Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Dugout canoe

  • wcu_craft_revival-6207.jpg
  • This photograph, by an unknown photographer, shows the remnant of a Cherokee dugout canoe that was discovered in 1974 in Chattahoochee, near Helen, Georgia. The traditional Cherokee method of creating canoes used fire, instead of metal tools. Craftsmen built a fire at the base of a chosen tree, usually yellow poplar, to fell it and then remove unwanted wood by alternately burning and scraping layers of wood until the canoe was the desired size and shape. Cherokee canoes, used for fishing and transportation, could be up to thirty or forty feet long and could hold twelve people.