1803 Fur Trade Post gathering this past weekend

[Mike Ameling]

A bunch of friends that I camp with spent this past weekend up in northern Wisconsin demonstrating a 1790-1805 Northwest Company fur trade post for the public at Eagle River. I didn't make it this year, but these are some of the ... crazy .... people I often run with.

Here's a link to another message board discussion, where Lloyd posted a bunch of pictures of them this past weekend - including the Clerk's "journal entries" of what transpired. (about 2 dozen pics!)

Klondike Days - Eagle River Wisconsin

Karl was running the Trade Room, Roger was blacksmithing, Gerry had his horse and sledge hauling firewood, Lafreniere (also called "hangs around the fort" occupied his woodland Indian conical lodge. Lloyd, Ike, and Michele portrayed a 1795 contingent of French Marines, and Ike also had his dog hauling supplies/firewood with his dog and a toboggan.

As the Clerk wrote in his "journal", temps were 10 to 15 degrees below FP (freezing point of water) during the day, and 30 to 40 degrees below FP at night. Most of the crew stayed and camped out in the shelters where they set up their gear for the demonstrations.

Ah, what we do for fun!

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[BOD]

Wonderful link Mike. Thanks. I really enjoyed those photgraphs. Will browse that site in future

What are the knots used to hang the cooking pots? Bowline at the top and rolling hitch below?

 

[Mike Ameling]

Yes, that top knot sure looks like a bowline. But I'm not quite sure what the name of that sliding/locking knot is. I use it a lot on tent ropes - especially for large tents (14x14, 20x20, and that 16x50 army surplus tent). I've heard it referred to as a Zepplin knot - for tying up the ropes holding a zepplin.

Ric would have tied it to hold that 10 gallon kettle for the company soup/stew - that's his wife Berit behind it cooking. He's had a little military training in the past, plus a lot of medic training since then.

I can't tell what kind of knot they used on the smaller kettle. The rope in the center without any pot hanging from it looks like a bowline on each end.

Roger, the blacksmith, is using a side-draft forge with a medium sized bellows, and burning hardwood lump charcoal - as coal was not being used in that area of the frontier in the early 1800's.

In the 2nd and 3rd pictures, it looks like Ike is carving a ... spoon - a little hard to tell for sure, but probably is/was a spoon. I don't know who made his crook knife, but I made him that small bowl adze at his feet. The leggings he's wearing are that color on purpose. He based them on an original painting and a journal description where one person was shown wearing one blue leg and one red leg.

Yes, such events/gatherings can be fun. But the weather always tends to throw its little twist into the mix. That's just what you get in the middle of winter.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[pothunter]

Excellent I really enjoyed that, you must be a bit sick to have missed the weekend Mike. I was surprised to see that fur does not feature more widely in the clothing that they were wearing was that because it was such a valuable commodity?

Would they be wearing wool or felt liners in the moccasins?

Temperature, is that in centigrade of Fahrenheit?

On the blanket I guess are trade goods, what are the items under the steel strikers and to the right of the flints? steel dog legs pointed both ends.

Best regards, Pothunter.

 

[Mike Ameling]

Excellent I really enjoyed that, you must be a bit sick to have missed the weekend Mike. I was surprised to see that fur does not feature more widely in the clothing that they were wearing was that because it was such a valuable commodity?

Would they be wearing wool or felt liners in the moccasins?

Temperature, is that in centigrade of Fahrenheit?

On the blanket I guess are trade goods, what are the items under the steel strikers and to the right of the flints? steel dog legs pointed both ends.

Best regards, Pothunter.

Well, we can't make all the events. I had other commitments. Plus, it's around a 350 mile drive - one way. And to complicate matters this year, there was a BIG snowstorm/blizzard moving from where I live on up to Eagle River on Thursday, and another Sunday following the same path! I would have had to drive with the storm heading up, and into the storm coming back home. Several of my buddies reported that it took them 2 to 3 times their normal travel time.

Back then, furs were what they were seeking to trade for. They were more valuable than the items brought in to trade. Plus wool material and wool blankets were better in general over the furs for wear and use for bedding.

Yes, they were wearing wool liners in their moccasins. Several layers at one time. Occasionally someone will sneak in a modern felt liner, but always completely hidden from view.

Those items on the trade blanket are Ice Chisels and Muskrat Spears. You lashed them onto the side of one end of a long pole, with that bent tang sticking into the pole. You then use the ice chisel to chip a hole through the ice. And then use the muskrat spear to actually spear muskrats and beaver as they swim by, or through their huts/dens. Hunting animals for their fur was the main method the Indians used to gather them at that time. The steel trap only started to come into regular use around 1795, but the Indians stuck with their known/traditional methods for a long time. The steel trap mostly came into use when the shift was made from trading for furs from the Indians, to hiring groups of trappers to go out to trap/gather the furs themselves. This led to a much more consistant supply.

Wayne (the Clerk) used that method of recording temperatures because many of the original fur post clerks recorded it that way. Since he pointed out in his beginning entry, that FP meant Freezing Point of water, the temps should be in centigrade.

I used to HATE history when I was growing up going through school. But most of that was in the way they taught history - basically memorize these names/date/places. Now I read history for the fun of it, and for the insight you can get. And I'm really interested in the day-to-day workings of the common people. Thus my interest in the iron tools in use and for trade back then. But too often those common daily tasks never got written down. They were just "common knowledge", and not considered worth recording. They might mention starting a fire with flint/steel in an old fur trade journal, but nothing about what they used to catch their spark, and what tinder they gathered to coax that spark into flame. Those little ... details ... of everyday life.

Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

- where we haven't been warm enough to reach that FP (freezing point) of water in months!

 

[pothunter]

Thanks for the insight Mike. The introduction of the steel traps must have devastated the fur bearing animals in no more than a few decades, I had thought that it had taken much longer. I guess it was changing fashions that saved them from extinction altogether.

Darn chilly.

I know what you mean regarding history, I went to agricultural college for a couple of years and each year we chose a traditional craft I did hurdle making and hedge laying. To use the tools of the old timers and getting my hands dirty made me feel an attachment to the past, heritage. Traditional archery has done the same although in despair I am currently using aluminium arrows much to the disgust of some of the oldtimers.

When the weathers that bad it makes sense to stay close to home.

Best regards, Pothunter.

 

[Mike Ameling]

Thanks for the insight Mike. The introduction of the steel traps must have devastated the fur bearing animals in no more than a few decades, I had thought that it had taken much longer. I guess it was changing fashions that saved them from extinction altogether.

Best regards, Pothunter.

The steel trap itself did not "devastate" the fur populations. Like most animals being hunted/trapped, it was the volume/numbers of people chasing them that did it. The steel trap was just the tool used. Acutally, the Indian method of hunting beaver and muskrats harvested more animals per the number of hours involved than setting/checking traps. When the Indians went hunting for fur bearing animals, they could fairly easily harvest a half dozen or more in a few hours. But setting traps would have taken about the same amount of time, and would only yield one animal per trap - if they were lucky. The only advantage the steel trap had was that you did not have to set there and "hunt" that specific animal. It "worked" while you were away.

Just one of those "myths" that keep circulating from past history.

Like the Passenger Pigeon. It was actually hunted into extinction by MARKET HUNTERS supply restaurants in the big eastern cities. Not by sportsmen or people feeding their families. The same thing almost happened to the most of the water fowl and whitetail deer. Market Hunters feeding the demand from the big cities!

Another myth: hunters almost killed off the buffalo -American Bison. But professional hunters did not almost kill off the buffalo. The annual harvest numbers for all the hide and meat hunters combined did not even come close to the annual replacement birth rate of the buffalo herds. The mass-extinction came from "tick fever" from cattle driven up from Texas, and happened in 1881 and 1882. The buffalo just laid down in their "family" groups and died. But HUNTERS are still blamed for almost killing them off.

There are a lot of "myths" out there about how native animals were affected by man. But in the end, most of what happened was caused by simple human greed - either from "harvesting" the animal, or by taking the land they lived on (habitat). Very little had to do with the sportsman/family hunter. But who got blamed? And who still gets blamed?

It's always interesting the twists and turns in this path called "history". And how much of what we currently know is actually myth or misrepresentation of what really happened. That's why my buddies always put on their demonstrations to the public - like this one up at Eagle River.

A blacksmith friend put it pretty well a few years ago. He said that he uses Blacksmithing to Gather a crowd to the Teach History. This is often what happens.

Just some humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[Eric_Methven]

Thanks so much for putting that link up Mike. Excellent photographs. I just love looking at other people's kit. I'm especially interested in the Capotes (blanket coats) as I have a six point blanket here at home and am trying to build the courage to cut into it. I notice everyone was wearing mocs of one type or another. Did even the marines in period wear mocs? Or did they have shoes and opt for mocs unofficially? I'd love to do a few winter events over here, but all the groups I know just want to come out for the summer - certainly nothing before Easter and nothing after September.

Eric

 

[Mike Ameling]

Mocs were one of those ... adjustments ... that the soldiers had to make to adapt to Nouvelle France. Boots were the issue uniform, but winter conditions required some changes - especially out on the frontier. It also depended upon which military unit they were assigned to - regular army, marines, or militia. I haven't studied up enough on the military of that time to say much for sure. Lloyd, Michele, Ike, and Jai have.

Ah, the capote. A whole lot of style changes took place in such a simple garment/coat from the early 1600's on through the mid 1800's. The classic "boxy" capote that most people think of is an 1820's through 1860's style. The style of capote before that was a much more "tailored" coat - made/cut a lot more along the lines of the regular gentlemen's coats of the time period. There is some good info on capotes on the Canadian Library's online Fur Trade Journal for their school system - colors, styles, regonal variations.

Northwest Journal

As an example, just think about how much the French military Justacorps (coat) changed in style from the 1600's to the 1800's. (As did the coats of all the armies of the time - as well as the civilian styles) The capote changed much the same.

Save that 6-point blanket to use as a blanket. Most fur trade era capotes in North America were made from Wool Cloth. It had a much tighter weave than a blanket, less "nap", and worked a lot better for making a coat. Just go compare your blanket to the material of a classic naval Peacoat, or a wool suit coat or overcoat. A blanket will work for making a capote, but that wool material will work much better for shedding rain and blocking wind. Plus, you can change how heavy/thick it is by the weight of the wool cloth you use. If you go with too thick of material, you can then only really use it when it is very cold. The originals were made from material as light/thin as a heavy shirt all the way up to that full thick heavy blanket material. Each fit into the right weather conditions.

Be careful, Eric. Once you start following the trail of this Living History stuff, you can quickly become lost to the modern world! Or should I say "more lost"?

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands