French Style Log Cabin

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 16th and 17th century, 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 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. 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 or 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 small, 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 the space used for storage and/or sleeping.

Early New France HIstory

Before the first explorers searched Canada with the hope of finding a water route to China. . . fishermen came for the Cod. The Grand Banks had an abundance of fish that was caught, cleaned, salted, sun dried or smoked and sold in France, Portugal, Spain and other European countries. This was the first major export of New France.

On his first voyages, Champlain, like past explorers, searched for a water passage to China.  Later, Champlain brought men to the islands around the mouth of the St Lawrence and later still to Quebec to experiment in settlement. He respected the Native Americans and befriend many tribes over time. Champlain was responsible for building a network of French outposts and developed a trading monopoly in which French manufactured goods were traded for furs. At one time, French forts dotted the Great Lakes at Detroit, Duluth, Niagara and Mackinaw while the English and Dutch where bottled up by the Appalachian mountains. French men traveled as far west as the Rockies, through the Great Lakes, exploring the St Lawrence, Ottawa, Mississippi and other river systems. These were the Frenchmen's highways. Brigades of hardy voyageurs paddled large birch-bark canoes, sometimes seventy miles or more per day, delivering trade goods to outposts and returning with tons of wild animal furs to Montreal and on to France. The gross national product of New France depended on these fur shipments. In France, the furs were processed into felt and made into stylish, expensive hats for ladies and gentlemen.