Moose Factory
I've been obsessing about the town of Moose Factory lately. It all started because I am reading Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road and the characters pass through Moose Factory on several occasions.
The very name Moose Factory conjures up all sorts of romantic visuals of northern Ontario...of say, just so many mooses (spelling?) running around, that the place is almost like, um, a factory for mooses... So anyway, I've been thinking about it a lot and wondering what it's like there. Imagine my surprise when checking my site meter, I notice that someone from Moose Factory has clicked on my blog!
Linking up to yesterday's post, I think that we should start a movement to get Rick Mercer up to Moose Factory shoot some scenes for his Mercer Report. Its name alone deserves recognition... not to mention that according to Wikipedia, it was the first English-speaking settlement in Ontario and the second fur trading post established in all of North America.
posted by JJ @ 1:56 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Hmm.
Ever think this is just post-traumatic jet lag causing you this obsession with Moose Jaw... er.. Moose Factory?
:)
hmmm maybe...or maybe Rick Mercer could do something like a hommage to all of the Moose related towns across Canada...
Another thought to ponder: the Moose is the official state animal of the State of Maine.
Perhaps the Moose is not as quintesessially Canadian as we like to think.....
But who knew each state had an official animal anyway?
HI, my name is Jeanne, and someone who knows I grew up in Moose Factory (Suzanne from Big Blue Wave) directed me here. :)
Just to set you straight on the name, Factory is (also) old English for where the Factor lived/worked which happened to be the trading post, and a factor would be the manager. Moose Factory is an island on the Moose river, hence the name. We do not actually fabricate moose up there, and there are none running wild down the roads either, the wildest thing anyone ever saw were geese flying overhead and a few black bears in the dump. Moose Factory also used to be called Moose Fort. And yes, it is the oldest English-speaking settlement in Ontario :) Although many of those English were actually scots, (there are a lot of natives with very scottish names: MacDonald, McLeod, Sutherland,...) I'm not native myself, I just grew up there.
Something else that puts on on the map, Jonathon Cheechoo of the San Jose Sharks... and Moose Factory islanders couldn't be prouder...
Jeanne, I cannot thank you enough for your comments. First, I think that you should add the history of the origins to the name to the Wikipedia entry on Moose Factory. And thank you for clearing that up (I hope you don't think that I was being flip in my discussion of the name - but it really does evoke all sort of images and connotations).
Second, thank you also for adding the point about Jonathan Cheechoo, I was remise in not adding that.
Hmmm - I'm really serious about lobbying Rick Mercer about doing a piece for his show about Moose Factory. I've already emailed him about it. If anyone else is interested you can flip him a line at rick@rickmercer.com
Oh and yes, also excellent point Anon about the Moose as official animal for Maine. I think this highlights the importance of mooses (sp?) even more - the fact that are an relevant official animal for both Canada and the US demostrates the key role that they play in fostering cross-border cooperation.
I wonder how the Moose ended up on our 25-cent coint? Quite a funny flip-side/alter-ego for the queen to carry, no? And it certainly re-inforces the animal's importance in cross-border relations.
...Definitely a story for Rick M.
Don't worry, we're used to people wondering about the name. If Rick Mercer wants to do a sotry about Moose Factory, I hope I hear about it so I can see it.
Just to clear this up the plural of moose is not mooses or meese it just moose.
examples:
(sg) That is a big moose.
(pl) Look at all those moose in the field.
(poss) The moose's antlers are large.
Thanks, anon for clarifying and for the examples...(As a proud Canadian, I actually knew the answer to that one - but was trying to pretend that I had a lack of grammatical knowledge on plural form of moose - just another one of my lame attempt at trying to be funny...)
Any come to think of it, why isn't the plural of moose not meese or mooses?
Post a Comment
<< Home