Photo Karen Graham.
Glenn Fallis entertained a crowd with his stories and documentary describing his experience as a member of the Ontario team that participated in the Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant that was a unique feature in the nation’s Centennial celebrations. Glenn is smiling because he is delighted that this outfit still fits.
Last month, roughly one hundred visitors enjoyed an entertaining and informative evening hosted by the Cavan Millbrook Historical Society featuring Millbrook resident Glenn Fallis.
The topic of the discussion was an historical event called the Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant that was developed as part of the Canadian Centennial celebrations in 1967. The pageant consisted of a 3,283 miles (5,283 km) of paddling journey on rivers, lakes and rapids and included 60 miles of portaging over 104 days. Every province and territory except Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland sponsored a canoe with a team of ten members from their region. Glenn was not only a member of the Ontario Paddling team, he created an hour-long documentary using still shots and short videos that he produced and narrated for posterity which was presented that evening.
Glenn Fallis is best known in the area as the owner of Voyageur Canoe which he founded in 1969. It began as a testament to his love of paddling and his desire to build high quality canoes. These days he continues to apply his engineering training to create unique, functional and beautiful canoes, but the bulk of his contracts these days are for custom engineered parts for major manufacturing and construction companies.
The Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant was designed to mimic the routes of the fur trade in a nod to the courageous young men who were instrumental in the founding of our country. These traders travelled through the wilderness, shuttling between forts where some of our most important cities are now located and contributed to the success of the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company which were instrumental to the nation’s origins.
Pageant members came from all walks of life. They were farmers, lawyers, musicians, students, guides and musicians. All were selected through rigorous trials held across the country in the two years prior to the event. Organizers were planning an endurance test that remains in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest canoe race in history.
Each canoe was named for a Canadian explorer, including Champlain for New Brunswick, David Thompson for Alberta and Alexander Mackenzie for the Northwest Territories. These canoes were made of fibreglass and weighed approximately 250 pounds (113 kg) – much lighter than the 600-pound wooden vessels used by the original explorers.
The trip began on May 24th in the Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, travelling on rivers and lakes across four provinces and arriving at the Expo 67 site in Montreal on September 4th.
Each ten member team had nine paddlers and a manager called a commodore, but only six paddlers manned the canoes each day, a schedule that provided critical rest every third day. Those not on paddle duty set up tents at camp sites and prepared meals for their group. The grueling schedule required crews to paddle at least six to eight hours a day at a pace of 60-65 strokes per minute, with ten minute breaks every hour. Every thirty seconds, paddlers would shift paddle sides, sliding along their seats, without breaking their pace. This sliding action wore out their pants, a risk that was anticipated by the Great West Garment Company which supplied each paddlers with three pairs of jeans.
The most difficult parts of their journey on water occurred in Lake of the Woods, where the paddlers fought waves of twelve to eighteen feet high. Travelling on Lake Superior offered a different experience: canoes were chaperoned by navy ships and travelled in their wakes. On this leg of the journey, the crew substituted aluminum paddles for their wooden ones to ensure they were visible by radar. The only time a canoe was tipped over occurred at the Lachine Rapids on the St. Lawrence when the Yukon canoe became swamped and had to be rescued.
Portages present some of the more gruelling challenges. The trip included some 60 miles (96.5 km) of portages. For the longest portage, which was 17.5 miles long (28.2 km) at Portage La Prairie.
To keep their energy up, most days the voyageurs received food deliveries based on a menu designed by a dietician to help them maintain their activity levels. At the many small communities they visited along the way, the group received a heroes’ welcome and were treated to hearty banquets. Another modern convenience that made their journey more enjoyable than those of the fur traders was an abundant supply of insect repellent.
The Guinness Book of Records refers to the event as a race and it concluded with a three-mile sprint into the Expo 67 site. Manitoba’s canoe called Radisson took the top prize.
The canoe pageant was a nostalgic feature in one of Canada’s biggest international event, and a unique component of the celebration of Canada’s 100th birthday. KG