For Canada’s early fur traders, survival came with the mastery of basic skills – lighting fires, traversing rivers by birch bark canoe and setting up shelters as they crossed the rugged and unforgiving terrain of Canada.
On Saturday, visitors to the historic Fort George and Buckingham House site challenged themselves not only to learn more about these skills, but to try their own hand at them, as the site held its third annual Bushcraft event to give a taste of life in the fur-trading era.
Sisters Cassady and Charlotte Spencer, at 12 and nine respectively, were among the youngest demonstrators in attendance at the event. The pair, along with their parents, are members of the Edmonton House Brigade, a group that interprets the fur trade era, traveling to places like Fort Edmonton and Fort George and Buckingham House to give people an experience of Canadian history.
“There’s so much there that most kids don’t know about,” says Cassady, as she demonstrates how she uses flint and steel to light a fire to char-cloth. “It’s so interesting to learn about what was here, before modern cars and stuff.”
Charlotte agrees, as she shows the trading stall she has set up, for which she’s collected items like the inside of a bison horn and the fur of a skunk.
For instance, she offers a-did you-know fact, saying, “If you find cattails, and you’re alone in the wilderness, you’re good.” Cattails can be used to transport fire, as a torch, as insulation, as tinder, to make pillows, and its roots can be used for medicinal purposes, such as an antiseptic, according to information from the group.
“We have stuff that we find, and we’re like – ‘Let’s do that!’” says Cassady, with Charlotte showing the doll she made out of dried cattails as an example.
Other demonstrations held at Bushcraft included wood carving, dressing in fur-trade era clothing, musket firing with black powder, and explanations for how to build your own birch bark canoe.
“The birch bark canoe really opened up Canada – none of the explorers could have got to the interior of Canada without it. They all rode in on birch bark canoe,” explained Ron Emsland, from Vermilion, who has built nine of these boats, with two of his products on display on Saturday at Bushcraft.
Emsland, who served as a conservation officer in Manitoba before his retirement, said he had always had an interest in fur trade history, partly because of his career. After he retired and started reading more about the history, he found himself even more interested in learning how to build a birch bark canoe himself.
After watching a video of a Cree man from Northern Ontario building himself such a canoe, armed only with an axe and the materials harvested from trees, he followed the steps to make his own. It was a project that took all winter, as he learned how to boil spruce roots for the lace to hold the boat together, and how to boil the yellow cedar to make the ribs of the boat, wrapped in dry birch bark.
For Ross Stromberg, program coordinator at the site and a Bushcraft organizer, this was one of the most fascinating demonstrations of this year’s event.
“Where do you see that? You just don’t get to see that anywhere – it’s a phenomenal piece of technology.”
Stromberg said he had hoped for a better turnout, but felt the grey skies and off-and-on drizzle of Saturday afternoon was a deterrent for people to come out. However, he feels the event offers a unique experience, and hopes word will grow and bring people out to future Bushcraft events.
“Where else can you try making fire? You get to make fire with sticks!” he exclaimed, saying next year, the event will be planned to be even “bigger and better.”
Fort George and Buckingham House will close for the season following Sept. 5, Labour Day.
