Calm paddle on Lake Superior, Canada

On our way to Pancake Bay

Voyageurs Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior 1869 by Frances Anne Hopkins

The voyageurs of Pancake Bay

Voyageurs were the sons of farmers from Quebec. These stout travelers braved the shores of Lake Superior on their journey west to trade for furs.

They travelled in brigades of 4 to 20 canot du maitre or Montréal canoes . Each canoe measured 10 metres long, and was made from birchbark and cedar planks, tied together with spruce roots and patched with a mixture of spruce gum, ash and animal fat.

Each of these huge canoes was laden with three and a half tonnes of goods for trade with Indigenous trappers.

Voyageurs paddled and portaged their big canoes from Montréal to Fort William, the inland headquarters of the North West Company at the west end of Lake Superior.

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