38 Paddle Your Own Canoe 1904

The French Canadians have a story about a flying canoe. They say that some men went out one night and drank a lot of alcohol. These men had a job called voyageurs. Voyageurs carried animal furs in their canoes to the Hudson's Bay Company (see 1881).These voyageurs wanted to visit their wives and girlfriends.The women lived 400 km away. The voyageurs needed to go for a visit and get back for work the next day. How could they do that in time?

They made an agreement with the devil. The devil would make their canoe fly through the air. The devil said he would do this, but there were two things the voyageurs had to agree to. The devil said the canoe could not touch any church as it flew by. The devil said the men could not say God's name. The voyageurs agreed and they flew to their loved ones in a big canoe. As the voyageurs returned to work in the morning, their canoe was still high in the air. The devil made the canoe turn over. The men fell out into the water and were drowned. The devil kept his agreement and he also found a way to get the souls of the men that morning.

Canoes have always been important to Canadians. The first ones were made from trees. They were called dugouts because a part was cut or dug out of them. The First Nations would cut down a tree. Next, they would make a big hole in the middle. Sometimes they would cut this hole. Sometimes they would use a fire to burn just the wood in the middle then take out the burnt wood to make the hole. First Nations would sit in the hole and paddle the dugout through the water. Dugout canoes were very heavy, though.

When travelling down a Canadian river in a canoe, there are often places where the water is very dangerous, called rapids. The canoe has to be carried to a place where the water is quiet. This is called a portage. The easiest way to portage a canoe is over the head. Sometimes when Canadians are portaging a canoe, those who are watching make a joke. They say the ones portaging the canoe are wearing canoe hats. It is difficult to make a portage with a heavy dugout canoe.

First Nations started to make light canoes so they could travel farther, past many portages. They made them from birch bark. Bark is the outside skin of a tree. The birch tree has very thin and very light bark. Birch bark canoes weighed about 20 kg. These canoes were strong enough to carry a man and many animal furs. They were easy to portage, but there was one problem with birch bark canoes. They could be broken by rocks very easily. However, it was always easy to find more birch bark to repair the canoe, so it was not a big problem.

Many of the earlier explorers(see 1897)used birch bark canoes to get to places to make maps. The voyageurs used birch bark canoes to bring furs from the Pacific Ocean to the Hudson's Bay Company in Montreal. They travelled 6,500 km each time in their canoes. These birch bark canoes were used until the 1900's.

In 1904, two Canadian brothers, called William and Harry Chestnut, got the legal papers for their canoe building business in New Brunswick. They had a business making canoes from wood and canvas. Canvas is a very thick fabric. Artists paint on it, and it is used to make tents and sails. William and Harry were not the first to make canoes using canvas. These canoes were first made by Americans about 30 years earlier.

William and Harry saw that these American canoes were popular so they copied them in 1897. The brothers bought one canoe in the USA and made exact copies of it in Canada. They sold these canoes at their father's furniture business. William and Harry made their canoes in Canada, to sell to Canadians for less money. However, there are copyright laws in Canada and the USA. It is not ok to copy things and sell them. The brothers knew they could get into big trouble. William and Harry went to the patent office and somehow got the legal papers to make their canoe. They got this patent, even though they had not invented this type of canoe.

William and Harry kept making canoes. Their business was successful. Soon there were so many Canadians who wanted to buy “Chestnut” canoes that the brothers did not have enough to sell. The Hudson's Bay Company wanted to buy every canoe the brothers could make, so they could sell them in their stores. William and Harry could not make canoes fast enough because they did not have enough workers. The brothers went to the USA and got some of the Americans working at that canoe making company to come to Canada to work.

CANADIANS HAVE ALWAYS USED CANOES TO TRAVEL

The American owners of the company were angry at William and Harry. First William and Harry stole their canoe ideas. Next, they stole their workers. The owners said they would use the law to fight the brothers and make them pay money. The owners said they would come to Canada and build a factory to take business away from William and Harry, but they never did.

William and Harry continued to grow their business. They grew it into the largest canoe making business in Canada. It became world famous. William and Harry made about 3,000 canoes every year. In 1973, they stopped making wood and canvas canoes. It seemed that everyone wanted canoes made from modern materials, like plastic and metal. People stopped buying Chestnut canoes in 1979, but not before over 100,000 of them had been sold in Canada.

Today, canoes are no longer used to move things. Instead, Canadians use canoes for sport. Some Canadians race in canoes. There is even an Olympic race called “Sprint Canoe.” Some people go canoeing through fast moving water, called rapids. Today these people usually use small, plastic ones called kayaks. Then there are others who quietly paddle down rivers and on lakes enjoying nature. Most Canadians, who have spent time outdoors in nature, have probably travelled in a canoe at least once.

Canoes are a strong symbol of Canada. The Canadian Museum in Peterborough, Ontario, has the world's largest collection of canoes and kayaks. Canoes can be found on Canadian money, in paintings, in books, and in songs. They are a symbol of friendship between the First Nations who made the first canoes and the Europeans that they taught how to make canoes.