Connecting Different Types of Log Building Construction Between the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Worlds

A 17th-century half-timbered house in Bamberg, Germany (left). The Delorme House, a Métis 19th-century half-timbered log house, is located south of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

“Each new situation requires a new architecture.”

– Jean Nouvel

ON THE RHINE RIVER, 2025

On a bright fall day, 2025, our cruise ship gently glided down the Rhine River in southern Germany. The view was spectacular. The hillsides were covered with vineyards, churches, and castles, in various states of repair. I sipped my drink, taking in this beautiful, glorious historic landscape. What caught my eye, however, were the many magnificent half-timbered framed buildings, some centuries old, standing along the river’s edge.

Beautiful half-timber-framed buildings, majestic churches, and vineyards on the hillsides, along the Rhine River, in southern Germany.

Whenever travelling, I always get caught up in a Country’s history. My trip up the Danube River, then along the Main River, and down the Rhine River was no exception. While the magnificent churches and castles, representing the elite few, are impressive, it’s the country’s folk history that I find intriguing. Part of that history is preserved in its architecture.

This story is about the history of European and Canadian timber building methods. What is the historical connection, and how does it manifest in folk log building architecture? What factors were responsible for the different log building construction techniques present on both continents during specific periods in history?

I’ve been a long-time admirer and student of historic folk architecture in the Americas. This fascination began when I first read about the 18th and 19th-century log construction techniques present during the western Canadian fur trade era. ¹

My interest in folk building techniques didn’t stop with historic log construction methods. After visiting Iceland in 2022, I became fascinated by historic turf/sod houses in the Nordic countries and in Canada. But, to some degree, many of these structures, too, were timber-framed with sod infill. ²

Glaumbaer farmstead, northern Iceland (left). The Icelandic buildings are timber-frame with sod infill. A rare wood-framed house, with sod infill for walls, east-central Alberta, Canada (right).

LOG/TIMBER BUILDING TECHNIQUES

Before delving into the bewildering array and genesis of historic log or timber construction techniques, let’s first examine the composition of the most basic building log construction techniques.

1. Full-Timbered Horizontal and Vertical Log Buildings

Full-timbered buildings are entirely built of large, rounded or squared logs. The beauty of this method lies in its simplicity, which requires few tools for construction (e.g., axe, knife, drill/auger). There are two main types: 1) horizontally laid log walls, which were notched together at the corners of the building; 2) vertically oriented logs either resting on a horizontal foundation or placed into the ground. Both methods are referred to as Piece sur piece construction by the French and also described as ‘massed‘ log building construction.

Full-timbered horizontal log house with saddle-notched corners, Alberta, Canada (top left). Full-timbered church and rectory, with dove-tailed corner notching. St. Charles Oblate Mission (1867-1903), Dunvegan, Alberta (top right). Full-timbered clerk’s quarters (c.1878), with dove-tailed corner notching. Hudson’s Bay Company, Fort Dunvegan (1878-1918), Alberta (bottom left). Full-timbered vertical-walled dwelling, Fort Michilimackinac (c.1715-1781) (bottom centre). This method was also referred to as *Poteaux-en-terre* (post-in-ground) or *Poteaux-sur-sol* (post-on-sill) construction by the French. It was used in Europe (dating back thousands of years) and in early colonial North America.

While few tools were necessary to construct them, full-timbered log buildings required large, long, straight logs and either a pulley and rope system or many men to lift the top layers of heavy timbers into place.

2. Half-Timbered Building Construction

This technique uses rounded or squared timbers for the building’s skeleton or frame. The spaces between the frame timbers are filled with short, horizontal logs, brick, clay, rocks, or other materials. ³ The earliest forms were often filled with short horizontal logs when wood in Europe was plentiful (but large, long, straight trees were becoming scarce). As timber resources dwindled in Europe, other materials (listed above) were used as infills between the log frames. This building method was referred to as Colombage by the French. When we visited small Bavarian towns, we saw beautiful examples of half-timbered houses, some built in the 14th century (and still standing and occupied).

Examples of half-timber framed buildings in Canada. The squared or round log frame is filled in with horizontal round or squared logs. In western Canada, this building method was also referred to as ‘Red River Frame’. It was common at Canadian fur trade forts and also used by the Métis people in western Canada. Fort Edmonton (1830-1915) warehouse, with large vertical squared timbers with horizontal infill logs, is being dismantled in 1915 (left). A Métis Red River Frame log house belonging to Andre Nault, Manitoba, Canada (bottom right). ⁴

A fine example of a half-timber framed house in Bamberg, Germany (left), dating back to the 17th century. The half-timber-framed house on the right features wattle and daub, brick, and stone infill. The infill was then coated with a layer of plaster, leaving the timber frame logs exposed. This building is located in Bad Langensalza, Germany. ⁵

Half-timbered building construction techniques had several advantages over full-timbered building construction techniques: 1) they required less timber; and, 2) they allowed more variation or artistic freedom in the building’s facade. However, they were much more labour-intensive to build and required more joinery skills than the full-timbered horizontal log buildings with corner notching. ⁶ Also, because the timber frame was exposed to the elements, and the fill was of poor insulating quality, these houses were not as warm as a full-timbered log house.

Examples of half-timber-framed houses in Bamberg, Germany. The oldest structure (top left) was built in 1333. The wood timbers are remarkably well preserved because rot-resistant wood, such as oak, was used. They were often charred, and some of the top stories of buildings had overhangs to keep log frames below them dry (bottom right). Also, the timbers were connected with wooden dowels and not iron nails, preventing rot around the nails. Note also the different styles of decorative infill on these houses – a means of expressing the owners’ individualism and wealth. Many of these houses belonged to the rich German gentry. The houses of the common people, though built using similar techniques, would have been less decorative and ornate.

A close-up photograph of a German half-timber-framed building with squared log infill showing the considerable detail in log joinery methods. ⁷

In the German and French countryside, half-timbered farm buildings were common, but not nearly decorative as those in the towns and cities. Also, the farm house/barn was common in Germany and France, joining both the house and barn together for practical purposes and a lower expenditure of buildings resources.

The farm house/barn, also known as the fachhallenhaus, Einhaus (single-house) or Wohnstallhaus (residential barn house) by the Germans, Mas (Masia in Catalonia), and the English term Tithe Barn. These half-timbered farm structures, with a variety of infill, were common in Europe, but as we will see, were quite rare in Canada. Thatched Fachhallenhaus, built 1779, near Gifhorn, Germany (top left). The Riek’sches Haus, built 1553, in Hamburg-Bergedorf, Germany (top right). A side- and end view of the house/barn consisting of half-timbered construction with brick infill. ⁸

A cursory examination of European log construction building methods through time and space indicates the following: 1) both methods were used in many European countries throughout the centuries; and, 2) the full-timbered horizontal log construction method with corner notching or vertical log timbered methods always preceded the half-timbered method.

And in every case, people abandoned the full-timbered construction method because by the Late Middle Ages (1300-1500 AD), suitable large, long, straight logs, necessary for full-timbered construction, became scarce in many areas of Europe, requiring people to use different materials for their infill instead of logs – hence the emergence of the half-timbered or the Colomblage building construction method. In regions where forests were patchy, the full-timbered and half-timbered method with horizontal log infill often occurred together, as it did in parts of western Ukraine.

We must also keep in mind that, all things being equal, the full-timbered horizontal corner-notched or vertical log building method produced a relatively warmer living environment than the half-timbered method. This was especially true if a layer of plaster or mud was applied to the outside and inside of the building’s walls.

This diagram shows the main timber building construction through time. It should be kept in mind that these techniques overlapped and coexisted in some regions in Europe (i.e., at a certain period in history, some regions, for example, maintained good timber resources while others did not.)

Europeans Settle North America

The first Europeans to settle in the northern parts of North America in the early 17th century originated primarily from England and France. They brought with them their culture and traditions, including their building construction techniques. In historic Canada, we find both full-timbered and half-timbered building construction techniques, and hybrids thereof.

In France, Piece sur piece building construction was used in areas with abundant timber. In many regions, both styles were used concurrently, depending on local resources and the specific needs of the building. Half-timbering (of the Colombage style) became more common in areas where timber was less abundant or in cities where fire risk was higher (a combination of wood with non-combustible materials like stone and brick was safer). ⁹

After the medieval period (fifth to fifteen century), full log construction became less common in the British Isles, also because of a scarcity of suitable, large, straight timber. Alternatives were sought, and half-timber-framing, which used smaller, more efficient wooden members, or replaced them altogether with wattle and daub or brick infill, became the most common method of building construction.

