Paddling through history
Canoe museum in Peterborough, Ontario, is making waves.
“A MUSEUM FOR CANOES? How can there be a museum for canoes?” I thought to myself. Yet when I reflected on the question, the answer became obvious.
Before Europeans arrived on the North American continent, Indigenous peoples had a long history of employing canoes for transportation, communication, and trade over long distances. White explorers and traders carried on the tradition, using canoes to explore the lands of the Aboriginal peoples and claim it for the kings and queens of their European homelands.
The Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario, reflects this history.
The largest museum of its kind in the world, it is, despite its name, international in scope and includes kayaks and other paddled watercraft.
The complete collection of about six hundred watercraft comes mostly from North America but also includes exhibits from South America and the Far East. About a hundred are on display at any one time.
The location in Peterborough makes perfect sense once you learn the museum’s backstory. In the mid-nineteenth century, a large, vibrant canoe-building industry was established in the region. By 1893, the Peterborough Canoe Company was established, and by 1930 a quarter of all employees in the Canadian boat-building industry worked in the Peterborough area.
Entering the museum, we were greeted by incredibly friendly staff members, all well-versed in the history of canoes. Many of them are volunteers. One of these volunteers, George McKeiver, was assigned to take us through the museum.
We soon discovered that the staff had made a wise choice. McKeiver was like a history book as he unfolded the story of the canoe. Taking us from birchbark canoes to cedarwood dugouts, he revealed their extraordinary history and how they reached the museum.
It is due to Kirk Wipper that the museum now stands. Wipper, who grew up in northern Manitoba in the 1920s and ’30s, was a pioneer in the development of outdoor education in Canada.