I was doing a deep dive into early Canadian history, because reasons, and found a couple of fun stories to share.  Because hey — this Sunday is National Indigenous Peoples Day!

The Bad Overwinter

So a recurring thing in early Canadian history was the Bad Overwinter. A group of Europeans — usually French — would show up in Canada with a shipload of trade goods.  They would hang out with the Indians for a bit, and then would decide to leave some guys behind over the winter. Maybe they wanted to have a permanent trading post, maybe they were trying to start a colony, whatever.

So they’d leave, say, twenty guys on Sable Island or the Avalon Peninsula or on the upper St. Lawrence River with some building materials and tools and food, and in late September they would sail back to France.