A half-timbered house in Thaxted, Essex (c.1462-1465) (left). ¹⁰ Old half-timbered, 15th-century Grammar School in Ledbury, England. ¹¹

CANADIAN FOLK ARCHITECTURE – DOES HISTORY REVERSE ITSELF?

Before I dive into the intriguing history of folk log/timber building in Canada and its origins, I introduce the concept of Nature versus Nurture. This concept, originally developed in the field of psychology, questions whether the human personality is a function of genetics or environment, or both. It has been readapted and applied to anthropology and history: are human traditions and customs a function of our collective culture history, personalities, our environment, or a bit of all of them?

In other words, when we examine folk architecture in Canada, why were certain techniques adopted, abandoned, or modified? This question has piqued my interest for many years. After visiting parts of Europe and studying the history of log/timber building construction methods in Canada, I’m convinced that in some (but not all) areas of Canada, the history of log/timber architecture is reversed from its historic development in Europe:

The half-timbered building construction method (Colombage) was first introduced in French Canada and then was replaced by the full-timbered (Piece sur piece) method, or modified adaptations thereof.

The Reason: A very Harsh Climate and Unlimited Timber Building Resources

Let me lay out the facts of my argument for you.

Early French Canada

According to C. W. Jefferys (1942), the earliest known log buildings, consisting of half-timbered buildings, were constructed in the 17th and 18th centuries in New France.

The *Maison de Jeanne* is a medieval half-timbered house in Sévérac-le-Château, France, dating back to the 15th century (left). An artist’s rendition of Samuel de Champlain and Guillaume of Caën’s farmstead in 1626 (based on archaeological investigations). Erected downstream from Quebec City at Cap Tourmente, the farm buildings have a thatched gable roof, half-timber frame with clay infill, set between vertical posts at approximately three-foot intervals. ¹²

However, soon the French colonists, particularly in Quebec, adapted traditional Norman half-timbered techniques (known as maison à colombages or pan de bois) to the materials and climate of North America. They replaced traditional infill materials, such as wattle and daub, with local wood, stone and mortar (pierrotage), or a mixture of mud, moss, and animal hair (bousillage). But this transition to new building methods did not stop there.

This half-timbered Lamontagne house in Rimouski, Quebec, Canada, built in 1732, has a vertical timber frame with the vertical timbers spaced close together with little infill. It appears that building methods were reverting to more wood and less infill, making them more suitable for Canada’s harsh winters. ¹²

As settlers adapted their building methods to the local climate and available materials, the half-timbered style evolved into more practical forms better suited to the harsh Canadian winters. The half-timber frame and infill methods were replaced by full-timbered horizontal or vertical logs (pièce-sur-pièce), offering better insulation. ¹³

Later types of French Canadian building architecture, modified from the original *Colombage* styles, consisted of full timber-framed buildings with timber infill logs. The frame was either built on a horizontal sill log or vertical corner and wall poles set into the ground (the latter known as *poteaux en terre* (posts in the ground). ¹⁴

To make the full-timbered or half-timbered house even warmer, the logs were covered with a layer of mud plaster.

I think French Canadians abandoned the traditional half-timbered building construction method to better cope with the harsh Canadian climate. There was also an unlimited supply of large, long, straight timber resources, which made the construction of full-timbered corner-notched buildings possible.

In French Canada, the history of log building construction technique was in the reverse order when compared to Europe. It started with the half-timbered method and then progressed to the full-timbered, corner-notched method.

In this case, it seems, Nature prevailed, necessitating this adaptation in French Canada.

Late 18th-Century and 19th-Century Western Canadian Fur Trade

The same log building pattern repeats itself in the early 18th and 19th-century fur trade and later 19th-century settlement in parts of western Canada, initially consisting of half-timbered building methods (using post-on-sill and post-in-ground foundation construction). Infill between the timber frame was, however, always logs because of suitable, abundant timber. ¹⁵

Half-timbered buildings at the Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Edmonton (c.1830-1915), Alberta, Canada (left). A side view (pretend you’re looking at a building wall) of the half-timbered post-in-ground and post-on-sill construction methods (right). Post-in-ground construction was used during the early period of the western fur trade and was replaced by post-on-sill construction. It isn’t clear why it was replaced. In Europe, post-in-ground construction was an older building method, particularly for French colonial buildings. Post-on-sill construction was considered more substantial and was often used on less stable ground or for more permanent structures. After 1821, western Canadian fur trade posts became more permanent, perhaps reverting to the post-on-sill construction method.

And, in some fort dwellings, the entire inside and outside walls were covered with thick layers of mud held in place by a willow latticework. ¹⁶

Our archaeological investigations at the NWC Fort George (1792-1800), central Alberta, Canada, uncovered large amounts of baked mud plaster (baked when the building burned down) along the dwelling walls. The negative imprints on the plaster revealed how the mud was applied and whether logs were round or square (left). Also, we found that Chief Trader Angus Shaw’s Big House, built in the post-in-ground construction method, was better insulated than the labourers’ quarters (also using the same construction method). Wealth and status also came into play in the choice of log building construction methods.

Then, around the 1870s, full-timbered horizontal log building construction began to appear at many fur trade posts in central and northern parts of western Canada, replacing the half-timbered building method. It is currently uncertain why this transition occurred. The greater permanence of forts may have led to the adoption of this technique. Also, a full-timbered horizontal log building, covered with a layer of plaster, would have been warmer than the half-framed building. For those who have experienced a northern Canadian winter, any insulation advantage would be important. However, why it took nearly 100 years to adopt it remains unclear.

Western Canadian Métis

“Our house, like all the others at that time in St. Norbert, was built from logs well squared off with a large axe and held superimposed by tenon and mortise joints and what we called in those days a ‘dovetail’. It was one and a half stories high, two times longer than wide and covered with earth and straw.” (Louis Goulet, born along the Red River in 1859) ¹⁷

The western Canadian Métis, whose origins are connected to the fur trade (where the companys’ male employees took First Nations female partners), also constructed their buildings using either full- or half-timbered construction methods. Log building traditions would have been passed down from father to son. In northern Alberta, Canada, with its vast timber resources, during the late 19th century, the Métis built their houses with full horizontal log walls with various types of corner-notching. ¹⁸

A Métis house built by the Jean Baptiste family, c.1940, Turtle Mountain, Manitoba, Canada. It had horizontal logs held together by corner notching (top left). The outside, and perhaps the inside of the structure, were mudded for warmth. Inside a reconstructed Métis cabin, Fort Walsh historic site, Alberta, Canada (top right). A late 19th-century Métis full-timbered horizontal log house, Carcajou, Alberta, Canada (bottom left). A late 19th-century full-timbered horizontal log Métis log house, Fort Vermilion, Alberta, Canada (bottom right).

In Alberta, Canada, even during the 1930s, some Métis constructed their buildings from logs. The Baptiste River Métis used full-timbered horizontal building construction methods. They connected the large, round poplar logs covered in bark, at the corners, with an axe-hewn saddle notch.

The Baptiste River Fluery family (c.1942) (Top left). All the buildings were full-timbered, constructed from horizontal logs joined by saddle-notched corners (top and bottom right). By the 1990s, the buildings had collapsed (bottom left). As these images show, the poplar logs were large and only the cracks between the logs were chinked (bottom right). ¹⁹

Full-timbered horizontal log construction was the primary method used by Alberta Métis at the late 19th-century settlements, Carcajou, Buttertown (north Vermilion), Buffalo Lake, Tail Creek, and Baptiste River in Alberta. However, in parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada, late 19th-century Métis half-timber framed buildings (where infill consists of short logs) often coexisting with full horizontal log-walled buildings.

When we look closer, for example, at the Métis settlement of Batoche (c.1872-1920), Saskatchewan, Canada, both construction methods were used. According to all sources the earliest Métis houses were of full-timbered horizontal log construction. Only the Saint Antoine de Padoue Church and the St. Antoine de Padoue Rectory, constructed later in 1883-1885, were built in the red river frame, but both buildings were built by the Oblate missionaries and not the Métis.

