282 Building the Bark Canoe - webapps8

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