Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Hudson's Bay blanket

There must be some storys about the blankets, and the stores.

Heck, I remember when Baldy Besselt's place in Dinorwic was the Hudsons Bay store. (Before Baldy owned it) I can't remember for the life of me who ran the store, though.

I think we still have a 4 point Hudson Bay blanket at home here. Kept us warm as kids on the cool nights. Heavy sucker.

Must be some stories all right. Oldest, still operating, company in the world, 442 years old. Blankets were some of the earliest trade goods. Distributed almost continent wide.
Company employees "discovered" almost all of continental US and Canada. Explored and mapped from coast to coast. Volumes of, if not entire libraries of books written about the company, it employees and explorers, if not the blankets.
Hudson's Bay Co took over The Northwest Company in 1821, does NWC history count too? If so, the American Lewis and Clark expedition was an afterthought (10 years after) following Alexander McKenzie's 1763 trip to the Pacific (first overland expedition to reach the west coast.)

Blankets were different sizes as noted by the marks (points) and were used as just about everything from doors to sleeping bags. Easily made into coats, scarves and hats (toques). They were made in England and supported an entire industry over there.

One of the interesting things I find about the blankets is that they were processed with human urine. Seems to me it was used for it's ammonia to clean the raw wool. From this comes the term "Piss poor." Destitute enough that they had to resort to selling their urine to the textile industry. I suspect they have a different method of treating the wool now.

My first Bay blanket was brown, with the black stripe. What was called a single bed size, now twin.
Along with being warm,I was impressed with the tag.
1670 looked like a long time ago when I was about five years old.

The first few trips I took up north on James and Hudson Bay the Northern Stores still took in fur and wild rice as payment for goods.


Keith
Does Randy Besselt still live in Dinorwic? I believe Baldy was the last manager and then took over the store when The Hudson Bay abandoned it. That is a childhood remembrance and not substantiated by fact.

I honestly don't know, but I think he lives on the site of Baldy's old store.

I have a lot of good memories of Baldy?'s and Mrs Nauman's stores going to and coming back from hunting and fishing.

Are you talking about the same store?
What is the timeline on them?

Naumann's store has been there for more than 60 years, and the old Hudson Bay Store has been gone for likely 35 years now. Both in Dinorwic. Old Max Naumann has been dead for a lot of years, and his wife Julie, lived to be about 90 something. She knew where everything was in that store and believe me, there was LOTS of stuff in that store. A lot different than it is today.

[quote=Greg_ Oldest, still operating, company in the world, 442 years old. [/quote]

What about Beretta? In business since the 1400's, documented since 1526.

They're Italian, for cryin' out loud. They just forgot to quit.

Wikipedia says the Hudson's Bay Company is the oldest in North America.
I can't say about continous management. Not bought, and sold severial times over.
The Hudson's Bay Company is not what it once was, but a success I'd say.

I have a red with a black stripe hunting coat that I used to use for deer hunting. I use it ice fishing sometimes now. A very warm & well made coat. We also have several Hudson Bay blankets in the cedar closet.