Historic photographs of Batoche and Métis log buildings in the surrounding settlement. Batoche in 1888 (top left). Saint-Antoine de Padoue Church and rectory (1883-85) built in the Red River Frame (top right). Métis cabin at Fish Creek (near Batoche) with corner notching (bottom left). Metis cabin near Duck Lake (and Batoche) with corner notching (bottom right). ²⁰

If my observations have any credence, adequate timber resources may have been the defining factor in the choice of log/timber construction methods by the late 19th century Métis. ²¹

Other Métis buildings in Saskatchewan. Log cabin (top left). Log buildings, northern Saskatchewan (top center top right, bottom left). Log cabin near Batoche, North-West Rebellion (bottom center). Métis dwelling at Wood Mountain, 1874 (bottom right). ²⁰

Late 19th-Century Settlement in Western Canada

Ukrainian Settlers

A Ukrainian family in Manitoba, Canada, is putting on the finishing touches to their first log house. Generally, both the inside and outside of these log dwellings were coated with a layer of mud and plaster consisting of clay, mixed with straw or even horse manure. This is a rare photograph of a half-timber frame log house. Most of the houses were of full-timbered horizontal log construction with corner notching. ²²

Parts of western Canada were opened for settlement in the late 19th century. Large numbers of Ukrainian immigrants, primarily from the western regions of today’s Ukraine (originally the provinces of Galicia and Bukovyna of the then Austro-Hungarian Empire), settled in what was or would eventually become Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. They brought with them their traditions, including their log/timber folk architecture. ²³

Typical Galician farmhouse, 1920s. The log construction work is hidden beneath a thick layer of plaster, but would likely be of either half-timbered or full horizontal log construction with notched corners. This might be a house/barn (house and barn joined together as one building).

Whenever I travel through parts of western Canada, I often come across mostly old full-timber structures having large horizontal logs with beautiful dovetailed corner notching. Many of these buildings are disappearing, but some refuse to go down easily. They speak to how well built they are and of Canada’s considerable ethnic diversity.

The Lawrence Babiak residence, Manitoba, Canada, 1900 (left). This Ukrainian house features a horizontal corner construction style. ²⁴ Collapsed Métis log buildings, late 19th century, Carcajou, northern Alberta, Canada (center and right).

Like other parts of Europe, Ukrainians traditionally built their log buildings using various methods: “In the western Ukraine, where the majority of the immigrants to Canada originated, log construction was most common. There were three different construction methods used: horizontal log construction with dovetailed or saddle‐notched corners, post and fill (known as Red River Frame in western Canada) and vertical log construction in which the walls were secured by top and bottom sills. The horizontal construction method was favoured, but in areas deficient of good timber, post and fill construction was common. The vertical log method was used only occasionally.” ²⁵

A map of Europe in the 1920s (left). ²⁵ The locations of the former Ukrainian provinces of Galicia and Bukovyna are close to the Polish-Romanian border. Examples of folk houses in the districts of western Ukraine at the close of the nineteenth century (right). ²⁶

Early Ukrainian pioneers migrated to the western Canadian parkland and homesteaded large tracts of forested land. They had to clear the land, but for them, this was like finding a gold mine. There were many beautiful stands of mature trees to build their homes and farm buildings. During the time of immigration, many parts of Ukraine no longer had such vast timber resources.

Examples of early Ukrainian folk architecture in western Canada. These buildings, where the logs are visible, were constructed using the full-timbered horizontal log corner notching style.

In central and parts of northern Alberta, the early settlers built full-timber horizontal structures, even though many of them came from areas in the Ukraine where half-timbered building construction existed. I believe the reason people reverted to full-timber construction was its simplicity, requiring fewer tools. It was less labour-intensive and required fewer joinery skills than half-timbered construction. Also, there were abundant suitable timber resources in the Canadian parklands necessary for such construction. And of course, the brutally cold western Canadian winters likely played a role in the choice of log construction methods. Many of these houses contained a thick layer of plaster on the inside and outside walls.

However, according to John C. Lehr, in areas of Manitoba where Ukrainian full-timbered horizontal log construction and half-timbered construction coexisted, suitable wood for construction determined which building method Ukrainians chose:

“The type of log construction used by Ukrainian pioneers in Manitoba varied considerably. Horizontal logs corner-joined by saddle notchings was most widely employed but in areas where good building timber was difficult to obtain, post and fill, known locally as Red River Frame or Hudson’s Bay frame was often used. In some of the more marshy areas where any kind of mature timber was absent the Ukrainians used stockade walling with vertical timbers, but this method was used only infrequently. The Ukrainian immigrants were familiar with all three of these construction methods from their homeland…” ²⁷

Ukrainian folk house near Arbakka, Manitoba. Vertical timbering in the construction of both the house and the attached shed lean-to (shanda) (left). Abandoned Ukrainian farmhouse, near Vita, Manitoa, showing half-timbered or Red-River Frame construction and exterior mud plaster (right). ²⁸

The same scenario is also present in parts of central Saskatchewan, Canada. A few years ago, Professor Emeritus, Dr. David Meyer, University of Saskatchewan, sent me images of half-timber framed buildings in the Radisson/Hafford area, northwest of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. ²⁹

Ukrainian half-timbered houses with log infill from the Radisson-Hafford area, central Saskatchewan, Canada. Photographs courtesy of Dr. David Meyer, University of Saskatchewan.

At first, I thought these were old fur trade or Metis buildings, since a half-timber frame with log infill, also known as Red River Frame, occurred at many fur trade posts. Also, a few Ukrainian half-timbered buildings were present in Manitoba, but in Alberta, there are no recorded Ukrainian half-timbered buildings. But the written and oral evidence were irrefutable. These houses were built by Ukrainians who settled in central Saskatchewan during the early 1900s.

The wall infill of the Ukrainian houses in Saskatchewan consisted of short timber pieces mortised into the vertical corner and wall logs. This was a modification of the traditional half-timber framed buildings in the Ukraine that, because of declining forests, used other types of fill between the logs. Mud plaster also covered both the outside and inside of the building walls, making them quite comfortable to live in during the cold winter months. However, the exposed timber frame still acts as a cold bridge between the inside and outside of the house.

Details of log frame construction methods and materials. The building on the bottom right consists of both half-timber framed (right side) and a horizontal dove-tailed corner construction method (left side). The full-timbered dovetail building was built first and the half-timbered addition was added later. This sequence of building events might have occurred because the timber resources necessary for full-timbered horizontal log construction, were dwindling. Photographs courtesy of Dr. David Meyer, University of Saskatchewan.

To make a long story short, it is possible that the central Saskatchewan half-timbered Ukrainian buildings were a product of inadequate timber resources required to construct the full-timbered horizontal log and corner-notched buildings. We base this interpretation on history, that, given a choice when adequate timber resources are present, humans will revert to the full-timbered corner-notched building methods, especially in a harsh winter climate such as the interior of western Canada.

Mennonite Settlers

Early Mennonites, immigrating from various parts of Europe in the late 18th century, also maintained some of their traditional building techniques while readopting others, such as log building construction in Canada. For example, they brought with them the conventional house/barn, which they built of full-timbered logs. Even though the house/barn was common in France and England, it was rare in historic Canada. ³⁰

An early Mennonite house/barn built in Manitoba, 1878, with log construction (left). A sketch depicting a Mennoite house/barn on the left and another dwelling made of full-timbered log construction on the right (right). (Provincial Archives of Manitoba) ³¹

TIMBER BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: NATURE OR NURTURE?

Whenever we ask questions of history, especially why someone did something in a certain way, or in this case, why people in historic Europe and Canada built their houses in a particular way, we nearly always eventually confront the ‘nature versus nurture’ issue. When asked why they built a specific kind of house, people might say, ‘Well, that’s how my father built them and that’s how I learned to build them,’ Or, ‘I have to build this way now because good trees are sparse’, or, ‘There is a another way to build that make the house warmer in cold weather.

We humans are often reluctant to change the way we live or construct our dwellings. Our traditions hang heavy on us. But sooner or later, perhaps after freezing your arse off in the new French Canada, and spending endless hours cutting down trees for firewood to keep warm, it dawns on you that a different, more sustainable building technique was required to cope with the Canadian winters. The half-timbered framed houses of French, English and German Europe, with their various types of infill, were unsuitable for the harsh Canadian climate.

And once out west, any log structure, whether it was half-timber framed with log infill, or full-timbered horizontal log construction with notched corners, required thick layers of mud both on the outer and inner walls to be comfortable in the winter.

And, how far have we come when considering our modern building methods? Take a look at the photograph below. Yes, we have replaced logs with milled lumber, and mud, straw, stone, or brick infill with modern insulation. The cladding is wood, and still mostly plaster inside the house. But the building framing system is reminiscent of the historic half-timbered houses in Europe and North America.

These thoughts flashed through my mind as we drifted down the Rhine River or strolled through the streets of small towns in southern Germany, admiring the wonderful folk architecture.

