Canoes: A Natural History in North America

Sigurd Olson’s Border Lakes Outfitting Company, April 4, 1940.

George Washington Sears wrote under the pen name “Nessmuk” in Forest and Stream magazine about his canoe trips in the Adirondacks. It was said that he taught America how to camp.

Dr. Arpad Gerster, a prominent New York surgeon, vacationed with his family in the Adirondacks during the 1890s. Here, Gerster portages a Rushton pack canoe at Camp Oteetiwi, Big Island, Raquette Lake.

Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, A Good Time Coming, 1862. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 76.2 cm.

Hotel Ampersand looms over Lower Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks ca. 1890.

The Sairy Gamp on display at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York.

This Rushton pack canoe, displayed at the Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum, was one of many lightweight small boats he made for hunters and sportsmen.

The St. Lawrence Canoe Club tent at the ACA meeting on Grindstone Island in 1886. J. H. Rushton is the short, bearded man standing in the center; his wife Leah is seated next to him.

An 1881 gathering of canoeists on Canoe Island in Lake George, New York.

Railroad advertising, such as this 1920 poster by Walter L. Greene, attracted tourists to Lake Placid. An overnight train from New York City brought visitors, rested and fed, to the edge of the Adirondacks.

George Washington Sears was an early staff writer at Forest and Stream, one of the most popular outdoor periodicals of its day.

Prior to the development of hard-topped automobiles, it was a bit of a problem to travel with a canoe on a soft-top car. One solution, which limited the use of all of the car doors, was to strap the boat on side-saddle, such as this wood-and-canvas model.

After World War II, Americans enjoyed an increase in leisure time (and more spending money) as the economy started to hum.

The Canadian artist and author Bill Mason did as much to popularize recreational canoeing as anyone.

With Grumman’s success, other companies involved in aluminum production saw an opening in a new market.

The Nahanni River in Canada became famous—and a popular destination for whitewater canoe adventurers—after the 1950s publication of the book The Dangerous River by R. M. Patterson, a hair-raising account of a trip into the wilderness region earlier in the century.

The business of canoe liveries and outfitters in the lakes and rivers region of North America, including Ely, Minnesota, in 1958, allowed city dwellers to experience the joys of wilderness travel without actually owning a canoe.

Groups interested in preserving canoe country from development sprang up all over the continent. Canoes were often used as images of a free and quiet outdoors experience, including this poster with artwork by Francis Lee Jaques, ca. 1949.

Arthur Carhart, next to a Morris canoe at the Superior National Forest in 1920, demonstrates how to stack and carry two canoe packs.

The Poirier Pack Sack was the forerunner of the Duluth Pack, named after the city where it was manufactured. Duluth Packs are specially designed for use in canoe tripping.