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.
Where does "Waters Like the Sky" take place?
Where does “Waters Like the Sky” take place? (Kris) “Waters Like the Sky” starts in a small village near Quebec, Canada, not far from Montréal. Find the St. Laurence River on the right side of map, and Montréal is where the river divides. The canoe brigade travels...
What were voyageurs paid in the early 1800s?
What were voyageurs paid in the early 1800s? Were there different skills that voyageurs needed? (Rachel, age 15) Good question. They received trousers and a shirt or two, a blanket, tobacco and food while working. And money — 400 livres (I’ll find out how much that...
Could anybody become a voyageur in the 1700s or 1800s?
Could anyone become a voyageur in the 1700s or 1800s? (Dylan, age 15) Nope. If you were tall — over 5 feet 6 inches tall, your legs wouldn’t fit in the canoe. So that was one requirement. Voyageurs had to be strong, willing to work long hours and live apart from their...
What is a voyageur?
What is a voyageur? (Avalyn, age 13) Think of the word “voyager” — a person taking a voyage or a trip. Voyageurs were canoemen who traveled about 1,200 miles, from near Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Grand Portage (on the Minnesota side of Lake Superior) — and...
The fur brigades start their voyages to Grand Portage
In April, the fur companies in or near Montreal, Canada, were busy organizing the spring brigades — inspecting new canoes, repacking trade goods, selecting canoemen, signing contracts. In May, as soon as the fur companies received word that the ice was gone from the...
Coming soon…
This blog — A Voyageur's Life — will feature snippets relating to Waters Like the Sky, a book about a boy, André, who canoes with an experienced fur brigade from French Canada to the wilds of Lake Superior country in the early 1800s. Waters Like the Sky will be...
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.
