Survival of the Bark Canoe
by John McPhee · first published 1975
4mentions
2recommended by
2HN commenters
2025–2026first – last mentioned
100% recommend
In Greenville, New Hampshire, a small town in the southern part of the state, Henri Vaillancourt makes birch-bark canoes in the same manner and with the same tools that the Indians used. The Survival of the Bark Canoe is the story of this ancient craft and of a 150-mile trip through the Maine woods in those graceful survivors of a prehistoric technology. It is a book squarely in the tradition of one written by the first tourist in these woods, Henry David Thoreau, whose The Maine Woods recounts similar journeys in similar vessel. As McPhee describes the expedition he made with Vaillancourt, he
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Love John McPhee and have read a lot of his books so will have to check out your recommendation. His book The Survival of the Bark Canoe led directly to me learning about crooked knives and then starting https://crookedknives.com All of his books are phenomenal.
on “The Geological Sublime” ↗…basically the main source for information on bark canoes and how they're built. The Art of the Canoe with Joe Seliga is out of print, AFAIK, but is a good overview of how wood canvas canoes are built. The Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee is more narrative and worth a read too. Laminated wood strip canoes are a more modern invention. Bear Mountain Boats has a good book on how they're built, and Nick Offerman did a video…
on “Voyage of the Paper Canoe: 2500 Miles from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, 1874-5” ↗…draw-knife and gouge but all in a one handed tool. They were primarily used by Native Americans to build things like canoes, snowshoes, baskets etc. I first found about them from reading John McPhee's Survival of the Bark Canoe [1] but there are lots of uses of them on video on the website below (which I created). If you want to get into woodworking but want only a few tools and/or a very portable tool, highly recommend. e.g.…
on “Ask HN: Any Interesting Niche Hobbies?” ↗With regards to how skill is more important than technology in these other form of carrying: A couple years ago I read Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee [0]. There are several discussions of a crooked knife and how it was the "multitool" of craftsman in the northern forests and was used for everything from making canoes to snowshoes. This…
on “The Lost Art of Carrying Loads” ↗