Unravelling the puzzling past of a treasured relic of the fur trade

KANGIQSUALUJJUAQ – Twenty years ago, Tommy Stanley Annanack was searching the shoreline north of George River for a stick so he could hang a teapot over a campfire.

When he grabbed at a piece of wood stuck between some rocks, he was shocked when he pulled out a weathered wooden musket.

Annanack brought the musket back with him to his father's camp. Although hunters there offered to buy the musket, he turned them down.

The musket now hangs carefully in a position of honour above a window in his home in Kangiqsualujjuaq, as the community of George River is called today.

The aged musket, with a serpent-like decoration, has been a source of pride, mystery and fascination for Annanack's entire family: is it a remnant from the travels of early European explorers like Henry Hudson, John Cabot or even Sir George Franklin along the Ungava Bay coast? What does the exotic-looking snake mean? Was the musket left behind by someone who met a tragic end?

As a hunter, Annanack knows how important a gun is to survival on the land.

For years, he's wondered about the musket's origins. He spoke publicly about finding the musket during hearings on the future Kuururjuaq provincial park, which took place earlier this year in Kangiqsualujjuaq.

But no one was curious enough to stop by later for a look.

Jason E. Ginn, collections manager for arms and armour at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, later examined photos of the musket from various angles, and immediately recognized Annanack's find.

Ginn's expert eye tells him the firearm is a muzzle-loading percussion musket. Firearms of this style are known as "North West Guns" or trade muskets, he says.

That's because these muskets were manufactured in England during the late 1800s as trade goods by fur trading companies, which did business in what became Canada. The Hudson's Bay and the Northwest Companies used these muskets as trade goods from the 1670s right up until the turn of the 20th century.

The key features of these North West Guns include large, plain trigger guards, Ginn says.

"These are designed so the firer can use two fingers to discharge the musket," he explains. "The only advantage is an easier trigger pull. Some references say that the large guard was for use with mittens."

And then there's the striking serpent sideplate, which by the mid-1790s was commonly found on trade muskets. The serpent showed traders where the firearms came from – even if they couldn't read. Tradition says the design also had a spiritual significance for Algonquin hunters and ensured successful hunting.

The musket fired its shot using a small brass or copper percussion cap – an innovation made in the 1820s that proved to be a large improvement over gunpowder and flint, which was used in the first North West Guns, because it could reliably fire in wet weather.

In the 1860s, the Hudson's Bay Company began to order firearms with percussion caps for use as trade goods.

That's how Ginn is able to pinpoint the age of Annanack's percussion musket to the late 1800s.

Although Annanack's musket is heavily corroded from years of exposure to the elements, Ginn says it's also possible to faintly make out a round marking on the rear of the lockplate, behind the percussion hammer.

Ginn says this impression resembles a marking that the firm Isaac Hollis & Sons of Birmingham, England applied to their trade guns. The marking was a circular mark with "Makers to Her Majesty's War Dept" surrounding the monogrammed initials of the firm.

"Although it is not possible to make out if there are any markings on the front of the lockplate, most English gunmakers marked their firearms in this location with the company name," Ginn says. "If this firearm was in fact manufactured by Isaac Hollis & Sons it would have been made for the Hudson's Bay company between 1879 and about 1900, and sent to North America during that time for supply as a trade good."

These dates neatly correspond with the presence of the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort George River post, which was open in that area from 1876 to 1915.

Many of the firearms introduced during the fur trade period were costly, and supplies of ammunition had to be purchased through trade. A musket similar to the one found by Annanack would have cost many furs.

As for its value today, Ginn says the musket can't be called a treasure in a monetary way.

But because of where it was found, the musket is an irreplaceable historical memento from a time when Inuit and fur traders bartered for goods in the Eastern Arctic.