282 Building the Bark Canoe - webapps8

Jack Minehart makes canoes likethe ones the Ojibwe and voyageurspaddled. By Greg Breining.Photographs by Layne KennedyIF YOU ORDER a birch bark canoefrom Jack Minehart, don't leton that you'll cherish it, pamperit, and keep it inside onlyto be seen by guests. Instead, tellhim you'll paddle it, portage it,overload it, and bash this remarkablybeautiful and durablevessel against a rockor two. "If I've got to reservethe last building slotin a season for some guy inOhio who's really going toI use it—float the Wabash andshoot squirrels out of it—orsome guy who's going to hangit from the ceiling of his lodge,I'll take the guy in Ohio anytime,"he says.Minehart, a Cedar Falls, Iowa, historyteacher, is one of a handful ofbirch bark canoe builders using thesame methods and materials employedby northern American IndianIn his workshop in Max, Minn., JackMinehart builds bark canoes likethose paddled by woodland Indiansand voyageurs 200 years ago.47

Birch Bark Canoestribes for centuries and copied byScottish and British traders andFrench-Canadian voyageurs to pursuethe fur trade from Montreal toLake Athabasca in far northwesternCanada. He learned the trade fromBill Hafeman, a master builder nowin his 90s. Except for the efforts of afew diligent craftsmen, the secret ofmaking these fast, light canoes mighthave died with old Indian buildersas bark canoes were replaced bywood and canvas in the early 1900sand later by aluminum and fiberglass.Minehart's fascination with canoesbegan when he was a youngsterat a summer camp in Vermont,where he paddled on placid northernlakes and rushing white water.Hanging from the rafters of the messhall was a bark canoe. The old boatapparently worked its magic on theyoung campers who said grace andchowed down beneath its tawnybark: One of Minehart's tent mateswas John McPhee, who later wroteabout New England canoe builderHenri Vaillancourt in The Survival ofthe Bark Canoe (New York: WarnerBooks, 1975), perhaps the most fa-An old-timer to the Big Fork River, Bill Hafeman taught Minehart to build canoes.48 THE MINNESOTA VOLUNTEER

Birch Bark CanoesMiriehart sews together sheets of bark with the split root of the black spruce.made them for about 10 years andgave them away all the time/' he says."I kept thinking I should be able tomake them better."As Hafeman's technique improvedand his fame spread, orders pouredinto his shop. For the U. S. ForestService, he built a 25-foot canot dunord, the craft the voyageurs used tocarry trade goods and furs across theGreg Breinitig is associate editor of theVolunteer and a free-lance writer. LayneKennedy is a free-lance photographer.This story first appeared in the August1991 issueof Country Journal. Originalphotographs are in color.interior waterways of North America.He supplied a canoe to the WhiteHouse in 1967 for the dedication ofthe Sylvania Wilderness Area inMichigan's Upper Peninsula. TheMinnesota Historical Society boughta 36-foot canot de maitre, the voyageurs'Great Lakes canoe. It tookHafeman an entire summer to build,and when finished it was too big tosqueeze into the exhibit area.Minehart was fascinated byHafeman and his boats. He wouldspend long hours hanging aroundthe boat works to help. Finally,Hafeman asked, "Why don't youspend the summer? You've learned so50 THE MINNESOTA VOLUNTEER

much, you might as well learn thewhole thing.""Altogether I probably spent sixmonths in that shop learning what Ihad to learn," Minehart recalls."Then I probably spent another sixmonths in my own shop learningmore of what I had to learn."During the 11 summers since,Minehart has built with commonhand tools more than 30 canoes athis own shop and cabin on LittleSand Lake. Some have exceeded 20feet; others have been as short as 6.But most have been 16- to 17-footersbased on Ojibwe, Cree, Micmac, andMalecite designs. Each weighs onlyabout 60 pounds—less than mostaluminum canoes.Methods of the Master. Mineharf smethods, with a few modifications,are Hafeman's. "He's the master. Ilearned from him," Minehart says.Once an order comes in, Minehartsearches for materials. "Usually somebody'sgot a timber lease and lets meknow if he's got some good birch orgood cedar on it before he cuts it."Minehart looks for a birch at least20 inches around with a good straighttrunk. Then he uses an 8-foot ladderto climb and shimmy up the tree asfar as he can. Using a walking stickas a guide, he cuts a vertical slit nearlyto the base of the tree. Mineharttakes his bark in spring and earlysummer, when the sap is running.Bent in forms, the laminated stem piecesare then wrapped with basswood innerbark and sewn into the bow and sternto form the canoe's profile.JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1992 51

Minehart splits out thin sheets of white cedar he finds in the woods near his shop."When the sun is shining and thetree is really processing through thatcambium layer, it's well lubricated—the tree practically peels itself." Evenpeeled, the trees survive, as long asthe cambium—the layer of cells betweenthe wood and the bark—isnot damaged. They can be cut laterfor firewood, pulpwood, or veneer.In the days when Hafeman beganbuilding, he could sometimes buildan entire canoe from a single piece ofbark. "His own canoe is that way,"Minehart says. "It makes a strongerboat and cuts down on all the timeyou have to spend stitching." Butpulp cutters have taken the big trees,and "if there are any more like thatleft up there, I've never run acrossone," Minehart says. Today, he maycut bark from five or six trees tobuild a 16-foot canoe.Minehart also needs a long pieceof the inner bark of a basswood treefor binding the curved stem piecesin the bow and stern. He cuts a smallslit on the trunk of a basswood, takeshold of the bark and pulls, peeling aribbon right up the tree.Next, Minehart finds a couple ofknot-free cedars, from which he cutslogs up to 20 feet long for making54 THE MINNESOTA VOLUNTEER

