This beautiful canoe is a smaller, one-person representation of the canoes that were used by traders. Typically they were much larger, with a payload of 1,000 lbs. or so. (Can you imagine paddling upstream?) The exterior is made of birchbark, which is both plentiful as well as water-resistant. It can be peeled from the trees without killing them, making it an early renewable resource. Once the pieces had been cut and stitched together, the builder would apply cedar pitch to seal it. This canoe probably dates from the 1800s - 1900s, but the art form has been around for a long time. Native Americans were using this design before Europeans came and adopted it for their own use.