Yes, the European castles and palaces are lovely, but they don’t represent the entire architectural histories of the peoples of either continent.

One of the many castle ruins standing on prominent hills overlooking the Rhine River, in southern Germany. Some of the buildings inside this castle are also of half-timber framed construction. Even the European aristocracy used the half-timbered framed construction method.

For those of you interested in more details, read my blog: My Little Wooden House: Wood Building Techniques in Canada, published 2020/02/28[↩]
For more information, see my blog: Ancient Turf Houses and the Canadian Connection, published 2022/09/20.[↩]
Technically, if the infill was also of logs, the building would be full-timbered, since half-timbering refers to only the frame constructed of logs and infill consisting of other materials.[↩]
Public Archives of Manitoba, N19472[↩]
Photograph on the right, courtesy of https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Timber_framing[↩]
However, once the Colombage construction was adopted, fewer joinery skills were required.[↩]
Photograph courtesy of Ukrainian Farm Buildings. An Architectural Theme Study. Ed Ledohowski & David Butterfield. Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism.[↩]
All images courtesy of Wikepedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_German_house[↩]
Areas in Normandy, Alsace, and Brittany had half-timbered houses during the medieval and Renaissance Periods. Examples still exist in towns and cities such as Strasbourg, Rouen, and Tours.[↩]
Historic England Archives, DP261785[↩]
Historic England Archives, DP039622[↩]
Courtesy of Ontario Barn Preservation: Traditional Barns in Quebec. 2023. Arthur Plumpton[↩][↩]
2015, Architecture in New-France. https://maisondeplaisancedenouvelle-france.blogspot.com/2015/05/architecture-in-new-france.html[↩]
Source: Early Building Construction, Jefferys, Charles W., 1942. The Picture Gallery of Canadian History Volume 1:82.[↩]
In western Canada, the Hudson’s Bay Company and particularly the North West Company hired many French Canadians from French Canada, including carpenters.[↩]
for more details on these methods, readers should refer to my earlier blog on log building construction techniques: My Little Wooden House: Wood Building Techniques in Canada, published 2020/02/28[↩]
Louis Goulet in Guillaume Charette, Vanishing spaces: Memoires of a Prairie Métis. Winnipeg: Éditions Bois-Brûlés, 1976: 3-4.[↩]
To my knowledge, the Métis in Alberta did not build half-timbered buildings, which they did in other parts of western Canada.[↩]
I was involved in having this Métis historic settlement designated as a Provincial Historic Site, in recognition of Métis history in Alberta. At the time, my actions didn’t endear me to some of my colleagues at the Historic Resources Branch, Government of Alberta, who believed that the remains did not warrant protection and recognition. Currently, we have come a long way in recognizing that folk history, in its various forms, is as important to recognize and protect as the more grandiose buildings and places in Canada. Photographs courtesy of Beth Hrychuk, 1995. THE BAPTISTE SITE, ALBERTA, FdPs-1. RECONSTRUCTING TWENTIETH CENTURY &TIS LIFEWAYS IN ALBERTA. PERMIT 95-067. Archaeological Survey of Alberta.[↩]
Photographs courtesy of: Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research. https://www.metismuseum.ca/browse/index.php?id=624[↩][↩]
However, without a larger sample size, and accurate building dates, it is currently impossible to say whether this is an absolute rule (i.e., all buildings…) or a relative rule (i.e., most buildings…) [↩]
Provincial Archives
Manitoba[↩]
I have a soft spot for early western Ukrainian folk architecture, partly because of my interest in log/timber construction techniques of any sort, but also because my father’s family immigrated to Poland from western Ukraine sometime after 1920. My father was born in Lviv, Ukraine, in 1920 (which was in the province of Galicia). The family considered themselves German, but as my last name belies, there’s a strong Ukrainian connection in there somewhere.[↩]
From: Ukrainian Farm Buildings. An Architectural Theme Study. Ed Ledohowski &
David Butterfield. Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism.[↩]
From Ukrainian Farm Buildings. An Architectural History Study. Ed Ledohowski & David Butterfield. Manitoba Culture, Heritage, and Tourism. https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/internal_reports/pdfs/ukrainian_buildings_full.pdf[↩][↩]
From V.P. Samojlovych, Ukrains’ ke Narodne. Kyiv: Navakova Dumka, 1972[↩]
John C. Lehr. Folk Architecture in Manitoba: Mennonites and Ukrainians. https: dalspaceb.library.dal.ca/server/api/core bitstreams/30582121-0c38-4504-a08a-410c7895a59b/content[↩]
Photographs from: John C. Lehr. Folk Architecture in Manitoba: Mennonites and Ukrainians. https://dalspaceb.library.dal.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/30582121-0c38-4504-a08a-410c7895a59b/content[↩]
We (David Meyer, Wayne Lerch, Heinz Pyszczyk) are currently preparing a research paper for publication on these buildings, so my descriptions here are brief.[↩]
French or English colonists in Canada rarely used this method of construction even though it was common in Europe.[↩]
From: Traditional Period (1880 – 1900). Early Structures (1880-1885). Province of Manitoba. https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/internal[↩]

December 2, 2023December 2, 2023

Canadian Fur Trade Archaeology: Alberta’s Forgotten Legacy

The once proud and famous Hudson’s Bay Comany Fort Edmonton V (c.1830 – 1915), one of the largest fur trade establishments in the Canadian Northwest, sits dwarfed by the New Alberta Legislature building, as Alberta moves onto a new era, c.1912. ¹

When I took my first trowel strokes, as a field school student at the historic Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Victoria (c.1864 – 1898), Alberta in 1974, I knew immediately I could get to like this work. Nearly fifty years later that feeling remains.

Removing the sod layer at the Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Victoria in 1974. Beneath the sod, we found the archaeological remains of the fort trading store, which after over a hundred years, still contained the foundation logs and well-preserved cellar remains.

Canada has a long, colourful, and often tumultuous fur trade history. The fur trade, in beaver pelts, was the prime economic driver of early Canada for over three centuries. However, the trade was often viewed with either disdain or opportunity by Canada’s First Nations people who participated in it.

“Of what use to us are the skins of beavers, wolves, and foxes? Yet it is for these we get guns and axes.” (First Nations leader, Kootenae Appee, c.1808, recorded by David Thompson)

What the people of the Canadian fur trade did and how they lived is preserved in the thousands of documents left behind by Company officers, clerks, explorers, and first missionaries. It was occasionally captured in paintings by frontier artists such as Paul Kane.

A painting of the Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Edmonton V (c.1830 – 1915) by artist Paul Kane, 1849-56. ²

But fur trade history is also preserved in the remains of many fur trade forts constructed across Canada as it expanded westward in search of new fur-rich lands. Often those fur trade forts left behind a rich archaeological record.

Alberta is no exception. In fact, the then Athapuskow Country in today’s northern Alberta, was among the richest fur districts in North America. When American fur trader Peter Pond first discovered it in 1778, he acquired so many furs that he had to cache some because he couldn’t take them all back to Montreal.

Trader Colin Fraser, in his warehouse, examining his lot of furs worth an estimated $35,000 – a huge sum of money in the 19th century. As the Hudson’s Bay Company 1826 fur returns show, both the Athabasca and Saskatchewan Districts, mostly located in today’s Alberta, had among the highest numbers of beaver pelts in the entire Canadian Northwest. ³

I am often asked, how many fur trade establishments were there in Alberta? According to our Alberta inventories, that number is over 300. We are probably missing a few forts that were never recorded in the sometimes ‘sketchy’ historic documents. And as Alexander Ross’s description of Fort Assiniboine suggests, some of these places hardly deserved the name ‘fort’.

“…a petty post erected on the north bank of the river, and so completely embosomed in the woods, that we did not catch a glimpse of it until we were among huts, and surrounded by howling dogs and screeching children. At this sylvan retreat there were but three rude houses….and there was not a picket or palisade to guard them from either savage or bear. This mean abode was dignified with the name of fort.” (HBC Fort Assiniboine, 1825, described by Alexander Ross)

The majority of fur trade posts were located in central and northern Alberta, built by the various fur trade Companies operating from eastern Canada or England. The ‘Whiskey’ posts listed here are a later nineteenth-century addition to the trade, located mainly in southern Alberta and operated primarily by American pedlars.

Many of these forts have not been found. Often their locations were poorly documented. The physical evidence they left behind is difficult to see in the dense bush when traipsing through Alberta’s densely forested river valleys.

Graph showing the number of fur trade posts whose location is known and those that have not been found. Only approximately seven percent of these forts have been excavated.

