canoe maker

Black Creek Village Birchbark Canoe

During a recent family outing to Black Creek Pioneer Village, a recreated 1800's community in northwest Toronto, we stumbled upon a birchbark canoe on display. It was found hanging from ceiling beams in the village's fully functional water-powered flour mill. Here's a shot of the boy and I gazing at its beauty.


I spent some time examining the workmanship. Nice clean lashing and a graceful sheerline with quite steep stem curves. What immediately caught my attention was that some sort of sealant (varnish perhaps?) must've been applied to the hull bark and interior woodwork. A closeup of the bark shows the aging sealant drying up giving the whole thing a cracked eggshell appearance.




The centre yoke was carved in the traditional manner with notches for a tumpline. I also noticed what looked like leather lace used to lash the yoke into place.

Centre yoke and lashing
The richly sealed interior had some very neatly spaced ribs and an antique looking paddle lashed up for a portage carry. The straight sided blade with recurved shoulders is an example of the so-called voyageur design, the first antique version I've ever seen first hand. I couldn't gather the wood type given that the grain & original wood was masked with a faded blueish grey paint on the blade and red paint on the shaft. The grip was just a small, squarish bobble which looked like more of a stopper than an actual grip.


Paddle stashed away


Blade closeup


Bobble grip
After unsuccessfully trying to get some info on the canoe from the on-site staff, I received a courteous a detailed message about its origins. While the exact date is uncertain, it was made by the Algonkians at Maniwaki, Quebec between 1951-1977. The single piece bark hull has some additional side panels and the lashing apparently included deerskin rawhide in addition to spruce root. Sure enough, it had been varnished at a later date to "preserve it" and prevent leaks.

All these years living in the city and I never knew a bark canoe was on display locally.