Fur Exchange – for Rum
Fur brigade arrival revisited
Chanting for rum, modern-day voyageurs arrived at Fort Langley with furs for the Brigade Days celebration.
Matthew Claxton, Langley Advance
Published: Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Brigade Days at Fort Langley celebrates the reason the community was founded, more than 170 years ago.
The fur trade drove hundreds of traders and First Nations people into every part of what is now Canada in search of furs. Fort Langley was a major shipment point on the west coast to send those furs back to England, where they would become fashionable hats.
Every July between 1848 and 1858, bales of furs collected over the previous year would be packed into canoes and paddled down the rivers of B.C. to the Fort Langley.
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The voyageurs would then spend a month repacking the bales into larger bundles to be loaded onto sailing ships or steam ships to be taken overseas.
The voyageurs would also use the time to sign new contracts, catch up with old friends, hold competitions, and drink.
They would arrive chanting “Lum! Lum! Lum!” said Teresa Conkin, with the Fort Langley National Historic Site.
Lum was the Chinook worfor rum. Almost everyone who travelled widely in B.C. in the early to mid-19th century spoke Chinook, a First Nations trading language.
Each man was given, on arrival, about half a pint of 150 proof rum.
More rum would be consumed over the following month, as the voyageurs set up an encampment at the Fort.
Brigade Days re-enactors arrive every year by canoe and proceed to set up an encampment, engaging in typical activities for those times.
The celebration has been held for decades at Fort Langley.
mclaxton@langleyadvance.com