The construction of the birch bark canoe

Canoe making was an important industry for the North West Company's operations. Canoe making centers were located all along the trade route from the St. Lawrence River to the Rocky Mountains. The largest of these was probably located at Trois Riviéres between Montreal and Quebec on the St. Lawrence where there was a large supply of birch trees. Most of the canoes made here were probably Montreal Canoes for the trip to Grand Portage of Fort William.

Construction Steps

The gunwales or edges of the canoe and ribs, would be formed from pieces of wood cut to the right size and then bent into the correct shape. Steam would be used to soften the wood for bending and the frame on the ground would hold the shape as work continued.

The Indians had long made the finishing of the canoe a task for the women in the band. They would gather the sheets of birch bark by stripping it off trees, collect the spruce root or wattape used to sew the pieces together and collect the pine pitch or gum used to seal the seams. Once the basic frame work was completed, the women would trim and sew the birch bark pieces, attach them to the gunwales and ribs, and then seal the seams with pitch.

All of these techniques are still available today and there are a number of artisans who can construct an authentic birch bark canoe. You can see the building process demonstrated at the White Oak Fur Post. However, the number of large birch trees has declined and it has become more difficult to find sheets of bark that are large enough to create the canoe with a minimum number of seams.

Canoes deteriorated badly and were often damaged by the rapids, rough water and heavy loads they carried. Work to repair damaged canoes and to build new ones went on continuously. In fact, it often became necessary to repair canoes while traveling and in some cases to build an entire canoe when one was seriously damaged.

A Montreal Canoe

The following is an actual description of a brich bark canoe used in the fur trade. It comes from the "Diary of Nicholas Garry" as published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Section II, 1900, pp. 93-94.

Our canoe is 36 feet in Length and about 6 feet extreme Breadth. It is constructed entirely of Bark, Cedar Splints, the Roots of the Spruce, and the Pitch of the Yellow Pine, with no Iron except a few Nails to fasten the Top of the Frame of Gunwale. The extreme width is six feet from whence it tapers gradually towards Bow and Stern to a wedge-like Point and is turned over from the extremities towards the Centre so as to have in some degree the Resemblance of a Head of a Violin. They are made of the Bark of the White Birch which is peeled from the Tree in large Sheets, left to dry for some time and then bent over a slender frame of Cedar Ribs, confined by Gunwales which are kept apart by slender Bars of the same wood running across. Around this, the Bark is sewed by the slender and flexible Roots of the young Spruce Tree called Wattape and also where the pieces of bark join so that the Gunwales resemble the Rim of an Indian Basket. The joinings are afterwards luted and rendered water-tight by a coat of Pine Pitch called Gum. In the third cross Bar an Apeture is cut for the Mast so that a Sail can be employed. Seats for the Paddlers are made by suspending a strip of Board on the Cords in such a manner that they do not press against the Sides.

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