|
|
 |
Travel by Water
Rivers were the people's highways for mellinia in northern Canada. First Nations peoples used the rivers to travel to seasonal hunting grounds and to meet with other peoples from distant lands. At Fort Liard, it is said that people would come every year, most often in the early summertime, to talk about hunting grounds and to discuss various issues, to exchange news and wares, and to celebrate. It is said that in the old days, so many people came to Fort Liard that all the canoes, laid side-to-side, would stretch across the Liard River, nearly a quarter of a mile wide in this location.
The Slavey Dene used spruce bark canoes to travel the local rivers. When European traders came, they introduced the use of birch bark canoes. In fact, they even collected bark from the splendid birch trees in the area for export to Fort Simpson for the construction of birch bark canoes to support the fur trade.
Moose-hide boats, modelled after the Hudson Bay Company's york boats, were used to bring a family's winter fur hunt down river in the spring. It could take as many as fourteen moose skins, stretched over a spruce frame, to make a moose-hide boat.
Until fairly recently, barges were used to bring shipments into Fort Liard. These barges would travel from Fort Nelson and Fort Simpson, and sometimes down and up the Mackenzie River. Today, an all season highway is the main method of transportation into the area, although many of the local people still use the rivers to spend time at their camps or to go hunting.
The Liard River was once known as the South Branch of the Mackenzie. It flows from its headwaters in the mountains of Northern British Columbia in a northwards direction towards the Mackenzie River. With a massive watershed reaching high into the mountains of the Yukon and British Columbia, a number of other large rivers flow into the Liard. Among those are the Fort Nelson River (once known as the East Branch of the Liard), the Beaver River, Kotaneelee River, Petitot River, Muskeg River, South Nahanni River, Blackstone River, Birch River, Netla River and many, many more.
Jet boats and home-made skiffs with outboards are used locally, and once in a while, people will travel downstream by canoe. This is most commonly done through Fort Neson, BC, via the Fort Nelson River.
A popluar route to canoe locally is the Petitot River, which can be accessed by road just south of the BC/NWT border, and passes Fort Liard where it flows into the Liard River. You can learn more about canoeing this scenic route, and others, on the See and Do page. |
Canoeing down the Petitot River
The Petitot River Canyon
The Liard River, just north of Fort Liard
| Click here to view more of the scenery around Fort Liard. Last Updated August 21, 2007
|