In the dense bush of the Peace River floodplain, there are only a few hints suggesting a fur trade post once existed there – mounds representing collapsed building fireplaces and depressions representing cellars or some other type of pit. Occasionally faint depressions marking the ditches dug to place in the palisade pickets for the fort walls, still appear on the surface of the ground.

But even these features are often hard to see. Despite having found the Boyer River fort site thirty years earlier, it took over an hour to relocate a few depressions and mounds in the dense undergrowth of the Peace River floodplain.

Students from the University of Lethbridge searched through the dense bush for evidence of the 1788 North West Company’s Boyer’s Post in 2018. Only a vague description of the location of the post existed – it was built near the confluence of the Boyer and Peace Rivers.

With new technologies, we are now able to find archaeological sites hidden in the dense boreal forest more easily. LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) imagery strips the vegetation from the surface and then maps the surface contours with a high degree of accuracy. Above is an example of LIDAR imagery, an optical remote sensing technology that can measure the distance, or other properties of a target by illuminating the target with light often using pulses from a laser. Not only did LIDAR reveal the large cellar depressions at Fort Vermilion I (c.1798 – 1830) marked by the upper two circles, but a large depression of an unknown site marked by the lower circle.

The fur trade documentary record leaves many things to be desired. It is often a biased, one-sided description of the trade and the more important members operating in it. Company workers and Indigenous people have little or no voice in those documents.

Despite being an incomplete testimony of human history, the archaeological remains we find reflect not only the lives of a literate few but also those of the many Company servants and Indigenous peoples living at the posts who left no written record behind. Their lives are reflected in the dwellings they lived in, the possessions they made or bought, and the food they ate.

Fur trade society was stratified, primarily by one’s occupation, ethnicity, and gender. The fur trade archaeological and documentary records reveal that those individuals in the highest positions had access to the best resources. Officers’ quarters were bigger, and better constructed than those of the servants ⁴.

“…while the exterior is fair enough with its winter porch, protected doors, the inside was somewhat of a maze and more like a rabbit warren is supposed to be, both in excess of occupants…” (George Simpson McTavish describing the servants’ quarters at an inland fort)

The schematic drawing of the buildings at the North West Company Fort George (c.1792 – 1800) is a case in point. This drawing was completed primarily from archaeological remains since no map of the fort existed. The men’s quarters on the left housed the Company workers and their families, sometimes holding up to 10 – 12 people in tiny, confined single rooms. These dwellings were dwarfed by Chief Trader, Angus Shaw’s two-storey Big House, where he and his family resided.

The layout of Fort George is based on archaeological evidence. There are only five references to fort construction in clerk, Duncan McGillivray’s 1794-95 journal, the only surviving document from this late 18th century *Fortes des Prairie*.

The personal possessions of the Fort population inform us about their gender, beliefs, and cultural affiliations. For example, early in the fur trade when metals were new to Indigenous people, old, leaky copper pots and larger pieces of silver were repurposed and made into jewelry.

Copper and silver tinkling cones and tags, likely made by the Indigenous wives of Company men, were highly prized objects often replacing or incorporated with traditional shell and bone adornment. They also remind us of the importance of women in the trade and everyday operation of the forts.

Artifacts from Fort Vermilion I (c.1798-1830) were repurposed from metal and made into ornaments to suit the needs of Indigenous people living at the fur trade posts: A. Copper Tinkling cones to adorn jingle dresses; B and C. Silver tags (to adorn dress as in illustration D) cut from a larger piece of trade silver; D. A leather Dene dress adorned with metal tags made from scrap metal ⁵

The inequality existing among fur trade ranks is also reflected in their diet. During the early years of the western fur trade, wild game made up most of the food fort personnel ate. Often our fur trade posts contain an abundant, rich array of faunal remains.

Those animal bones, along with the surviving documents, show the large quantities of meat eaten by fort personnel. Meat and fat were rationed differently, depending on employees’ rank and position at the fort. Officers and their families often had more and better cuts of meat and were given more of the highly prized fat.

“…we have finished a Glaciere containing 500 thighs & shoulders for the consumption of April & May…” (Clerk, Duncan McGillivray, Fort George, 1794-95, describing the amount of meat required to feed the fort inhabitants.)

That amount of meat, representing 500 animals (likely bison), consumed over approximately sixty-one days, averages out to about most of eight bison a day required to feed the 160 hungry mouths at Fort George.

Faunal remains from the North West Company Fort George, Alberta. This fort, while primarily there to acquire furs, was essentially a meat factory, processing tens of thousands of pounds of meat necessary to supply the fur trade brigades on the journeys from the east into the Canadian interior. The photograph on the left shows butchered bone remains thrown up against the south palisade of the fort. Bone debris fills an old building cellar in the photograph on the right.

Category	Fresh Meat	Dried Meat	Pounded Meat	Grease
Officers Mess (2 persons)	2250 lbs	57 lbs	57 lbs	105 lbs
Officers Families (6 adults)	4283	159	6	108
Engages (8 persons)	7752	576	576	18
Engages Families (3 adults)	2612	148	148	4

Meat rations at Fort Vermilion II, 1832-33. While the Engages and their families are getting less fresh, dried, and pounded meat than the officers, they received far less fat per individual than the Officers and their families. ⁶

Despite the Northwest’s seemingly endless supply of resources, the fur trade’s impact on game animal populations soon showed, often in ugly ways.

“…we learn from Mr. McTavish that they are in a starving condition at Lac Verd, there being forced to pick up the fish Bones which they threw out last fall to prolong their miserable existence.” (Journal of Duncan McGillivray, 1794-95)

Alberta’s fur trade era, and that of the rest of Canada, has left a rich and varied historic footprint. It represents not only how an elite, literate portion of the population of the fur trade lived, but also how the rest of the many employees, representing a diverse number of ethnic groups, fared. While considered a darker side of Canadian colonialism, it nevertheless is part of Canadian history and cannot be ignored.

City of Edmonton Archives. EA-10-2517[↩]
Courtesy Royal Ontario Museum, 912.1.38[↩]
Provincial Archives of Alberta. B10018.[↩]
Pyszczyk, Heinz. 1992. The Architecture of the Western Canadian Fur Trade: A Cultural-Historical Perspective. Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, Bulletin 17(2):32-41[↩]
D from Kate Duncan. 1989. Northern Athapaskan Beadwork. A Beadwork Tradition. Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver.[↩]
Source: HBCA B60/d/2a/fa.12[↩]

March 14, 2021March 14, 2021

Small Things That Bind A Nation

Whenever I think of everyday objects that bind, I think of duct tape first. And one Red Green show in particular where Steve Smith tries to prevent Quebec from separating by duct taping it to Ontario.

“A museum should not just be a place for fancy paintings but should be a place where we can communicate our lives through our everyday objects.”

Orhan Pamu

(Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.)

In a recent news article an Edmonton reporter trashed the 1966 Mercury pickup truck display at the new Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Canada. It was too ordinary and boring and really was not museum worthy. I can’t imagine what she would have said about my choice of the first image for this post.

This 1966 Mercury M-100, on display at the new Royal Alberta Museum, talks to Albertans’ love for the pickup truck in the 1960s. It represents the many people who owned one for either travel or work in our province. In has meaning and a connection to our society.

The dilemma we often face when dealing with material culture, be it thousands of years or a few years old, is choice and selection. Museum staff are faced with the often impossible challenge of meeting the many expectations of many people. As formidable an experience as I have ever faced, either when curating a museum collection, or writing about human history using material culture as the medium.

We are expected to conserve and curate, inform and educate, entertain and stimulate, with the objects we choose to display or write about. Therein lies a problem. Many of those unique, precious, or rare artifacts certainly stimulate and entertain. They catch our attention. But, often they don’t inform a lot about the majority of society, past or present.

The rare bone toothbrush I posted on in an earlier blog has a certain WOW! factor to it. But, it says little about most of the people of the fur trade who didn’t use these articles. The more common duct tape however, informs more about Canadian culture than the toothbrush. I’m almost certain we have no duct tape in our Royal Alberta Museum collections. Perhaps had the Red Green show continued, duct tape would have reached museum status.

The more common folk artifact is often is underrepresented in displays or literature. While informative, it’s boring. Is there a solution?

Not be deterred or ignore the common artifact, I have chosen to write about the most mundane artifact I could think of (there are many to choose from). The common nail and that clunky railroad spike.

Even everyday things often have a complex history and perform an important role in society. And as one of my mentors, historical archaeologist James Deetz, in his book, In Small Things Forgotten once said, all material things, regardless of their size, value, or context have meaning and a story to tell. It’s up to those of us studying them to tease out that meaning and those stories.

