michilimackinac, where they spend a companionable day or so. Then they hustle on to the rendezvous where important company decisions are being made. His journal continues, the fifth part in...
by Nikki Rajala | Jun 18, 2019 | Featured
John Macdonell has been traveling for a month with his first-ever canoe brigade, in 1793. This is the fourth of 5 parts. June 24 ~ Left the Prairie des Vases and crossed a large bay of Lake Nipissing. I have been informed it is so shallow that they spear fish in...
by Nikki Rajala | Jun 8, 2019 | Featured
John Macdonnell’s brigade is working their way upstream since May 25, 1793. It takes them about 3 weeks to reach the Mattawa River, a tributary off the Ottawa River, which they call the Grand River. Eventually they reach the height-of-land, and, with a big...
by Nikki Rajala | May 31, 2019 | Featured
John Macdonell was born in Scotland in 1768. His family migrated to New York in 1773 and then to Canada. He was 25 years old when he began this first trading venture, in 1793. His diary describes his impressions of voyageur life. In this section, he has been traveling...
