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 animals the 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 number of glass 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. Some furs were 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 building walls 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 to a space used for storage and/or sleeping.
