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CALAIS Using traditional methods and materials and patterning their work after a model from the 1800s, volunteers and craftsmen are building an ocean-sailing birch bark canoe at the Passamaquoddy Heritage Center.
Young men weave roots to secure the framing, a grandmother carves wood pegs to hold the construction together and others are preparing the traditional designs that will be cut into the birch barks surface.
The canoe is a replica of a 20-foot canoe on display at the Maine State Museum. That canoe was built by Peter Atwin before 1872. It was purchased by a well-known fur buyer, Manley Hardy, who paddled it down the St. Croix River, stopped at Pleasant Point and outfitted it with a sail and then sailed it to Brewer. The re-creation of the canoe has...