Minehart lines the birch bark with cedar sheathing to stiffen and strengthen the hull.the gunwales, ribs, and sheathing.Finally, he slogs into a peat bog togrub the 300 feet of black-spruceroot used to sew pieces of bark toeach other, fasten the bark to thegunwales, and lash wood together.He digs around the base of a largetree, finds a pencil-sized root, andpulls up to 20 feet of it out of theground. Back at the shop, he splitsthe root down the middle so it willhe flat against the bark and wood."I used to feel I could gather allthe material for a canoe in a day,"Minehart says. "Now I'd say it takesmore like two and a half to threedays. If s harder to find the quality. Ittakes more scouting every year."Not Like Hollywood. Unlikewood and canvas boats, birch barkcanoes are built right-side up. Minehartsews the bark into a single largepiece and lays it inside a buildingframe of upright stakes, which holdthe bark in the shape of a hog trough.(Indians simply pounded 2-footstakes into the ground to form theoutline of the canoe.) Contrary to theimage propagated by Hollywood,the tan inner bark forms the outsideof the hull, because the papery whiteJANUARY-FEBRUARY 1992 53

Birch Bark Canoesside would soon wear away. "Amovie company wanted to get Bill tobuild one with the white side out,"Minehart recalls. "They thought thatwas the way people would want tosee it. But Bill thought it over andsaid, 'I'm just not going to do it. Iwork too hard at this.' He turneddown a whale of a commission."With the bark in place, Minehartbends laminated cedar into stempieces, wraps them with basswoodbark so they hold their shape, andsews them into the bow and stern.Next he splits out cedar gunwales,which he clamps to the upright stakesof the building frame. He drills a seriesof holes down the sides of thehull, just beneath the gunwales, andlashes the bark and gunwales together.'Tower tools help when there's somelittle job like drilling the holes forside bindings. When you build for amarket, you've got to make somecompromises in the old Indian ways."Minehart splits out several dozencedar planks Vi6 inch thick, severalinches wide, and several feet long toline the hull. Two dozen cedar boards5/i6 inch thick form the canoe's ribs.He steams or boils the pieces tosoften them, and bends each to shapeusing his eye alone as a guide. "Youdecide then whether you're going tohave a flat-bottomed canoe, a shallowarch, or a round bottom."He drives the ribs into place, beginningwith those at the ends. Eachnew rib tightens the skin of bark, andthe last rib locks into place amidships.One Concession. Then Minehartlashes the thwarts (crosspieces) inplace, pinching the hull inward againstthe tension of the ribs to get the propercross section. "The boat at that pointstill isn't used to being a boat," he says.Finally, he flips the canoe over andseals the seams. Indians used sprucegum tempered with animal tallowand charcoal, but it ran in hot weatherand cracked in cold. Minehart andHafeman, in their only concession tomodern materials, use syntheticroofing compound. When it dries,Minehart is ready to paddle off.A canoe takes three to four weeksto build. Minehart makes three or fourevery summer before going back toschool. All his jobs are custom orders.Although he knows many ofhis canoes will go on display (hebuilt one last summer to be a restaurantsalad bar), he'd rather see hiscustomers paddle their boats, whichare as durable as wood and canvasboats and less prone to rot."All the canoe's components originatefrom a damp to a downright wetenvironment," Minehart says. Theworst you can do is to let a canoe dryout. It should be wet in summer andleft outside in winter, out of the sun.Indians sank their canoes in shallowwater each fall, storing them forwinter beneath the ice.54 THE MINNESOTA VOLUNTEER

Tawny bark meets still water as it has for thousands of years in the North Woods.With care a bark canoe will last"indefinitely," Minehart says. Hafemanhimself used his for 50 years. "Iwouldn't be afraid to get in Bill's canoeand paddle all the way from hisshop to the Rainy River 140 milesaway," Minehart says. "If you shouldcrack a rib, there's plenty of cedarnearby. If you break the bark, youcan always cut a patch from a tree."Beyond the practical aspects ofbirch bark canoes is the sheer joy ofworking with natural materials. Thebirch is soft, like tanned leather. Thecedar is warm, light, and easy to work.To transform these materials into thegraceful and timeless lines of a canoe"is a feeling that doesn't come to manymortals," Minehart says. "If s as closeto art as I'm going to get." •Minehart charges $125 per foot for a canoeshorter than 20 feet; $150 per foot for onelonger than 20 feet. Options such as gunwalecaps are extra. For information writeMinehart during the summer at RuralRoute, Max, MN 56659, or call 218-798-2735. During the school year, youcan reach him at 3016 Neola St., CedarFalls, IA 50613. Phone: 319-266-8939.JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1992 55