| Author |
Message |
woodncanvas
Member
Post Number: 34
Registered: 11-2009
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 7:56 pm: | 
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Just thought I'd post that a group of wood canoe builders (including Pam Wedd and John Hupfield) have been working together to set up a restoration project of several Freighter canoes in Fort Severn First Nation....this will involve a month long workshop for band members in March/April....to teach them the methods involved in restoration and repair of these workhorses of the North....so they continue on their own on the rest of the Freighters....and those from nearby communities.....a follow-up month is planned later on to see progress....one of the canoes we'll be working on is pictured below....I've been fortunate to have helped organize this project....and to be heading up to assist in the work....and will be posting updates periodically while we're up there....
We'll be heading up North next week….tools and supplies are on their way to Manitoba and from there heading to Fort Severn via ice road….will be up there for full month….first setting up shop….then working with band members to restore Freighter canoes….hoping to get 3 or 4 done while up there….then will be back for another month to follow up later in summer…we will be posting reports periodically on various online forums….including here on Ottertooth….as well as through link on Canadian Canoe Museum website; plan is to get local youth to videotape work in progress….also hope to have an article in Wooden Canoe journal as well as other publications hopefully when project is finished….
Paddles up until later then….
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ed
Moderator
Post Number: 1155
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 9:42 am: |
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Are you putting canvas back on these things or are you going to glass them? |
woodncanvas
Member
Post Number: 37
Registered: 11-2009
| | Posted on Sunday, April 8, 2012 - 6:32 pm: |
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Canvas with epoxy filler.... |
woodncanvas
Member
Post Number: 38
Registered: 11-2009
| | Posted on Sunday, April 8, 2012 - 6:34 pm: |
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If anyone's interested check out http://reflectionsoutdoors.wordpress.com/2012/04/0 7/some-photos-from-fort-severn/ for photos. |
ed
Moderator
Post Number: 1162
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Monday, April 9, 2012 - 7:23 am: |
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Looks like you arrived and you have lot's of stuff to work on.
I haven't seen too many of those old freighters around since the late 1960's, before the advent of the aluminum tin cans that are in use these days. |
woodncanvas
Member
Post Number: 39
Registered: 11-2009
| | Posted on Monday, April 9, 2012 - 1:57 pm: |
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12 in the shop now....and that and some in community.... |
preacher
Member
Post Number: 182
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - 11:49 am: |
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Great work! Enjoyed checking out the pictures. |
woodncanvas
Member
Post Number: 40
Registered: 11-2009
| | Posted on Monday, April 30, 2012 - 12:30 pm: |
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CBC did story last night, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/04/27/f-f ort-severn-canoe-restoration.html |
grncnu
Member
Post Number: 210
Registered: 08-2010
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - 1:24 am: |
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hey woodncanvas, any indication found as to who built those freighters?
i travelled to moose factory and back on motorized canoes just like those when my family went up to moosonee on holiday in the mid-70's. they were all made by chestnut, although even then the decals were barely hanging on. |
grncnu
Member
Post Number: 211
Registered: 08-2010
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - 1:41 am: |
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i just thought about it and realized this was in 1970 or 71. a canoe instructor at camp had previously told me that chestnut made the best canoes, which is why i noticed it. |
woodncanvas
Member
Post Number: 41
Registered: 11-2009
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 6:16 pm: |
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Most are built by NorWest....a Quebec company still in business....a couple are Chestnut.... |
tidewater
Member
Post Number: 8
Registered: 07-2012
| | Posted on Saturday, August 18, 2012 - 11:22 am: |
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Hey grncnu....so in '70 or '71 you would have walked by my house on your trek from the train station to the Moose River. I would have been about 10 or 11 years old then....huge tourist trains in the 60s and 70s. I grew up with those old freighter canoes -- it was a summer weekend ritual to head down the river and spend the day swimming in the water that never did really warm up! -- and I still feel quite nostalgic when I come across a freighter canoe today. I've been living in North Bay for years now but did manage to get out on the Moose River in a freighter for a few hours last summer. Missed the belugas though.
Thanks woodncanvas for the story and links. Any updates?  |
woodncanvas
Member
Post Number: 42
Registered: 11-2009
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2012 - 9:39 pm: |
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The Fort Severn project has been largely ongoing with only a few breaks....mostly due to logistics....it has involved a great team of builders/support staff such as Doug Ingram of Red River Canoes & Paddles and John Hupfield of Lost In The Woods Boatworks....5 local youth have undergone training and practical experience, as well as employment....about 10 canoes have been restored so far...some needed less work than others....the project may be winding down due to lack of additional funding....but some very good seeds have been planted....and other First Nations have indicated interest in similar projects....even if only in a smaller scale....long and short of it, the canoe project was a success....and will hopefully continue on in one form or another....and I'm sure that the work will continue at Fort Severn by some of the community members even after our work there is done....
(Message edited by WoodNCanvas on August 24, 2012) |
grncnu
Member
Post Number: 244
Registered: 08-2010
| | Posted on Saturday, August 25, 2012 - 9:00 pm: |
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hey tidewater, didn't notice your post before. i guess there were a lot more tourists going up there in those days... i remember we stayed at an old hotel near the river, i'm guessing it was called the moosonee hotel... i also remember on the way back from the island our freighter was passed by a pretty large pack of dogs swimming across! |
tidewater
Member
Post Number: 9
Registered: 07-2012
| | Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2012 - 10:07 am: |
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The Fort Severn project is a true inspiration. Would be nice to see CBC do a "sequel." Maybe if they hear from enough of us?....Chi Meegwetch for the update.
grncnu...now that's the first I have heard of a pack of dogs swimming across the river! My dog seemed to prefer to travel by rail...I think the dining car was a real draw...got a call from the ONR more than once saying "Bingo's here in Cochrane again!" And, sure enough, they would board him back on the northbound train the following morning! |
grncnu
Member
Post Number: 247
Registered: 08-2010
| | Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2012 - 11:10 pm: |
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we really did see (my parents, my sister and i plus the other people in the canoe) a large group of what we assumed were husky-type dogs, maybe up to 10 of them, about halfway across the river heading to moosonee. it was getting dark but we could see them distinctly. for all these years i've assumed it was a common sight, so it's really interesting to hear you say that! makes me wonder if they were really wolves?? |
Lower Hudson Bay watershed