Large-Scale Canoeing Photograph
This is an historic photograph of a canoeist, probably an Ojibwe guide, who is navigating a rapids called Blue Chute on the French River in Ontario. It is housed in its original oak frame that is inscribed “Canadian Pacific” along the bottom. With overall dimensions of 35.5" wide x 29.5" high, it has an eye-catching presence.
There are several layers of history revealed in this circa 1910 photo. First, it is an artifact of the original era of passenger railway travel across Canada. Second, it captures a place, the French River, that was an important fur trade route. Finally, it conveys something about early 20th century canoeing traditions.
Canadian Pacific Railway
We contacted an archivist with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) who confirmed what we had learned through buying and selling several other CPR photos in the past. These large-format photographs captured iconic Canadian landscape scenes and were hung in CPR stations as “simple, yet stunning and effective, advertising tools for Canadian Pacific and Canada.” Aimed at attracting tourists from within and beyond Canada, the photos captured scenes closely tied to Canadian identity and its proud links to the incredible scenic beauty of the country. The CPR photographs could be found on display until the 1970s when all of the stations eventually closed.
Although we do not have photos of other CPR images we have owned, we do have images from our past inventory of a large-scale photograph from another railway system, the Grand Trunk Railway, which had a similar approach to promoting Canadian rail travel. The Grand Trunk was an important rail system in Canada and the northern U.S. from the 1850s to the 1920s.
This early 1900's photo depicts a romantic scene of a well-dressed couple on an outing in which the man rows the woman who is nestled in the stern facing him. Its captions reads: "McLean Channel Among the 30,000 islands of the Georgian Bay." Even the location of this particular photo, also in an inscribed oak frame, is not far from the subject of the CPR photo - the French River.
The French River
The French River location of the CPR photo itself has an important place in Canadian history.
French River Ontario (chrs.ca)
It was purportedly named by local Ojibwes in the early 1600s because it carried French missionaries and explorers to their lands. The explorers were soon followed by European traders eager to capitalize on the potentially lucrative business of transporting furs from western and central Canada to eastern markets, particularly in the vicinity of Montreal.
The French River was thus used for hundreds of years to carry furs, supplies and other goods between trading posts on Lake Superior and Montreal. Voyageurs, the French Canadian men hired by enterprises such as the Hudson's Bay Company, would set out from Montreal in the spring with trade goods, and their counterparts in the west, called “winterers," would start east with their furs. They exchanged furs for supplies at posts on Lake Superior, and then the eastern-based Voyageurs would make the return trip back towards Montreal before the rivers froze.
"Shooting the Rapids" by Frances Anne Hopkins captures a trip she and her husband experienced in 1863 (they are seated in the middle of the canoe)
When traveling from Montreal, the Voyageurs paddled their huge birch bark fur trade canoes up the Ottawa River, west up the Mattawa River into Trout Lake, and then they would cross the height of land on a 7-mile portage into Lake Nipissing, and finally paddle down the French River into Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. This route by-passed the various difficulties involved in paddling the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie to get to Lake Superior. The orange line on the map below shows the French River route.
Fur trade route French River (wildernessclassroom.com)
The French River continued to be an important fur trade route throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries until such commercial river travel became obsolete with the introduction of steamships and railways. It is somewhat poignant that this photograph, framed and exhibited by a railway company, celebrates a river whose historical usage the railroads were partially responsible for making obsolete. Yet when the Grand Trunk Railway entered the French River region in the early 20th century, it opened up the corridor for recreational use so new generations of paddlers continued to explore and appreciate the river system.
The Blue Chute rapid is located on the French River about half-way between Lake Nipissing and the mouth of the river where it flows into Georgian Bay (see red pointer at the rapid location on the map below).
Cherry Gallery's owner Jeff Cherry has paddled this rapid which he characterizes as "a pleasant Class 2 that is a straight shot with no obstructions and a few standing waves that make it a fun ride.” Here is a contemporary photo of a kayaker at Blue Chute taken at almost the same location as the vintage CPR photograph. It is good to know that the rapid's immediate surroundings are still pristine.
Blue Chute on the French River
Canoeing History
The First Nations man pictured firmly in control of this canoe is most likely an Ojibwe guide. The French River is within their traditional homeland, with the Dokis First Nations band of Ojibwes still located on two large islands in the French River.
Just by looking at the guide's form it is possible to tell that he is an experienced and competent paddler. He is kneeling in the center of the canoe with his knees braced outward for stability. He holds the paddle in a brace position as he scans the rapids ahead to keep the boat going slower than the current to maintain control - a necessary precaution especially on wilderness canoe trips. Although half of the paddle is obscured by the water, it most likely has a long, narrow, Objibwe-style blade, as shown in the Frances Hopkins painting above.
The canoe itself is a Peterborough style canoe that would have been built in the Peterborough lakes region of Ontario, which is southeast of the French River close to the shores of Lake Ontario. There was a large canoe-building industry in and around Peterborough from the late 1850s through the 1960s, with a half-dozen or more companies in operation, all producing similar styles of canoes. (For more information see the book, The Canadian Canoe Company & the Early Peterborogh Canoe Factories by Ken Brown, 2011)
Peterborough canoe label (Peterboroughmuseumandarchives.ca)
This distinctive style of canoe has wide, longitudinal cedar planks, cedar ribs, and interior battens covering the joints. The decks have a center batten and an arched edge. When use of birch bark canoes was phasing out in the late-1800s, the two alternative types of canoes that emerged were all-wood cedar strip canoes like the Peterborough models, and canvas-covered cedar canoes, such as those made by Chestnut and Old Town. The all-wood Peterborough canoes tended to be used for light recreation at lakeside cottages, while wood and canvas canoes were more frequently used on wilderness trips and in river rapids, so it is somewhat surprising to see a Peterborough canoe being paddled at Blue Chute.
Collectible, Evocative Photography
The large-scale photographs of stunning outdoor scenes housed in CPR-inscribed oak frames are not common on the market - we have not found one in which both the frame and photo are in as good a condition as this Blue Chute photograph in over ten years. While capturing a moment and a place in the early 20th century, this photograph also inspires thoughts of grand adventures across earlier centuries, by water and by rail.
