Mackinaw boat facts for kids
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The Mackinaw boat was a special kind of open sailboat used a long time ago in North America. It was very popular during the fur trading days. There were actually two main types of Mackinaw boats. One was used on the upper Great Lakes, and the other was used on the upper Missouri River and its smaller rivers.
How the Mackinaw Boat Was Developed
Around the late 1600s or early 1700s, a clever idea changed boat design. Someone added a special board called a centerboard to a canoe-shaped boat. This board could be pulled up or lowered. It made it possible to put a small mast and sail on the boat. This important change probably happened near the Straits of Mackinac, which is why the boat got its name, the Mackinaw boat.
With a sail and good wind, a Mackinaw boat could travel much faster and easier than just paddling. It quickly became a favorite boat on the upper Great Lakes. By 1815, when the American Fur Company was very powerful, the Mackinaw boat was the main boat for moving goods in this area. Another common boat for freight was the bateau, which was similar to the Mackinaw.
The fur traders liked the Mackinaw boat so much that they used its name for boats on the Missouri River. Even though it was harder to sail a boat up the Missouri River, they still called their cargo boats mackinaws. These Missouri River mackinaws might have been similar to the pirogue boats used by French settlers in Louisiana Territory. Mackinaws were seen on the Missouri River as far west as Fort Benton, Montana, which was the end of the river for boats.
Mackinaw Boats for Fishing
When the fur trade slowed down in the Great Lakes around the late 1830s, Mackinaw boats found a new job. They became popular traditional fishing boats. Because they were fast and could carry a lot of cargo, they were perfect for commercial fishing. Before we had refrigerators, fish had to be taken quickly to a fishing station. There, the fish could be cleaned and preserved with salt.
A typical Mackinaw fishing boat was about 18 to 24 feet (5.4 to 7.2 meters) long. Like its canoe ancestors, the boat had a flat bottom. This made it easy to pull the boat up onto a beach or a pebbly shore. Mackinaw boats could be schooner-rigged, meaning they had two or more masts, but their design wasn't always the same.
The Mackinaw boat was also used for quick trips and sending messages on Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and especially Lake Superior. It continued to be used for these jobs into the early 1900s.
The Mackinaw Boat Today
In the 20th century, new inventions like the outboard motor and other powerboats changed things. The flexible design and efficient movement of the Mackinaw boat became less important. Not many new Mackinaw boats were built after the 1910s.
One special Mackinaw boat, the Edith Jane, was built around 1909. It has a gaff-rigged sail and is kept safe inside a shelter in St. Ignace, Michigan. It might be the last Mackinaw boat that was built for work. After 1990, a few new Mackinaw boats started to be built again. These new boats are made for historical re-enactments and to help people learn old boat-building skills.
