Silent Movie Birchbark Canoe

From the Archives Society of Alberta, a movie promo pic of silent film star Olive Borden photographed on location at Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. Apparently, it was for the 1926 film, The Country Beyond complete with a Mountie and other Canadian stereotypes.


Interesting to note that complete lack of gunwale lashing, ribs and sheathing. Furthermore, it looks to be made of 2 layers of bark with the inner brown sides back to back so that both the outer hull and interior have the white side facing out. The layers are delaminating and shredding off. Not a smart or authentic design of course. The canoe obviously was meant to be a prop and fulfill the audiences' expections of Canadian transportation in the wilderness. Another shot below shows the canoe next to a raft with the magnificient scenery in the background.


I think I've finally found a bark canoe that is uglier than my own!

Incised Maine Guide Paddle

The Maine Memory Network, a project of the Maine Historical Society, has a wonderful collection of canoe related images from this area. While searching the site, I came across a listing of a c.1890 paddle pictured below.


Canoe paddle made by Charles West, taxidermist and author of "The Aroostook Woods" (1892).
At first glance, it may not look like anything special, but the blade has some incised decorations depicating images of fishing, hunting and wildlife. The wood has darkened considerable with age so the images are hard to see. Using my meager photoshop knowledge, I adjusted the contrast & colour to better highlight the images on the blade. You can just make out a heron, running deer, and a reclining dog.


Incised paddle blade; Photoshop adjusted image
The site has a magnifier viewer if you want to get a closer peek at this bit of paddle art.

FDR's Tomah Joseph Bark Canoe

Recently I read of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's birchbark canoe on display at Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Curious to learn a bit more, I learned that it was built by Passamaquoddy artist Tomah Joseph (1837-1914) who befriended the future President and is said to have taught him how to paddle


Tomah Joseph(1837-1914)


Young FDR paddling a canoe built by Tomah Joseph
An aged canoe is now on display on the veranda of the Roosevelt Cottage. Some shots below show a graceful boat that has weathered to a grey patina. Its nailed gunwales and stitched side panels seem to have held up well over time. I doubt my lashed boat will look so good at this age.


On display
Kind of curious, but there appears to be some sort stetched out canvas nailed to the gunwales covering the end thwart. If you look carefully at the pic of Tomah Joseph above, there seems to be something similar attached to boat's stern. It seems to be placed right over the end thwart though I can't imagine why. Maybe a sort of sling seat perhaps? It would explain why FDR is pictured paddling so far astern in his boat. Most solo paddlers today would kneel amidships to allow the boat to sit evenly in the water.


Stetched canvas on stern
If anyone knows more about this canoe and its unusual addition, I'd appreciate some feedback.

Coloured Illustrations of Adney Paddles

Bjorn Thomasson's site has an interesting page (in Swedish only) with some coloured illustrations of paddles documented in Adney's Bark Canoes and Skin Boats Of North America. Not sure if Bjorn did the colouring himself, but it adds a more lively touch to Adney's traditional black and white sketches. Here are some samples below



Micmac Paddle documented with a canoe sent to England in 1749. This is the rough blade design I used for the Cherry Fusion paddle



Penobscot/Maliseet paddle from the early 1800's, designed for sea fishing and hunting. I used this one for the Cherry Pileated Woodpecker paddle



Top paddle is the c. 1849 decorated Passamaquoddy I attempted to replicate. The middle one is a diamond bladed Passamaquoddy - I've got a yellow poplar blank with this shape that I posted on here. The bottom paddle is a c. 1888 St. John River area paddle



St. Francis Abnaki paddle that Adney documents disappeared from history around 1890.



Adney's surmised Beothuk ocean canoe paddle from the late 1800s. I started a cherry edged laminated version of the paddle, but made a mistake with the lamination. This one is awaiting another attempt



Late 1800 Eastern Cree paddle from Labrador. I recently posted info on other Cree paddles here.



Western Cree paddles. The upper is a man's paddle, the lower a women's paddle. Cree-paddles (mid 1800s) were often decorated with red pigment as pictured. Cliff Speer has a photo with replicas of these paddles on his Flickr page posing his team for the David Thompson Bicentennial canoe trek

Francois Rothan's Beautiful Bark Canoes

One of my favourite YouTube videos is Francois Rothan's fantastic short on his bark canoe build. His video which shows the build taking place on a platform in his garage was a major inspiration for me to tackle my own bark canoe project. A while back I stumbled on his Photobucket Gallery with some additional photos of some his other builds. Francois has since set up his own blogger page, birchbarkcanoes.blogspot.com, to showcase his beautiful canoes. Here are some shots below...very impressive stuff!





15 ft Malecite style


16 ft Malecite style


12 ft Algonquin style


13 ft Algonquin style
Now I'm starting to get embarrased about posting pics of my crudely lashed and comparatively ugly canoe, but we all have to start somewhere right? In any event there is a fantastic resurgence of interest in bark canoes and once you attempt to construct your own, one quickly gains a greater appreciation for those who've acquired the amazing skills to build these sophisticated craft. Well done Francois!