We are all familiar with the common wire nail. Nails, like many objects, have a complex history and changed over time.

Nails and Spikes Through History

I won’t bother you with the entire history of nails or spikes. For those of you interested for a more in-depth look, here are a few websites to check out: https://www.harpgallery.com/library/nails.htm. And, go to good old Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_(fastener). Some of the first nails however date back over 5,000 years.

Nails, of every shape, size and material, were used for boat building, furniture making, attaching horseshoes to horses’ hooves, and of course the construction of log and wood-framed buildings. They occur in just about every society in the world that had some sort of metal forging technology. And they change in form and method of manufacture in time and space. The common wire nail you are most familiar with has had a shorter history than many of those before it.

In Canada we used hand-forged nails until about the middle of the 19th century (other dates, depending on where you live). To fashion a hand-forged nail a blacksmith heated a piece of square nail rod, then tapered it to a point. Then he put it into a nail heading jig and fashioned various types of heads depending on its function. In cross section, a hand-forged nail is tapered on all four sides from the head down to the tip.

These corroded ferrous hand-forged nails were relatively rare at the Fort Vermilion I (c.1798 – 1830) site, Alberta, Canada. Heavy iron nail rod had to be shipped inland for thousands of miles to these forts, so nails were used sparingly. Because the fort did not have a blacksmith, these nails were likely made at Fort Chipewyan and shipped upriver. This was the major nail type in western Canada until approximately the middle of the 19th century.

This rare artifact which we think is a nail heading jig was recovered from the blacksmith’s shop at the NWC Fort George (1792-1800), Alberta, Canada.

The machine-cut nail was already invented in the 1780’s (perhaps even earlier) but not present in western Canada until the mid nineteenth century. In this process a tapered nail shank is cut from sheet metal of uniform thickness (usually iron), and then a head shaped on it. In cross-section this nail is tapered on two opposite sides but the other two opposite sides are parallel to each other. This more mechanized process produced more nails faster, probably with fewer people required to make them. It was cheaper.

Machine-cut nails, from the HBC Fort Edmonton V (c.1830-1915) site. Because this site spans such a long period of time, we found hand-forged, machine-cut and common wire nails in the archaeological record.

The modern wire nail was developed in about 1880 in America and Europe. Pieces of steel wire were cut at an angle to make a point on one end, and a flat round head was fashioned on the other end. These nails were much cheaper to produce than square nails. The common wire nail began to appear by the turn of the 20th century in western Canada (likely earlier in the east).

A variety of common wire nails found at the HBC Fort Edmonton V site, Alberta, Canada.

Whenever I look at buildings of unknown age, I check out the nails. If they’re wire, the building likely dates after the turn of the 20th century. Even the common wire nail was superseded by the spiral shank nail in the early 1970s. Many different varieties followed.

This priest’s log house, at the St. Louis Mission, Fort Vermilion, Alberta was built in c.1909. Wire spikes were driven into the dovetailed log corners to better secure them. No square nails were present. Mind you, those spikes could have been driven in thirty years later.

If I were to only display this spiral wire nail there’s not much of a WOW factor here. But if I added that Gilbert Laughton, blacksmith at Buckingham House (c.1782-1800) was experimenting with some spiral square-shanked nails already 220 years ago, the story becomes more interesting (sorry, I don’t have good photo). I’m sure it didn’t leave you speechless, but more interesting nevertheless.

Many of these different nail types were gradually replaced by the newer types. However, some nails, such as the horseshoe nail and common railway spike maintained their square or rectangular shanks.

Common horseshoe nail has been around for a long time. Head shapes changed but the tapered square/rectangular shank remained.

Nails were made from various materials, depending on their function and method of manufacture. Probably one of the earliest type of fastener, performing the same function as a nail, was a wooden dowel. Dowels are still used today. And in the western Canadian fur trade, and early settlement period, where the transport of heavy finished nails or nail rod was costly, they often replaced nails in log building construction.

The logs in this building in northern Alberta were held together by wooden dowels between the logs.

The log corner of this cellar cribbing under the trader’s shop at the HBC Fort Victoria (c.1864-1898) contained a well preserved wood dowel to keep the corners together.

Other materials for nail-making include the more rust-resistant copper alloy nails used to build the first York boats in the western fur trade. However, for centuries the most common nail material was iron.

These copper alloy nails come from the HBC Fort Edmonton V (c.1830-1915). York boat building was an important industry at this fort. Boat nails had to be rust-resistant.

Both hand-forged and machine-cut nails had different head types either for decoration or better holding power. T-heads, L-heads, Rose-heads, and Gable-heads are just some of the head types found at our historic sites in Canada.

Different types of nail head types found at the HBC Fort Victoria site, Alberta, Canada. From Archaeological Investigations: Fort Victoria, 1974. Losey, Timothy, et. al. Occasional Paper No. 2, 1977. Alberta Culture, Historical Resources.

Square-shaped nails were superior to round wire nails for holding power. According to some research, the holding power of the square shank is almost double that of the round shank nail.

So, why change from a square to a round shank? Round-shank nails were easier and more economical to make despite not being as effective. However, once spiral or galvanized nails were introduced, they likely came close or were superior in holding power to the square shank nails.

So after that brief exposition on the common nail, can we now elevate it to national status, placing it beside the equally common maple leaf of national significance? Alas, despite its importance in Canadian history (what has maple leaf ever accomplished?), I just can’t visualize an image like the one below.

The Canadian flag with the common nail as the symbol of a Canadian identity. The following source seems to read a lot into a leaf: “Maple trees symbolize balance, offering, practical magic, promise, longevity, generosity, and intelligence. One reason behind these meanings is that maple trees have the ability to adapt to many different soil types and climates.” https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=the+meaniing+of+the+canadian+maple+leaf

Well, I tried. Alas, the poor common nail can’t compete with all the ideological baggage the maple leaf carries. There are few national flags that have an object(s) as a symbol. Angola, Mozambique, Portugal. The hammer and sickle of the former Soviet Union, representing contribution of the common people, is probably the best known.

Railroad Spikes

The common railroad spike. Does it have greater potential for national significance than the lowly common nail?

The 19th century railroad spike, used to build the Canadian Pacific Railway had a square or rectangular shank. As I was trying to drive these damn things into the railroad ties in the summer of 1973, I wondered (between curses) if the square hole on the rail tie plates and the square shank prevented the spike from turning (resulting in failure to hold down the rail), either during attachment or the constant pounding and vibration as the trains passed over them.

Typical rail, wood tie, tie plate and spike used to fasten rails and tie plate to the wood tie. http://www.railway-fasteners.com/news/tie-plates-overview.html

Tremendous holding strength was required from a rail road spike to make sure the rails stayed in place with the hundreds of tons of trains moving over them every day. The common spike was made from a softer iron, usually with 9/16 inch thick stock, approximately 5 1/2 to 6 inches long. The point was tapered so the spike would cut across the the grain of the wood tie to prevent it from splitting.

It cost over one-hundred million dollars to build the Canadian Pacific Railroad which was completed in 1885 at Craigellachie, British Columbia. Thirty-thousand workers labored four-and-one-half years to build the 3,200km (1,939 miles) long track across Canada. A ribbon of steel finally bound the country in which the lowly railroad spike played a huge part.

I’ve done a bit of math. Wood ties are about nineteen inches apart. There 3,250 wooden ties per mile. It would require 26,000 spikes for each mile of track laid. That number multiplied by 1,939 miles comes to a staggering 50,414,000 spikes (some claim only a mere 30 million were used) required for the job. Just for the CPR mainline. Clearly the common railway spike is one of the most important artifacts ever made and used in Canadian nation-building.

Perhaps one of the most iconic photographs in Canadian history. The driving of the last spike by Donald Smith at Craigellachie, British Columbia, 1885.

Yet this very important artifact receives little recognition. There are a few exceptions, mind you. The last spike driven at Craigellachie by Donald Smith in 1885, should be famous. It represents the completion of a national dream. Made of gold or silver perhaps. But no, it was just plain iron. And there wasn’t just one, but four.

The first one, made of silver, never reached Craigellachie in time to be used. The second one was bent by Donal Smith, when trying to hammer it home, and kept, eventually made into jewelry. The third one was pulled and mysteriously disappeared and has only recently surfaced. And the fourth one is still in the tracks at Craigellachie.

The silver spike that was to be driven at the last spike driving ceremony at Craigellachie, British Columbia by Donald Smith in 1885. But it never made it in time. Good thing. He probably would have bent it. Courtesy of the Canadian Museum of History.

