by Nikki Rajala | Sep 26, 2020 | Voyageur
Are you dying to know what the Ottawa River looked like 200+ years ago? I am. So this 1831 map from Montreal showing the route French-Canadian voyageurs followed on their way to the rendezvous is a real godsend. WOW! It helps me clarify what Andre needs to do at each...
by Nikki Rajala | Jun 10, 2020 | Featured
Did you read biographies as a kid? Bigfork’s tiny public library had one shelf of biographies for youth, jacketed in red and yellow, illustrated with black and white drawings. After finishing the life stories of all the women (maybe 7 total), I kept on, reading...
by Nikki Rajala | May 25, 2020 | Voyageur
If you have voyageurs in your French-Canadian ancestry, some of your forebears may be from Sorel. The hamlet provided many engages for the fur trade, actually. Why? Did some towns send more of their sons than others? And what attracted the men to doing such hard labor...
by Nikki Rajala | Apr 2, 2020 | Voyageur
Has your concern during the pandemic COVID-19 made you curious about what medical remedies voyageurs used? It piqued my interest. Here’s what I found about their “physick.” “3 purges & 3 vomits” for whatever ails you By age 17, George Nelson was...
by Nikki Rajala | Mar 24, 2020 | Voyageur
Here I thought my character Andre was too young to travel with a brigade of experienced canoemen (though he was taller than the usual 5’6” for voyageurs). But Margi Preus has envisioned a super-tiny one — a squirrel who longs to see what all the excitement is...
