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.
John Macdonell’s journal: part 2
John Macdonell’s journal of 1793: He describes the challenges of the Ottawa River on his first fur trade voyage. However, he wasn’t required to paddle or carry like the voyageurs.
John Macdonell’s journal: part 1
John Macdonell’s diary: Signing on in 1793 as a clerk for the North West Company, to supervise the fur trade.
How bark, root and pitch became birch bark canoes
Birch bark canoes showed genius engineering by Indigenous builders, using items easily available, light, durable, portable.
When beaver was money
What was a Made Beaver pelt worth? Depends on what side of the trading counter you were on. But values remained relatively constant for decades.
Examining Zebulon Pike’s legacy—hero or not?
Digging deeper doesn’t improve the legacy of Lt. Zebulon Pike for me. He’s more a wannabe than hero.
Rare in the early Northwest: Multi-stripe Hudson’s Bay blankets
While multi-stripe point blankets are common now, in the Northwest’s early days, they were a great rarity!
No wonder Nikki Rajala writes about voyageurs—her French-Canadian ancestors paddled birch bark canoes on many fur trade brigades. One great-great wintered for 16 years in fur posts west of Lake Superior and threads of family stories infuse this book. On Girl Scout canoe expeditions as a teen, she explored Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park. Nikki loves rendezvous re-enactments, reading fur trade journals, visiting museums, tasting voyageur foods.