What a mess. The first one doesn’t get there in time. Smith bends the second spike and makes it into jewelry. And the third one mysteriously disappears and is now a knife. How could you lose the last spike that symbolized one of the greatest engineering achievements of the time and the coming together of a nation?

The third last spike used in the ceremony ended up in private hands, and was repurposed. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/legendary-railway-spike-thought-lost-to-history-until-now/article4365698/#c-image-0https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/legendary-railway-spike-thought-lost-to-history-until-now/article4365698/#c-image-0

We celebrate and revere the sensational, often at the expense of the common and mundane. Granted, the last spike, or the silver one on display, symbolize and solidify a great moment in Canadian history. But it’s not the only spike of significance in this story.

On that same November day, in 1885, workers who built the railway near Donald, British Columbia. This may be their version of the iconic photo of the Last Spike. Courtesy of BC Archives/D-02469. Story from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-other-last-spike-feature#

The above photo and the common spike in contrast to the silver one bring up an important point. There is always an alternate story or narrative about any given object. Like the photograph above we should also revere the common railway spike as it symbolizes the sweat, work and deaths of thousands of men who built the ribbon of steel. It represents men like my father and uncle, who maintained it after it was built. Their contribution are as important and meaningful as the completion of the railway and that silver spike.

Perhaps the best way to tell these stories is to display both the silver spike symbolizing one of Canada’s greatest accomplishments alongside the common railroad spike symbolizing the work of those who built it. As close to a solution to entertaining and informing as can be expected from this particular artifact.

Working on the Railroad

I’ll end on a personal note which also partially reveals my choice of content for this post. My father and uncle worked on the CPR for many years. As did my cousin and I. We lasted one summer on the ‘extra gangs.’ I have seen way too many railroad spikes up close on certain sections of the CPR mainline. One summer was more than enough, thank you.

Our family owns a last spike of sorts. In recognition of my father’s contribution to the CPR. He received this galvanized spike from a friend of mine when he retired from the CPR in 1983. This one was repurposed for an equally great cause. Perhaps it could serve as our national emblem.

This galvanized spike sits in my kitchen drawer. As I get older it takes on more meaning than I ever would have imagined.

This modified version of the common spike reminds me of dad. And my uncle. However, whenever I open a refreshment with it, I reflect back to much tougher times working between the rails. That story is still being written.

……………………

A Few Blog Notes

I’ve been thinking of setting up a membership list for my website. I would divide my posts into those that are free to read and a ‘silver’ category, which only paid subscribers could access. Subscribers would be charged a fee of perhaps $20.00 CAN per year to access this category. It would contain all my short stories, novelettes, etc. My rationale is quite simple – to cover costs of running this website. I have no illusions about getting rich, but feel that paying to inform and entertain you just doesn’t seem right.
Lately more visitors from the rest of the world are checking my website. Those of you looking in from the USA (some of you whom I know), Ireland, Brazil, or any other country, let me know why you dropped into my site.
In the last few years the phrase ‘cultural appropriation‘ has popped up increasingly in just about every context imaginable. One definition of the phrase is: The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society. Literature is no exception. Including mine. Many publishers are more cautious in what they publish. I think the two words I underlined in the definition are key. But they are widely interpreted. I’d like your opinions on the subject. Especially those of you who are of Indigenous background.

April 18, 2020April 18, 2020

Remaining Vestiges of the 1885 North-West Rebellion

Violence in the Canadian Territories

On the morning of April 2, 1885, Cree leader, Wandering Spirit and his men attacked the small settlement of Frog Lake, near today’s Saskatchewan-Alberta border. Eight people died and three were taken captive. Fear of further attacks by First Nations and Metis in the region triggered action by the NWMP (North West Mounted Police) and the Canadian Government.

A few traces of the potential uprising in Alberta still linger on the landscape. But you have to look real hard, and know where to look.

If you’re feeling a little house-bound, like most of us are these days, drive to Millet or Wetaskiwin, Alberta. Then continue on Hwy. 2A, until you reach Township Road 270. Turn east and shortly you will reach RR 241A. Turn north.

The Location of Fort Ethier marked by a yellow X. The blockhouse sits just south of Bigstone Creek.

Just before you cross Bigstone Creek, look to the right side of the road. There sitting beside the road is an old log blockhouse built along the former Calgary-Edmonton trail. It is the only remaining reminder of the 1885 North-West Rebellion in the region.

This is Fort Ethier, or what’s left of it, named after Captain Leander Joseph Ethier of the 65th Battalion Mount Royal Rifles. It was one of three such forts built in 1885 along the Edmonton-Calgary trail, in case trouble broke out. It never did.

Today not much remains of Fort Ethier. Except this wooden log blockhouse which has somehow still miraculously survived since it was constructed in June, 1885. There never was much to begin with. Military ditches were said to have been built around this structure, but they are no longer visible today.

The two storey squared log blockhouse still stands by what was the old Calgary-Edmonton Trail. I’ve looked out the loopholes for shooting on the second storey. The original ditches could also still be present, just filled in or cultivated over. Occasionally new logs are added as old ones rot away.

Standing on the former Calgary-Edmonton Trail, looking south across Bigstone Creek towards Fort Ethier, barely discernible through the trees.

Other Military Forts Along the Calgary-Edmonton Trail

In 1885, the Canadian Government sent troops to Calgary to quell the potential uprising. Once the 65th Battalion Mount Royal Rifles, under Captain Leander Joseph Ethier, arrived in Calgary, they were joined by the Alberta Field Force under Major General Thomas Bland Strange. It was Strange’s job to keep peace in the North West Territories. Strange marched his men north along the Calgary-Edmonton Trail and established two more forts along the way: Fort Normandeau and Fort Ostell.

Just how these somewhat comedic little forts were supposed to stop an uprising is hard to imagine when viewing them today.

Fort Normandeau

Fort Ostell

Example of an abitas and ditch behind it constructed by the Union Army at Petersburg, USA, 1865. (Photograph [PD-Expired])

Preparations at HBC Fort Victoria

These were the only three purely military establishments constructed in Alberta. They never saw action. Preparations for possible trouble were also undertaken at a few of Hudson’s Bay Company forts, after Cree insurgents plundered the HBC posts at Lac La Biche and Green Lake.

Image of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Victoria, c.1890s. The 1864 clerk’s quarters (still standing) on the right. The trading shop on the left. (An Ernest Brown photograph).

Excavations at Fort Victoria in 1975. My colleague, Rod Vickers, and I mapping the southeast corner of the fort. Here we found a series of trenches and post pits, suggesting the corner may have undergone some major re-modifications to better fortify it. These activities might have been a response to prepare for future trouble at the fort. But, despite our best efforts, we never came up with a suitable explanation for these rather peculiar features. HBC inspector Kanis’s 1884 survey sketch of the fort definitely shows some sort of feature on the southeast corner. The sketch however, is too small to make out any details.

Preparations at Fort Edmonton

Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Edmonton, 1884. Because parts of the north walls had blown down that spring, due to dilapidation, the men began to dismantle the rest of the walls that summer. Only to realize in 1885, that they had to rebuilt them again to prepare for possible trouble. (Photograph, Saskatchewan Archives Board, A186, VIII.I)

The degree of preparedness at many forts is almost laughable, had the threat not been so real. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Edmonton was no exception. In his book, Fort de Prairies – The Story of Fort Edmonton, author Brock Silversides recounts a number of events in preparation for possible trouble.

There was plenty of superstition among the people as tensions increased. Strange events took place around the fort, and the occasional random shot was fired near it. Or at it. The fort arsenal consisted of too few, or obsolete, guns and ammunition that didn’t work.

A cry went out to Ottawa to send troops to protect the fort and the settlement. With the help of the NWMP, under the command of Captain A. H. Griesbach, the stockades were eventually rebuilt. Then the settlers from the surrounding area moved in and by summer General Strange’s battalion reached Edmonton.

The Fort Cannons That Never Fired

Fort Edmonton’s two, four pound cannons, set on wagon wheels, ready for action. “Two brass cannons, mounted on heavy, home-made wheels, which are slowly and surely dropping to ruin and decay, ominously hold a position on the bank of the river in front of the fort, and from the stamp upon them were manufactured by T. T. King, London, 1810.” (from J. Hewgill, 1893, school inspector, territories; photograph by Ernest Brown, Edmonton, 1884)

But perhaps some of the funniest incidents involved the fort’s two four pound brass cannons during this time of potential crisis. Although they were fired at New Years, as a salute when large parties of First Nations came to trade, or rare practice drills, they were never fired on an enemy in defense of the fort.

