Manitoba’s Hayes River runs over six hundred kilometers from near Norway House to Hudson Bay. On its rush to the sea; the Hayes races over forty-five rapids and waterfalls as it drops down from the Precambrian Shield to the Hudson Bay Lowlands. This great waterway; the largest naturally flowing river in Manitoba; served as the highway for settlers bound for the Red River colony; ferrying their worldly goods in York boats and canoes; struggling against the mighty currents. Traditionally used for transport and hunting by the indigenous Cree; the Hayes became a major fur trade route in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries; being explored by such luminaries (Pierre Radisson (1682); Henry Kelsey (1690) David Thompson (1784); Sir John Franklin (1819); and J.B. Tyrrell (1892). This is the account of the author’s invitational journey on the Hayes from Norway House to Oxford House by traditional York boat with a crew of First Nation Cree; and later; from Oxford House to York Factory by canoe in the company of other intrepid canoeists – modern-day voyageurs reliving the past.
#7197905 in Books 2016-10-26Original language:English 9.00 x .34 x 6.00l; #File Name: 1539770737150 pages
Review
