by Nikki Rajala | Aug 31, 2026 | Voyageur
When my sisters visited Canada a few years ago, they presented me with this gift card from the flagship Hudson’s Bay Company store. HBC was founded in 1670, first serving the fur trade and later the public with fascinating department stores I loved the trademark...
by Nikki Rajala | Aug 1, 2026 | Voyageur
This book came out a year ago. It’s taken me more than a year to consolidate my thoughts into a post. While I requested permission to reprint images and quotes, I never heard back, so the only artistry I can show are the covers of Gawboy’s work. “Fur Trade...
by Nikki Rajala | Apr 4, 2026 | Voyageur
Imagine traveling hundreds of miles from winding rivers and rapids to vast inland lakes, carrying everything you need in a vessel made entirely from bark, roots and wood — a birch bark canoe. They were genius — objects deceptively simple, yet perfectly engineered by...
by Nikki Rajala | Feb 16, 2026 | Featured
For youth, Bigfork’s tiny public library had one short shelf of biographies, 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 about men like Lewis and...
by Nikki Rajala | Sep 3, 2020 | Voyageur
Are you drawn to the night sky? I’ve read that stars and humans contain most of the elements, that we’ve received those elements through supernovas, so we are truly “star people.” Star Bill and Star Nikki enjoyed this summer’s spectacular NEOWISE...
