Museum Celebrates the Beaver

written by Nancy Carswell

Trappers relied on the beavertail snowshoe to keep them on top of deep snow and a snowshoe was multi-purpose making an excellent shovel. The map beneath the snowshoes details the two fur trade routes that intersected in the Shellbrook area. Travelling west from Prince Albert traders could head for Fort Pitt and then Fort Edmonton or north to Green Lake and eventually the Churchill River

To celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2013, the Shellbrook & District Heritage Museum is shining a monthly spotlight on a segment of its collection. While the majority of the artifacts relate to agriculture, a few remind us that Canada was built on the fur trade. During Fort Carlton's 1810-1885 primetime, the Shellbrook area would have seen many people involved in the fur trade as busy as beavers.

The primary focus of the fur trade was beaver. Beaver pelts make an exceptional felt that was insanely popular for men's and women's hats. These hats were status symbols. (Making felt gave rise to the expression "mad as a hatter" as exposure to mercury, a neurotoxin, during the process literally drove hatters mad.)

Textbooks commonly credit Europeans with inventing the fur trade while it would be more accurate to give them credit for expanding the fur trade. First Nations had an ancient, well-organized, and extensive trading system that included furs. The previous museum article mentioned First Nations stone tools in the collection that would have travelled thousands of kilometers. Textbooks may mention trade as a flow of European technology; pots, needles, beads, knives, axes, and guns, to First Nations, but may neglect to mention the flow of First Nations technology; canoes, toboggans, snowshoes, and moccasins, to European fur traders.

Fort Carlton was strategically placed for the two sides of the fur trade. To the north of the North Saskatchewan River lay the land of the beaver. Trappers would visit the fort in the fall to outfit themselves for the winter with food, clothing, and other necessities like snowshoes. The talents of both men and women were usually employed in making snowshoes with the men responsible for the frame and the women the netting. Trappers in the Shellbrook area would have probably relied on the beavertail or teardrop style to keep them on top of the deep snow. In the spring, the trappers would return to the post with precious furs.

To the south of the river roamed the bison and other large game. First Nations bands, like Ahtahkakoop's, and Metis groups, like Gabriel Dumont's, would produce literally tons of pemmican, the power line of the fur trade. Pemmican, from the Cree pimîhkân, is a superfood. After the hunt, women would butcher the meat into thin strips and spread them out to dry. Five pounds of meat would become one pound of concentrated protein. After pounding, the concentrate would be mixed with equal amounts of fat. It would become a complete superfood when dried berries, a carbohydrate, were added.

The North Saskatchewan River was a major fur trade route. It is portage free between Cumberland House (1774) and Fort Edmonton (1795). The strong currents east of Prince Albert meant canoes were pulled upstream rather than paddled a daunting 200 kilometers. York boats were also used. The Hudson Bay Company (HBC) purchased canoes from First Nations but even the largest canoes became inadequate for the volume of furs and pemmican transported. It was also difficult to find skilled voyageurs. Enter the York boat, based on traditional Orkney design and familiar to many HBC employees who called the Orkney Islands in the North Atlantic home. Both canoes and boats were powered by men primarily fuelled by pemmican.

The fur trade was highly competitive and very dynamic—constantly reshaped by economic and political forces. The HBC was English, what would become the Northwest Company (NWC) was French and then there were some independents. Beaver became scarce in the Great Lakes area and were scarce in the Hudson Bay area, so companies pointed their canoes westward. After the HBC and NWC merger in 1821, the HBC controlled the trade and consolidated 125 posts into 52. Strategically placed Fort Carlton remained as did Green Lake. Travelling from Prince Albert, traders would leave the North Saskatchewan, follow the Sturgeon River, and then the Shell Brook eventually intersecting with the overland Green Lake Fort Carlton trail.

The Museum Committee and Friends of the Museum are investing energy in inventorying the collection this winter. The inventorying process is the first step as the museum moves from storing artifacts to telling their stories. If you would like to help, please drop in to see Alanna Carswell at the library or call Marlene Fellows at 306-747-2475.