Rupert’s Land 1830’s Firearms

[Walkingeagle]

So I have been trying to research what firearms would have been common around the Fort Edmonton area, on up through to the post at Lesser Slave Lake. I think we all know the NW Trade gun fits, but what else?? How would any of the common Eastern long rifles have found their way to the area (Lancasters, Kentuckys, etc)? Would they even have?
Thoughts?
Walk

 

[Walkingeagle]

I found this painting in a Parks Canada document around the Upper Athabasca Valley, specifically Jasper House. It appears this fellow has a half stock Hawken style flintlock...
Walk

 

[old ugly]

I'd say hawken style for sure. if that painting is indeed 1825-26. Then one would think there would have been movement of people from the south, where that gun would have been inspired from. I am sure that even though the trade gun is a versatile weapon, it would seem long rifles would be carried too. After all some folks like fancier stuff and would probably never carry a second class weapon such as a trade gun. i don't know the exact answer but im betting on the side of long riffled guns from the south east being in the area.
Is there anything at the museum to indicate this? Covid will have closed the museum down but is there anything on the museums site.
OU
tom

 

[old ugly]

i don't know if this helps on what type of guns, immigration from the US was happening.

The Loyalist Immigration
Many of Québec's new British rulers, content to leave the colony to languish as a quiet backwater of the Empire, were soon forced to accept many thousands of English-speaking, largely Protestant settlers displaced by the American Revolution. Known as United Empire Loyalists, they were largely political refugees. Many of them migrated northward not by choice but by default, either because they did not wish to become citizens of the new American republic or because they feared retribution for their public support of the British. For these Loyalists, who eventually formed the core of the colony's ruling oligarchies, Canada was a land of second choice, as it would be for countless future immigrants who came because to remain at home was undesirable, and entry elsewhere, often the US, was restricted.

The Loyalist migration was neither uncontrolled nor unassisted, however. Imperial authorities and military personnel offered supplies to the new settlers and organized the distribution of land. Despite the hardships the settlers endured, their plight was undeniably made less severe by the intervention of government agents, a practice to be repeated in Canada many times.

Throughout the mid-19th century, the colonies — Canada West in particular — returned to a pattern of painfully slow and erratic economic growth. Officially encouraged immigration from England, Scotland and even the US gradually filled the better agricultural lands in the colony and bolstered new commercial or administrative towns. The new immigrants were generally similar to that of the established community. But the great Irish potato famine and to a lesser degree a series of abortive European rebellions in 1848 sent new waves of immigrants to North America.

 

[old ugly]

check this out, scrolling through it shows different areas and the canoe routes in those areas. but finding info on peoples travels other than on these routes is hard, probably because the easiest way to travel in that time frame would have been by waterways. so the gun may have been built closer to that area or access to the area or else it would have been a long convoluted route for that gun to get there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_canoe_routes

 

[Notchy Bob]

With regard to the Rindisbacher painting of the Metis family, I think the rifle would have more likely been an English sporting rifle, since the Hudson's Bay Company was very jealous of its territory. Half stocks and scroll triggerguard finials were used a lot on British rifles in the 19th century. Here is an example, from Joe Salter Antiques:

It is believed that the Hawken brothers were influenced by British firearms design when they developed their famous "Mountain Rifles."

In Trade Guns of the Hudson's Bay Company, author James Gooding noted that rifles were being brought in by the HBC as early as 1823.

However, I would not entirely rule out the possibility of a Hawken rifle making its way north. George "Kootenai" Brown (1839-1916), a noted Canadian frontiersman, married a Metis woman in 1869, and accompanied her people on their buffalo hunts. In his biography, he reported carrying a "Hawkins" rifle.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[Walkingeagle]

Agreed but it does appear to be a flint ignition. I don’t believe it to be a Hawken by any means, perhaps just a damaged fancy trade gun in which the stock was shortened and a scrolled guard installed??
Walk