Grocer
Cave - Near Leasburg, MO.
Clovis Points - Paleo Indian
The
‘Pirogue’ or ‘Dugout’ Canoe was surely one of the earliest and most enduring of
Native
American crafts. Making one of these crafts was an arduous task in which fire
and crude scraping tools were used to hollow out a large sycamore, cypress, or
cottonwood log. This type of craft was used extensively by the Native Americans
of the Midwest as well as early immigrants to the area, and varied widely in size
and shape. The largest dugouts were up to fifty feet long, five feet in beam,
and could hold 30 men and forty or fifty tons of freight. The Birchbark Canoe,
also widely used during that time period, was primarily used by northern and eastern
tribes.
Some Types Of Native American Canoes
Bark
Canoes were narrow, light and shallow-drafted. There have been many styles
of
Bark Canoes, some of the the most common were:
The Two-Man
Indian Canoe: 8 to 10 feet in length.
The Express or Light Canoe:
usually 18 to 21 feet long; used for rapid travel.
The North Canoe:
A 4- to 8-man canoe which was sometimes used as an Express canoe.
The
Bastard Canoe: A particular style of 10-man canoe.
The Montreal
Canoe: A particular style of 8- to 12-man or even 14-man canoe.
Wooden
Dugout Canoes were most likely the earliest form of water craft in this area,
and probably enjoyed the longest use: Pirogues or Dugouts and variants came in
numerous sizes with the largest made by splitting a dugout in half longitudinally
and then reassembling
with planks inserted between the halves.
Skin
Boats were skin-covered frame canoes which were usually used only as a temporary
vessel.
Bullboats were a bowl-shaped variation of skin boat that
was usually used on streams in
crossing from one side to the other.
Historic
Indian Points, probably the Delaware tribe,
from a site near
the Bourbeuse.
Courtesy of Jeff Goodman, Bourbon, MO.
The
Lower Meramec - Early 1900"s
From: Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, National Park Service,
Meramec River Basin
October 1969. 29, 30.
MERAMEC HOME LINKS
Go
Cabins • Go
Camping • Go
Paddling • Fishing
• Flicks •
History • How
to Paddle • Maps
• MDC • MDNR
• Planner
• Poem • Public
Places • Quotes
• Safety Tips •
Streamflow
• Tributaries •
Trivia • Weather
Webmaster
OZARK OUTDOORS LINKS
HOME
• Go Cabins
• Go Camping
• Go Canoeing • Go Rafting •
Go Kayaking • Go Tubing • Group
Packages
