Canoes: A Natural History in North America

Photograph by H. H. Bennett, canoeists in a birch-bark canoe near Steamboat Rock, Wisconsin Dells.

Native builders would roll the stripped birch bark into a backpack of sorts, secure it with roots, and carry it back to the canoe-making camp. This individual with the pack is identified as Cheemaun of an Ojibwe tribe in Wisconsin.

Cover of a 1920 Thompson Boat catalogue.

Prior to the development of hard-topped automobiles, it was a bit of a problem to travel with a canoe on a soft-top car. One solution, which limited the use of all of the car doors, was to strap the boat on side-saddle, such as this wood-and-canvas model.

Grumman shipped canoes by truck, among other means, to retailers large and small across the United States from its plant on Long Island.

Several companies made small, gas-powered outboard motors designed to work with square-stern canoes and other similar-sized craft.

Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, seen here in the bow of a canoe on the Namekagon River in 1966, is considered the founder of Earth Day. The first Earth Day came in 1970.