Ontario Travel – Peterborough:
The History of the Canoe at the Canadian Canoe Museum
After the excitement of having passed over the
world’s highest hydraulic lift lock, I
now wanted to explore another one of Peterborough’s
landmark sites: the Canadian Canoe Museum. What
originally started as a private collection of canoes
in 1957 has evolved into the largest collection
of kayaks and canoes in the world. Over 600 of these
vessels are now owned by the museum and about 120
canoes and kayaks are displayed in a spacious former
factory on Monaghan Road.
John Summers (on the right) and his colleage Anthony
gave me a guided tour
John Summers, the general manager, took me through
the museum and put the importance of canoes and
kayaks into historical context. He explained that
canoes and kayaks have existed in many different
cultures across the globe for thousands of years.
As a matter of fact, the oldest recovered canoe
in the world, located in the Netherlands, was constructed
between about 8200 and 7600 before Christ. In Canada,
canoes and kayaks have been used by native people
for countless centuries.
The Canadian Canoe Museum features more than 100
canoes of different types
As we began our walk through the museum, we first
stopped at a big map that explained why canoes were
so important in Canada. While the United States
was explored and settled by people on horse and
foot, Canada’s most important form of transportation
was the canoe, given this country’s extremely
dense network of creeks, rivers and lakes. John
explained that between eastern and western Canada
there is only one huge portage of about 30 kilometres,
while the rest of the country can be traversed quite
conveniently by boat on the country’s waterways.
Canoes became critical tools in the Canadian fur
trade, spurring development of many remote communities.
Beautiful art illustrates the importance of the
caoe in Canada
As we walked through the museum, John explained
three main canoe construction styles to me, starting
with the dugout. These were mostly found in British
Columbia where big red cedar trees were cut down
and hollowed out. We saw a great example of a dugout
with impressive Haida decoration on it.
Amazing ornamentation on this canoe from Papua New
Guinea
The next type of canoe I saw was a birch bark canoe
which essentially consisted of a sown-together birch
bark bag that is reinforced with a wooden frame
and thick wooden planks. These types of canoes would
be found in central and eastern Canada and all the
construction materials were abundantly available
in the forest.
A birch bark canoe
In the far north of Canada, wood is much more scare
and a different construction technique was required.
A sturdy frame would be produced of small pieces
of wood, often driftwood and remnants of packing
crates that had washed up on shore. This wooden
skeleton was then covered with animal skin, usually
seal or walrus skin that was sewn together with
the sinews from these animals.
These types of canoes were made in the far north
of Canada
So the construction of these vessels essentially
depended on the location and on the locally available
construction materials. John also explained to me
the historical evolution of the canoe: originally
the human powered boats were only built for work-related
purposes such as hunting, fishing and transportation.
It was not until the 1800s that canoes actually
started to be used for recreational purposes which
led to industrial production of these boats.
Adam van Koeverden's kayak, one of Canada's best
sprint kayakers
An entire section of the Canadian Canoe Museum
is dedicated to the canoe building industry which
started in the late 1850s and peaked in the 1880s
when canoeing became a widely popular activity.
At that time canoe clubs and annual canoe regattas
came into being, and canoeing became a popular pastime
in the newly developing tourism centres in Canada
and the United States.
Canoeing became very popular in the second half
of the 1800s
Around that time there were 11 or 12 major canoe
manufacturers in the Peterborough area, stretching
from Lakefield in the north to Rice Lake in the
south. These companies competed heavily against
one another, issuing new models every year, promoting
them in shiny catalogues, even stealing skilled
labour from one another’s factories. By the
mid 1950s, 75% of all canoes made in Canada were
manufactured by four large producers in the Peterborough
area.
Many companies used to manufacture canoes on the
Peterborough area
However, by the late 1950s, the canoe companies
had run into major financial difficulties. This
was aggravated by the introduction of new boat building
technologies that involved fiberglass and aluminum.
Combined with excessive labour costs, canoe building
in Peterborough finally declined and dwindled by
the 1960s when several major manufacturers went
into bankruptcy. John added, however, that today
wooden canoes are making a comeback, although they
are no longer manufactured on the same large industrial
scale. An avid paddler himself, he uses a 73 year
old wooden canoe.
Canoes made right here in Peterborough
Now on the main floor of the museum, we had a look
at some canoes that were built using a European,
or more specifically, a traditional Viking boat
building technology consisting of 4 wide planks
of basswood, ribs and battens to create a light
yet strong vessel. These types of boats were built
by professional boat builders.
A canoe from Vietnam
We also saw a selection of working canoes that
were built for practical purposes such as surveying
and exploration. One of the exhibits in this area
is a canoe that was used for the Coppermine Expedition
in 1911. Equipped with an outboard motor, this sturdy
canoe could hold several strong men on its northern
excursions. Other boats on display were used by
missionaries, prospectors, lumberjacks or by the
Canadian Geological Survey for mapping purposes.
Even the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used canoes
as part of its mandate of “maintaining order
with saddle and paddle”.
Canadian Mounties used to "Maintain order with
saddle and paddle"
Tucked in the corner of the main floor is a Hudon’s
Bay Company Provisions Store, an authentic wooden
construction from 1876 that shows the types of goods
that could be purchased in some of Canada’s
remote outposts. Many basic necessities were available,
from fabrics, medicine, alocohol, thread and needles
to pieces of beaver fur. This store illustrates
the goods that were needed in the distant communities
of Canada’s north. Children’s groups
often come through here to learn experientially
about early Canadian history.
Some of the merchandise on display at the Hudson's
Bay Company Provisions Store
Finally, also on the main floor, John Summers introduced
me to the non-North American collection of canoes
and kayaks that truly illustrates the global nature
of this form of water transportation. I saw fascinating
examples of canoes from far-away places like Fiji,
Samoa, Lake Titicaca and South East Asia. Although
the shapes diverged fairly widely they still shared
the double-ended human-powered characteristics of
a typical canoe.
Canoes were used to transport a wide variety of
goods
A long dugout canoe from Papua New Guinea with
amazing carved details and art would be paddled
by a large group of men standing up. A reed canoe
was on display, which is a type of canoe that would
be built in such diverse places as Egypt, Japan,
New Zealand and Easter Island. I saw outrigger canoes
with a smaller side hulls, and canoes with more
than one equal size hull who usually are called
catamarans.
A collection of canoes from foreign countries
My excursion to the Canadian Canoe Museum had been
fascinating: not only had I learned about the history
of the canoe and the different methods of canoe
construction, I had also gained a greater understanding
of Canadian history and why canoes were so important
in developing this huge country of ours. Last but
not least, I realized that the world over canoes
have been built for countless generations and facilitated
human water travel from the tropical to the arctic
waters.
Canoes have played a major role in many different
countries
Now it was time to head back to the Golden Pathways
B&B to get ready for my
evening program.
