Canoes were important to many tribes; using them for fishing, hunting, and transportation. The Algonquin speaking Nations of coastal North Carolina created magnificent dugout canoes. But how were they made? During the Journey Home 2014, the museum hosted an opportunity for visitors to learn first hand!
First, a cypress log was brought in and laid where there was plenty of room around it when it came time to burn. This also creates a good space for everyone to work in. Next, the top of the log was chipped away until there was a groove in the hard wood that was the desired length of the inside of the canoe.
While the men were chipping at the log, the women were gathering pine cones and small branches as fuel for the fire that would be the next part of the process. Live embers were set inside the hardwood groove. Pine cones, pine needles,and small twigs were set on top of the embers to catch flame. The fire slowly consumed the cypress beneath it, enlarging the depth and width of the groove. Fanning the flames also encouraged oxygen into the depth of the canoe.
After the fire had burned down, large cockle shells were used to scrape the ash and burned cypress out of the groove. Cockles, much like scallops, have a serrated edge to their shell; making them more efficient at scraping than the smooth edged clam shells. The scraping exposed fresh cypress to burn.
The hard cypress has a much higher burning point than the pine cones, so the fuel had to be periodically replenished. This difference in burning points also causes the singed areas of the hardwood to become hardened, so it is much stronger than the untouched areas of the soon-to-be canoe. Singed wood that has been scrapped clean will continue to burn, while areas left heavily ashen will be more resistant to the constant heat. In this way, they were able to control the shape in which the groove of the canoe was developing.
The shells were used to remove and extinguish any embers before it was abandoned for the evening. It is never safe to leave live flames or embers unattended, no matter how unlikely it would be for unwanted damage to occur.
After two days of hard labor, the depth of the canoe reached approximately 1/3 of the way through the log. When you visit the museum, make sure to travel our nature trail and try scraping the inside of the groove! Join us next Journey Home, where we will be continuing to increase the depth of the inside of the canoe and begin the shape the outside!