A vintage, sepia-toned outdoor photograph of a man and a woman standing on a snowy slope with a dense pine forest behind them. The man on the left is on skis and holds a single long wooden ski pole horizontally with both hands, while the woman on the right stands on traditional webbed snowshoes with her hands clasped.

Snowshoes

Photo: Penobscot Marine Museum

In February 1925, Lewiston was the host of the first annual International Snowshoe Convention. It was the first convention of its kind held in North America, and Canadian snowshoe enthusiasts were arriving in the city in droves, mostly by train, except for two thirtysomethings from Montreal. They arrived by snowshoe. It took them 11 days to reach Lewiston from Montreal, a distance of about 250 miles.

Recreational snowshoeing was quite the thing among Maine’s Franco-Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. These immigrants brought their snowshoeing traditions from Canada, where French settlers had adopted snowshoes from Indigenous peoples centuries earlier.

Before roads and trains existed in what is now Maine and Canada, snowshoes not only made getting around in the winter possible, they were crucial survival tools. Each Indigenous nation developed distinct snowshoe designs adapted to the terrain and snow conditions where they lived. The Wabanaki peoples’ snowshoes were long and narrow with toes that could be round or square but typically were not upturned. The frames were made from brown or white ash or yellow or white birch and the lacing from untanned caribou, moose, or deer hide. Either snowshoe could be worn on either foot.

After European settlers arrived, Wabanaki snowshoe makers supplied loggers, trappers, and, eventually, sporting goods stores. As demand for snowshoes continued to grow into the nineteenth century, commercial outfits sprang up in Maine. From the 1850s to the 1940s, the state became the country’s center of snowshoe manufacturing.

As skiing became more popular and snowshoes were no longer winter necessities, Maine’s snowshoe clubs and manufacturing industry faded, however, snowshoeing remains a popular winter activity. Norway, once dubbed the Snowshoe Capital of the World for its snowshoe manufacturing, holds an annual snowshoe festival. And while most snowshoes today are made with lightweight metals and synthetic materials, traditional wooden snowshoes drawing on generations of Wabanaki craftsmanship continue to be handcrafted in Maine.

Author: Stephanie Bouchard

University of Maine Hudson Museum

A panoramic, sepia-toned historical photograph capturing a large gathering of a snowshoe club filling a city street. Dozens of participants in matching uniforms hold club flags and banners in front of decorated brick buildings. — A panoramic photograph of the attendees at the first Snow Shoe Meet held in Lewiston in 1925. Photo: Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

An archival sepia photograph of seven men posing in deep snow in front of a snow-covered wooden log cabin. Several men hold traditional webbed wooden snowshoes, and they are dressed in heavy winter clothing from the early 20th century. — Camp St. Croix, Houlton, 1899. Sport hunters at their camp in Aroostook County. Photo: Collections of Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum.

A vintage black and white photo of two women standing on snowy ground, wearing matching dark snowshoe club uniforms with white sashes and matching beanies. They are posing with a pair of large, teardrop-shaped webbed wooden snowshoes planted vertically in the snow between them. — Regina Carrier, Mary Ann Vachon, Biddeford, 1927, winners at the American Snowshoe Union competition. Photo: Maine Historical Society/Maine Today Media.

A black and white archival image of an elderly craftsman with a prominent mustache sitting on a wooden stool indoors. He is focused on hand-crafting a wooden snowshoe frame, surrounded by piles of wood shavings on the floor. — Mellie Dunham of Norway making snowshoes, ca. 1925. Notably, he made 60 pairs of snowshoes for Commodore Robert Peary for an expedition to the North Pole. Photo: Maine Historical Society/Maine Today Media.

A historic black and white photograph of an older man with a white mustache and hair working inside a dim workshop. He has a wooden snowshoe secured in a bench vise, carefully shaping or lacing the webbed structure under direct window light. — Mellie Dunham of Norway, Maine, is shown in his shop making his famous snowshoes. Photo: Maine Historical Society/Maine Today Media.

A vintage black and white photograph of three members of a snowshoe club posing outdoors in the snow. The two taller men on the outside wear light-colored heavy coats with dark sashes and tasseled caps, flanking a shorter member in a dark uniform decorated with stripes. — Montagnard Snowshoe Club members, Lewiston, ca. 1930. Photo: Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

Members of the Jacques Cartier snowshoe club of Lewiston. Photo: Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

A close-up shot of a round, white promotional pin or button. It features two crossed red snowshoes in the center, bordered by the text "INTERNATIONAL SNOWSHOE CONGRESS" in red and "MONTAGNARD LEWISTON, MAINE February 1985" in blue. — A souvenir button from the 1985 International Snowshoe Congress that was held in Lewiston in 1985. Photo: Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

A black and white archival photograph of a group of men and women posing playfully together on a snowy patch of ground. The men wear structured club uniforms with long, pointed winter caps, while several women wear luxurious, heavy fur coats and winter hats. — Le Boucanier Snowshoe Club, Biddeford, 1927. Photo: Maine Historical Society/Maine Today Media.

A dramatic black and white photograph from a low angle, showing a lone person walking away across a vast, flat, snow-covered frozen lake. A deep, winding trail of footprints stretches from the foreground toward the figure, with a small forested island visible in the distance under a vast sky. — Warden Tom Sprague trudges across a frozen expanse of Grand Lake during his far-ranging rounds. Photo: Penobscot Marine Museum.

A bright color photograph of a man and a woman snowshoeing through a serene birch forest on a sunny winter day. The sun shines brightly through the bare trees, casting long shadows across the crisp, deep snow as the couple treks using modern snowshoes and poles. — Photo: Maine Office of Tourism.

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