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Toboggan History
Written by Administrator
Saturday, 09 August 2008 16:46
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The Arrowhead Toboggan View of History, For anyone who has lived in areas with long winters, and those areas have changed over geologic time, getting from one place to another with your “stuff” presents a problem. Whether the “stuff” is your dinner, a nice slab of deer, moose, or elk for example, or shelter and clothing that needs to be moved from one location to another deep snow presents a significant barrier to that movement. Early peoples living in northern climes would have confronted this dilemma and would have devised ways to overcome that obstacle. They would have learned that pulling “things” on hides would have been easier than pulling the things themselves through the snow. They would have quickly learned that “rope” attached to the object or hide would have made the job easier. The evolution to smooth bark carriers and then to wooden slats is not too difficult to imagine. Native peoples of the Northern U.S. and Canada would have evolved the early precursors to the toboggan a very long time ago, just to survive. I have yet to hear a definitive explanation of how the term toboggan originated and maybe it goes back so far that we no longer know for sure. The early narrow slats, 2 or 3 slates wide, and 6 to 10 feet long with a slanted or curved front were probably the first forms of the toboggan as we know it today. And, there are some peoples in Canada who still possess the skill to make such implements as needed with hand tools and “camp fire.” If you know of anyone who has knowledge of the history of toboggans or if you know of a reputable source of information, please let us know. We would like to know more about that history and present it here for all to learn. Of course pictures and videos are also excellent ways to convey that history and we will place those here also. |
| Last Updated ( Saturday, 11 July 2009 14:08 ) |