One thing becomes very clear when reading about a series of incidents involving the cannons – no one really knew what they were doing when either loading them or firing them. The following account in 1885 certainly supports this assertion.

“The only time I saw these guns in action was under the following circumstances: on the first of May, General Strange, G.O.C., the Alberta Field Force marched into Edmonton with elements of the 65th Carabineers from Montreal, and elements of the Winnipeg Light Infantry. It was proposed to fire a salute from the high ground in front of Fort Edmonton….The troops had marched down the road through the spring greenery and were crowding on board the ferry on the south side of the Saskatchewan River; the bottle-green of the 65th and the scarlet of the Light Infantry making quite a pretty picture….Muchiass was yelling instructions to everybody and doing everything himself. He became a bit confused as to which gun he had fired last. He proceeded to ram a charge of powder down a gun that was ready to fire and was engaged in the ramming process when the gunner on the that gun applied the hot-iron to the touch-hole. Muchiass had wit enough to jump aside and let go of the rammer. The gun with its double charge went off with a very satisfying bang, the rammer sailed through the air and fell among the troops…who probably felt that the salute was being slightly overdone.” (from W. A. Griesbach. 1946. I Remember. Ryerson Press, Toronto)

Had the enemy been watching this incident, the North-West Rebellion and events at Edmonton might have taken a different turn.

The original site of Fort Edmonton still occasionally hears the sounds of cannon fire. Howitzers going off during Canada Day celebrations at the Alberta Legislature Grounds.

February 21, 2020March 26, 2020

Stone Tobacco Smoking Pipes in the Canadian Fur Trade

Tobacco was an integral part of the Canadian fur trade. It was smoked, chewed and snuffed. It was traded and gifted to Indigenous peoples, and consumed by both men and women. One of the most common ways of smoking tobacco was with a clay tobacco pipe. However, not all pipes were made of clay. This is a story of one of the most interesting and unusual types of tobacco pipes I have run across – a stone tobacco pipe.

Metis dog driver, Lac La Biche, Alberta, smoking a clay tobacco pipe. (Arthur Heming sketch, courtesy of Glenbow Archives)

Clay Tobacco Pipes

Whenever we excavate at the inland fur trade posts in Canada, one of the most common artifacts we recover are clay tobacco pipe fragments. These pipes are the remnants of smoking activities at these posts. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. At the end of the 18th century the stem on some of these pipes, known as Churchwardens, was nearly three feet long. Only the upper classes smoked them while the laborers smoked the shorter stemmed cuttie.

Man smoking the excessively long-stemmed churchwarden tobacco pipe.

These two clay tobacco pipes were recovered from the c.1830 – 1917 Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Edmonton. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The pipes were made from ball clay and mostly manufactured in Europe. While they were relatively cheap, they were also quite fragile.

Many of the 18th and 19th century clay tobacco pipes shipped to the inland posts, were made in Europe. The Hudson’s Bay Company imported most of their pipes from England. Many of the pipe bowls and stems were stamped sometimes with the maker’s name or initials. It wasn’t until the latter half of the 19th century that a Canadian clay pipe industry took hold in eastern Canada. Bannerman of Montreal clay pipes were shipped to the Alberta fur trade posts.

These tobacco pipe fragments came from the Northwest/Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Vermilion (c.1798-1830) site. This pipe bowl has the letters ‘TD’ stamped on it. It refers to Thomas Dormer, a pipe maker in England during the late 18th – early 19th centuries.

Ornate clay tobacco pipe stem fragments with floral designs. In the second half of the 19th century many pipes had very elaborate decorations on them. Some of the bowls even had faces on them. The bottom stem has ‘Baltic’ (origins unknown) stamped on it, probably referring to the manufacturer. These fragments were recovered from the HBC Fort Edmonton (c.1830-1917), Alberta.

Hudson’s Bay Company men smoking outside of Fort Edmonton (1871), on what are now the Alberta legislature grounds. The Company inventories list thousands of pounds of tobacco shipped to these inland posts. These men might have been smoking one of the pipes above. (Photograph by Charles Horetzky, Library and Archives of Canada/c-7534)

The Somewhat Puzzling History of Western Canadian Stone Tobacco Pipes

But not all pipes were made of clay. When we excavated the North West Company Fort George (c.1792-1800) site in east-central Alberta we found platform (a type) tobacco pipes made from soapstone, pipestone or local mudstone. They were found in domestic household refuse along with many other common fur trade artifacts (beads, buttons, etc.). These pipes are poorly documented.

This rare, complete mudstone tobacco pipe was found at Fort George, Alberta. The mudstone occurs in round nodules found in the North Saskatchewan Sands and Gravels. We found the mud balls and partially finished pipes in the household refuse at the site.

We often speculated who made and smoked these pipes. They certainly were not European. Or, so we initially thought. And, what were they doing in Alberta, Canada?

Peter Rindisbacher painting, 1821, Red River, showing a First Nations family smoking. The man is smoking a stone elbow pipe. And the woman is smoking what looks like a stone platform pipe similar to the one found at Fort George.

Initially we thought these pipes were made by local Indigenous men or women working at the western Canadian fur trade forts. But there is no record of this kind of pipe being used prior to White contact in Alberta. Only recently I realized that these pipes were similar to Iroquois platform pipes. Iroquois? In Alberta? Well, yes. The Northwest Company brought Iroquois hunters out west to trap furs in the late 18th – early 19th centuries. (The community of ‘Calahoo’, Alberta is named after an Alberta Iroquoian family.)

This image of an Iroquois man smoking tobacco from what looks like a platform stone pipe. Many stone pipe fragments, similar to the Alberta pipes, have been found at St. Lawrence Iroquoian archaeological sites. (photo image courtesy of Marie-Helene Daviau, 2008)

I thought at this point at least we now knew the possible origins of this pipe style. Quite possibly brought west by the Iroquois hunters who lived at the forts. But then, after seeing the image below, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

In this image, taken from the cover of Daviau’s monograph, shows a French Canadian farmer smoking what looks like a stone platform pipe. (Frederick von Germann, 1778) In 1749, Peter Kalm noted the French Canadian woodsmen borrowed this style from the Iroquois of the St. Lawrence River Valley (Daviau 2008:189).

The North West Company hired many French Canadians to work at their inland western Canadian posts. These men made up the famous canoe brigades and worked mostly as laborers at the posts when not paddling. So, it is entirely possible that they brought their stone pipes with them, or fashioned them out of local material at the forts.

We found similar stone pipe fragments at the remote northern Alberta fur trade posts, such as Fort Vermilion, Peace River region. But the peculiar markings on these pipes add a bit of a twist to the story.

This stone tobacco pipe base (the bowl on the top is missing), found at Fort Vermilion, Alberta, is of the platform variety, but with some unusual circle-and-dot markings on it. We are still trying to figure out how these perfectly symmetrical circles were incised into the stone. Possibly by a small auger bit.

Over the years I have noticed artifacts with similar circle-and-dot markings on them in other western Canadian fur trade assemblages. The circle-and-dot motif is an Athabaskan symbol that has a geographical distribution ranging from central Alberta to northwestern Alaska. Was this tobacco pipe style adopted by Athabaskan-speaking people who then put their markings on it? Quite possibly. Interestingly, in Alberta the style seems to disappear by the 1840s.

Bone artifacts from Rocky Mountain House, Jasper House and Dunvegan, showing the circle-and-dot motif. Left to right: Quill smoother; bone fragment; bone flesher.

A Few Final Thoughts

Occasionally archaeologists recover artifacts from a documented period of Canadian history whose origins and uses are puzzling. Not all material culture is well documented. Especially when it belongs to people who aren’t doing any of the documenting. These objects were likely made and used by Indigenous people and/or French Canadian voyageurs (who were mostly illiterate) – a people without a written history. In the case of the stone tobacco pipes, careful dating and geographic location are extremely important to figure out their possible origins and uses.

References

Daviau, Marie-Helen. 2008. La Pipe de pierre dans la societe conadienne des XVII et XIX siecles. Centre interuniversitaire d’etudes sur les letters, les arts et les traditions (CELAT), Quebec.

Heinz W. Pyszczyk. 2015. The Last Fort Standing: Fort Vermilion and the Peace River Fur Trade, 1798-1830. Occasional Papers of the Archaeological Society of Alberta. Number 14.

Note: In my next post, I’ll tell you about another unusual tobacco pipe in the fur trade. However, before I reveal more about this artifact, I will write a short story about it first.