All sort of trees species are use in the making of a ship of the line, it's not all oak or teak. Softwood for parts that needed to bend and give and hard woods for load bearing parts. canadian softwoods are great for the bendy parts as it is very slow growing, compared to softwood in warmer climate. We had lots of slow growing pine and firs.
How did the pioneers clear the land?
- Thread starter Yoga Face
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If you want to make money, or justify spending it you don't build a "simple dirt road". A good road, even a simple, unpaved one is not a simple build*. You're quite right that primitive roads around rapids developed early because it's where they were needed. As always in human endeavour, they were a set of compromises between what they wanted—no inconvenience at all, which would be an all water route, or a smooth surfaced, flat road somehow paved to hold up to weather and traffic, but even primitive macadamizing only appeared in the 1820s— and what little they could afford at the time. Good roads were rare even in Europe, and still built and maintained with forced labour until recent times. So improvements came little by little and always later than wanted. Like a subway to Scarborough.
And then there's that "organized workforce". If you have no existing population, and are trying to attract one by giving away free land where does that come from? Research and look up the Berczy Settlement; you must have wondered why there's a park named for Berczy at the bottom of Yonge. They chopped trees along the route north as part of their deal, but a long time and a whole lot more slow and expensive work was needed before wagon traffic up Yonge was anything 'simple'. None of this was 'simple'. Nor was anything ever static, prescribed or unchanging. As soon as some difficult challenge was overcome it just revealed the next and revealed the shortcomings that were being left behind for the next folks to deal with.
And then the Yankees invaded and the menfolk had to down tools and go to war. Or there was a Depression, or a year with no summer, or some fool leading a Rebellion, or …. But there was still always the push to accomplish just a bit more. So that opening between the boulders became a path that became a portage that became a track that became a sorta road that got gravelled eventually and now is a forgotten lane because the TransCanada passed to the south, and as you speed on the 401, you don't even know where the TransCanada was. There never was and never will be one single How It Was Done unless you want to name one single day. It's always been What Do We Do Next.
I really wonder why you're just thinking about all this fascinating real-life stuff that has shaped everything about how and where you are living today and why you're 'changing your mind about' it this way and that? It's easy and fun to research in all sorts of books, and like sitting down for a banquet, when you next stand up from your reading you'll be satisfied and fuelled up, at least for awhile. Mental gymnastics in the abstract may make the mind more supple and easier to change but they can never answer a question of fact about the past, only improve the guesswork, though you might look up York boats to switch your guesses from pictures of little birchbark canoes with a couple of voyageurs to paddle them, as a warm-up exercise.
http://www.hbcheritage.ca/images/Canoe.jpg and http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/transportation/yorkboat/
At four pages on my browser and still growing, clearly this thread is entertaining more than just me, and I thank you for it and the pleasure your interest and curiosity continues to provide.
*Wikipedia will show how complicated a 'simple' Roman road built primarily to provide passage for marching men and their baggage needed to be. Anyone who's tried driving on dirt without a built foundation, even with big soft tires never mind narrow iron-shod cart wheels, knows how the slightest dip filled with water forces a detour that widens the dip and forces the next vehicle into a wider detour, until the 'road' becomes a corkscrew steeplechase. Roads are never simple, What's simple is expediency, and that always changes.
it is difficult to find answers to our specific questions
The fact I was referring to is the American westward migration
the wagon trains went over mountains
their wagon ruts are still there as they would follow in the same ruts
They are garbage strewn as pioneers would lighten their load by throwing away non essentials such as stoves, washing machines etc
The Donner Pass is named for the Donner wagon train that got caught in the pass as winter came and they ate their horses then each other
I just cannot see the difficulty in wagons portaging the St Lawrence rapids
in the winter there would be no travel as Lake Ontario froze
As to who would establish and maintain such a path I would presume the British Forces would as they need it to supply York and it would be interesting to know how it was done as continued use, rain and freezing would create road damage
Establishing another path would be the easiest solution as heavily traveled roads needs a support structure, ditches on both sides for drainage, maintenance
I'm no an expert on the American expansion west, but that's the US, not Canada which what most of this thread is about. The way west in the US might depend more on crossing a couple of major rivers, the Mississippi running north south and and a couple of lesser rivers running basically east west, and because once you get through the Appalachians in the Virginias and Pennsylvania, through natural passes like the Nachez Trace/Gap, it's nearly clear sailing across to St Louis and eventually foothills of the Rockies. Not even close to the same topography that you get in central Canada.
As for the portaging, it's not just the loading and unloading that is the problem you must be able to land the canoes safely and for reason mentioned earlier that not as easy as it sounds. Much of the cargo would be unloaded at the village of Lachine and humped overland to Montreal, until the Lachine canal was built, approximately 20 mile (more than a two day journey). There was a 'foot path' along the rapids, but not suitable for heavy traffic for reason already explained. Further travel east was hampered by a second set of rapids just east of Montreal, long since buried under the Seaway.
As for travel on the St Lawrence in the winter, it was easier, just slower with smaller loads, as sleds could be used for short hauls on the ice, but again not all the way.
