Shelter

For the voyageur: a makeshift cover

Voyageurs at dawn, by Francis Anne Hopkins

When voyageurs stopped for the night while en route, they often slept underneath their overturned canoes. A smouldering fire would help keep insects at bay.

For the bourgeois: a cosy tent

Camp with voyageurs and bourgeois

Bourgeois and company clerks slept in tents that they pitched themselves or with the help of the hired men. Measuring about 1.25m by 2.5m, the floor was strewn with fir boughs and covered in an oilcloth. Boxes and trunks served as chairs and tables, and a mattress sewn from several blankets made up the bed.

Shelter at Fort William

Bourgeois lodgings, Fort William

At the annual summer Rendezvous at Fort William, a person's lodgings reflected his position in the North West Company hierarchy.

Preferential treatment for the gentlemen

Agents visiting from Montreal stayed in the four bedrooms of the Great Hall, which also contained a dining room for company bourgeois. Clerks and wintering partners were quartered in three other buildings. Guides and interpreters also stayed inside the fort, in the Guides' House, and had the privilege of eating in the Great Hall with the bourgeois.

Voyageurs outside the palisade

Voyageurs outside the Fort William palisade, by Robert Freynet

Rank and file voyageurs ate and slept outside the walls of the Fort. During the day they entered to get supplies or to do chores about the post. The mangeurs de lard set up camp - usually haphazardly on one side of the Fort, while the wintering voyageurs, whose camp was neat and organized, occupied the other side. At night they took shelter under overturned canoes or in primitive tents.

View of Fort William, Ontario from a Native encampment

Winter lodgings

Lodgings at regional administrative posts were also assigned according to the person's importance in the company hierarchy. The officer in charge of a trading post had a separate residence with fine furnishings. Subordinates lived in far more modest buildings.

View of Fort Franklin ( Northwest Territories ) in winter

At inland trading posts, lodgings were simpler than at the company headquarters. Bourgeois had separate and private accommodations, while the hired men often shared a single multi-family dwelling. At smaller posts, bourgeois and hired men may have shelter under one roof, though in separate quarters.

During the winter, voyageurs trading en derouine with the Natives often slept in their tepees or other lodgings before travelling back to their post.

Did you know?

During winter travels, when voyageurs had to camp for the night, they scouted out a place where firewood and fir boughs were available. They spread blankets and animal hides on a bed of boughs and used their coats for pillows. They huddled together to stay warm.

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