Writer | Artist
Excerpted from Beardmore: The Viking Hoax that Rewrote History, by Douglas Hunter, published Sept. 2018 by McGill-Queen’s University Press. On the hot summer night of 16 July 1934, a Canadian National Railways (CNR) train clattering through the boreal gloom of northern Ontario was brought to a sharp halt about four miles southwest of the whistle... Continue Reading →
One of the enduring curiosities of early Canadian history is what Samuel de Champlain, routinely celebrated as Canada’s founding father, was even doing in eastern North America when he first arrived in 1603. From his initial appearance on the St. Lawrence River in that year, until his departure from Acadia in 1607 as the Port... Continue Reading →
It was early autumn, 1968, and a teenaged Dave Anderson was booting along a gravel road in a light-green Dodge half-ton pickup with his brother Richard. They were in the northwestern corner of the province, north of Kenora, on the way to a family trap line, when they saw something they weren’t supposed to see,... Continue Reading →
Ever since Milton cast a cormorant in the role of Satan in Paradise Lost, this family of birds has been loathed, with precious little to no scientific reason.
So what is it: a Muskoka Chair or an Adirondack Chair? In 2009, I tried to settle who owns the bragging rights for an iconic piece of North American outdoor furniture.
The so-called Champlain astrolabe is one of the most recognized and valuable objects in the Canadian Museum of History. But was it ever really Champlain's? In this investigation published in the winter of 2004/2005, I argued the evidence strongly points instead to the Jesuits. My mind hasn't changed.
Douglas Hunter 