I received a brilliant and most compelling book for Christmas 2017 from my daughter entitled “MASTERS OF EMPIRE Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America ” by Michael A. McDonnell. It is basically a history of the Annishaabeg of the Great Lakes Region and their “kinship relations” from 1650 to 1850; much of it focusing on the fur trade and the Odawa’s interaction with the French, and later the English, and finally the Americans. The author from Australia spent five years in researching and writing. It has 50 pages of notes referencing sources. Of interest to me was the use of canoes to navigate the water system of The Great Lakes and river systems including the St Lawrence.
In 2014 while vacationing near Mackinaw City we visited the Mackinaw Visitor Center under “The Bridge”. In it hanging from the ceiling was a most fascinating Birch Bark Canoe. It was roughly twenty feet long by three foot beam. Such grace and elegance in its construction in spite of its age and made without the aid of modern tools. A number of pictures documented the visit, as it was really of such great beauty, I was not wanting to forget this remarkable Canoe.
I had been intrigued by the Kudzu Craft “Stonefly Canoe”. Jeff Horton has earned my respect as a “premier skin-on-frame kayak and canoe designer”. After building his “firefly” which I renamed “Sacred Eagle”; I thought the Stonefly might be fun to build since he had in mind to use it as a “fishing canoe” which really appealed to me. I ordered the plans and thought it might be interesting to reflect in the build some of the “Mackinaw” influences of the canoe at the Visitor Center. The identifying form of “The Mackinaw” was it’s very narrow and fine upswept gunnels at the bow and stern. I had done some bending by steaming ribs for my first canoe build. I had learned of soaking wood in a glycerin solution to aid in bending some items on “Fishtail” as well as some well placed saw kerfs, so I thought of giving it a try. After trying and failing to bend Western Red Cedar; I settled on Sitka Spruce for the gunnels and “saw kurfed” the ends to accommodate the upswept bends.
After drawing some sketches and details based on “The Mackinaw”; I obviously wanted to keep the “skin-on-frame” skeleton and skin. I fabricated some fiberglassed ⅛” birch plywood removable shelves for water bottle, fishfinder, and fishing tackle items beside the polyester director style chair seat. Accommodations for the proverbial fish bucket, milkcrate for tackle storage, fishfinder battery, and some anchor rope cleats included at the stations next to the seat make it very “user friendly”. Half inch Douglas Fir was used for the under station floor boards to give it a low center of gravity. I also added tie-down holes at bow and stern with Birch anchor hole trim and a light brown leather rub strip along the keel, up the bow and stern to finish off the upswept stems. Again, a backrest similar to the leather one used on Hawk Hunter fits in nicely.
Probably the most significant and defining detail are the gunnells. The dacron polyester fabric (coated with two part urethane and rare earth pigments) is folded over the gunnels and stainless steel stapled on the back side. A thin birch strip was lashed over the staples and another ¼” thick Birch strip is doweled into place on top. This gives the gunnels a very thin and graceful appearance, rather than the wider “spacer block type gunnels” generally seen on most canoes. Two thinly shaped white oak thwarts finish off the top. The numerous painted scallops – reflecting waves – below the gunnels and the painted stern graphic signage reminiscent of “The Mackinaw Bridge” and “Stonefly” make this one of my most fulfilling builds.
