Voyageur’s Blog
Ask a voyageur a question
Here’s a blog to answer your questions, like what was life like during the 1800s in French Canada? Like who could or couldn’t be a voyageur? How big the canoes were? What trade goods they carried? What different furs were worth? What they used for medicine? I’ll answer these and more in the “A Voyageur’s Life” blog. Click on the button below to ask your question or go to the “Contact” section of this site — I’ll find the answers.
5 Surprise Facts About ‘Point’ Blankets
A “point” blanket (one with short lines of thread stitched into one side, called "points") is what we now call a Hudson's Bay blanket. But: Hudson's Bay Company wasn't the first to introduce the point blanket. Point blankets were commonly used in Europe and by English...
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Why do voyageurs and the fur trade draw you?
It's in my blood—I'm descended from voyageurs. Mom found listings of a dozen engagés, or canoemen, through genealogy research into her French-Canadian roots. My grandfather, a younger son of a younger son of a voyageur, told of his connection: His great grandfather...
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‘New’ is actually old — using credit began during the fur trade
My sister Kris visited Winnipeg last year and presented me with this gift card from the flagship Hudson’s Bay Company store. Love the trademark stripes — and carrying it around. Then I realized, “How apt!” Because the fur trade popularized the system of commercial...
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More "wild" proteins
I have a few more thoughts for my characters to get wild protein (from the U.S. Army Survival Manual): All trails lead to water. Trails may be marked with animal droppings and trampled terrain. Birds: Flocks of birds will circle over waterholes. Some birds fly to...
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You can eat that?
The U.S. Army Survival Manual’s first chapter said, “With few exceptions, everything that grows from the soil or that walks, crawls, or swims is a potential food source.” WOW! Up to then, I’d only thought about plants. The book included useful tips on how to capture...
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Is either wild plant edible?
Your quiz for today: Is either wild plant edible? Make a guess for each of the choices below. Your answer could be one or the other — or neither or both! Glad I researched this — I would have made big mistakes by eating some of these. 1. Cattail or Blue flag iris/lily...
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