French Trading Post

On the Straits of Mackinaw stood Fort Michillimackinac. This French-built, fortified trading post dates back to the late 1600s. At that time, this European settlement was on the edge of the known world. If this large log cabin (a reconstruction) is a true replica of the original, it disproves the notion that all was rough built and raw.

This cabin,the trading post, is built in the French style. The logs in the walls are set upright on a footer with a header pegged to the top. The logs are set apart and the gaps filled with rocks and mud. The steep roof required many cedar shingles. The many windows required multiple pieces of glass, shipped by canoe from Montreal or Quebec. . . Or perhaps the window openings were filled with empty wine bottles or oiled paper. Within the cabin walls are twin chimneys. Each chimney could have had back-to-back hearths on each floor. Hence, this cabin might have eight heated rooms. The internal chimneys also radiated heat. In all likelihood, this well-built structure was warm and comfortable in the cruel winter months.

Hi-tech Home

At Plimoth Plantation, I observed Pilgrim homes of the 1620s and also the shelters Native Americans built at that time. I don't think we give the Native people enough credit. They did develop a high tech boat, the canoe, that was light, fast and strong, rather easy to build and capable of carrying men and supplies for considerable distances on a network of lakes and rivers.

The Native Americans also built a variety of warm, comfortable houses that protected from one to many families. Some homes were made from a frame of branches with reed mats or tree bark lashed in place. Others were more substantial structures made of packed earth, animal hides, even logs and stone.

Europeans never really adopted the Native style. Instead they spent much time and labor building the style of house they had occupied in England, France or Germany. . Tiny homes with huge walk-in hearths, stick and mud chimneys, massive timber-frames filled-in with waddle and daub walls. Homes that were hot in the summer, drafty in the winter and easily set on fire.

This Native American home is made of mats tied to a framework of saplings. A hole or two in the ceiling allowed smoke to escape. People slept on a thick mattress of furs piled on benches. All the materials were natural,recyclable, easy to collect and portable.

The Voyageur

Voyageur is a French word meaning “traveler”. During the fur trade era, the crews of men who paddled canoes of supplies from Montreal to “rendezvous” in the back country were called voyageurs. At these rendezvous the supplies were traded for furs which were brought from deeper in the wilderness. The furs were carried by canoe back to Montreal and on to Quebec where they were shipped to France. The majority of voyageurs were French, French/Canadians and Native Americans.
The strength and endurance of these men is legendary. They worked a 14 hour day, paddled 55 strokes per minute and carried their supplies and canoes when they crossed (portaged) the dry land that separated the lakes and rivers they traveled. Few voyagers could swim. Many drowned in rapids or in storms while crossing lakes.
A bundle of furs weighed about 90 lbs. A bundle of trade goods weighed the same. A routine portage meant each voyageur must carry 2 bundles (180 pounds) at a time, across rugged, sometimes muddy trails. Every ½ mile or so the voyageurs set down their bundles and ran back for 2 more.
There were two types of voyageurs: the pork eaters (mangeurs de lard)) and the winterers (hivernants). The men who paddled from Montreal to the rendezvous at Grand Portage lived on a diet of salt pork. . . so were called pork eaters.
The men who transported trade goods deep into the wilderness stayed at winter outpost and lived “off the land”. These men were called winterers. Winterers traded for furs in native villages and in the spring transported the furs from their outposts to a rendezvous post.

French-Canadian Home

At the top of Lake Michigan, on the shore of the Straits of Mackinac, is a reconstructed, fortified trading post from the New France era.In the 1600s and early 1700s, many Native Americans hunted and trapped the animals Europeans prized for their fur. When they had gathered enough furs, the Native Americans might travel to a French settlement. Here, they traded their furs for items they valued. A beaver fur might be traded for a quantity of beads, blankets, cloth, mirrors, ax heads, knives or an iron kettle.Most years, the French traders tightly packed the furs into bundles and transported them, by canoe, to Quebec. Ocean-going sailing ships carried the furs from Quebec to France. The furs might be used as a fur collar or a coat. . . but most beaver furs were processed into felt and transformed into fashionable, expensive hats. This French-Canadian log cabin differs from the American style built by Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Instead of a wall of horizontal logs, the French set the logs vertically, pegging the bottom end to a footer and the top end to a header. The gaps between the logs were filled with stones and mud. Using this method, the French could build a one-room log cabin or a much larger structure using a standard log length. Often, French cabins had very steep roofs. I'm told, this was to prevent a thick blanket of snow from accumulating and then slipping off the roof and blocking the door. Roof dormers were added to light a space used for storage and/or sleeping.

New France Style Log Cabin

While attending a Rendezvous at Fort De Chartres, in southwestern IL, I noticed a small log cabin built in the French style.

Instead of stacking hewn logs in a horizontal fashion, the French set the logs upright. The logs were pegged on the bottom to a horizontal footer and pegged on the a top with a horizontal header.

The gaps between the logs were filled with stones and a chinking mixture of mud, clay, horsehair or cat-tails.

This small building is a good example of French construction. The back half of this shed is being used as a chicken coop. I suspect the front half is used to store tools or seeds or grain.

The original church (St Francois-Xavier) in my grandparent's village (Petite Riviere) at the foot of Le Massif, a popular Quebec ski resort, was built with vertical log walls.

An Event from The French and Indian War

A few years ago, a woman from West Virginia ordered a cabin kit. She said the Franklin miniature log cabin looked much like an old cabin on her farm. She said her log cabin dated back to the French and Indian War. Her pioneer ancestors had built their log cabin home in a hollow, deep in the Appalachian mountains.

While her family was carving their farm from the wilderness,France and England,Holland and Spain were again at war in Europe. The war (called the Seven Year War in Europe) soon spilled over into North America.

British and Colonial troops started attacking French Canadian forts in the Ohio Valley. The French retaliated by sending war parties into New England and the South.

On one of these raids, the woman told me, a war party came to her ancestors' cabin. The father was away on business. The indians quickly killed the hired hand and ransacked the cabin. The mother and her children (those old enough to travel) were taken captive and led off to Canada. The father, returning home a few hours later, learned what had happened.

Swiftly, he recruited a few woodsmen and they tracked the war party north.

When the mother and children arrived in Canada, a French family paid for their release and brought them into their home. The father, arriving in Canada, learned that his family was safe and sound. He gathered them up and led them back to their mountain home in West Virginia.

Here, the family has continued to reside for over 250 years.