Ober’s journey, week 3

Oberholtzer Foundation

Week No.3

June 29-July 5, 1912

One question about this 2,000 mile canoe journey, taken by Ernest “Ober” Oberholtzer and Billy Magee in 1912, was — why not hire a guide? If they knew they were going off the printed map, why not bring in the knowledge of the region in the form of a local guide? This was common custom. The short answer? They tried.

On June 30, 1912, Ober and Magee reached Cumberland House, Saskatchewan. Reading several journal entries, it’s clear that Ober hoped to hire a guide. Here, in Cumberland House, the search includes talking with Edward Cadotte, “a one-eyed half breed… He cannot go, and I decide to go as far as Pelican Narrows alone.” By “alone,” Ober meant the two of them alone — he and Magee.

Ober’s journal catches a unique local detail in Cumberland House — “Dogs with sticks tied between their legs to prevent their chasing cows and children.” We read between the lines and know that some conversation supported Oberholtzer’s entry.

In this time period, Magee and Oberholtzer run into evidence of “Revillon Freres,” and the footnote teaches me that this was a French fur and luxury goods company, which, at the end of the 19th Century, had stores in Paris, London, New York, and Montreal. So the British had the Hudson Bay Company, and the French had the Revillon Freres. Canada, meanwhile, had the furs.

We begin to understand just how basic their foodstuff was, in this summer of canoeing Canada’s rivers and lakes. “Bannock” gave them carbohydrates and they augmented this with protein wherever it could be caught or hunted. Sometimes they added fresh berries to their biscuit-like bannock, cooked over an open fire.

Ober learns along the way about poling, “I have never seen it before,” he writes, “I take several pictures.” They watch a few men smash one of their canoes and likely pledge never to do the same. One canoe, two men, and though they meet others along the route, they are relying entirely on one another. When Ober drops a camera lens and records the finding of it, we realize that sometimes, just sometimes, one of the men in that canoe is occupied with a bit of small equipment while the other one steadily paddles.

My word for this week: patience. Patience with no guide, with those whom they meet, with 1,000 bannocks. And Magee’s patience with the hopes and dreams of one young Oberholtzer who, thanks to Magee, will bring back both journals and photographs.

Readers can follow Ober’s journey in the book, “Bound for the Barrens,” available at www.lulu.com.