Voyageur

Voyageur is a French term meaning traveler. In historical contexts, it refers to a category of fur trade workers in New France and early North America who undertook long canoe journeys to transport goods and beaver pelts between interior trading posts and European markets.

From the late 17th through the early 19th centuries, voyageurs were often employed or hired by fur trading companies such as the Northwest Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company. They traveled in crews and used large birchbark canoes to shuttle cargo along water routes that connected Montreal and the Great Lakes with interior posts, often via routes like the Grand Portage. Indigenous peoples frequently assisted or guided voyageurs, whose journeys relied on Indigenous knowledge of navigation, weather, and portage.

Voyageurs were typically French-Canadian men, though the term can appear in broader historical contexts. Their work involved long days of paddling and portaging, carrying heavy trade goods to posts and returning with furs. The culture of the voyageur era is remembered for its distinctive songs, rhythms, and solidarity among crews, as well as its imagery of canoe travel across vast inland routes.

The fur trade declined after the mid-19th century as markets shifted and transportation technology evolved, leading many voyageurs to settle in trading communities across Canada and the northern United States. Today, the term voyageur is used primarily in historical and cultural contexts to evoke the era of the North American fur trade.