Huckelberry Picker
Huckleberries are popular in Bonner County and the Pacific Northwest. We all know someone who claims to have "the spot" to get their picking each year. The history of harvesting huckleberries goes back to the 1800s, and even back then they were using special tools to make the job easier. Many of the Northwest tribes made special combs of wood or salmon backbones to strip huckleberries and blueberries off the bushes. They dried the berries in the sun or smoked them and then mashed them into cakes and wrapped these in leaves or bark for storage. In 1868, Robert Brown wrote that great numbers of huckleberry cakes would be drying on roofs and platforms “supervised by some ancient hag, whose hands and arms are dyed pink with them." Women or their families often “owned” the berry grounds, and all the fields were named with trails connecting them. One of the four seasonal first fruits celebrations for the Nez Perce and Chinook tribes was September, which was berry month.
This custom huckleberry picker was made from a red Edward Can Co. container by none other that Patrick McManus. Oh the stories this picker could tell...
Donor: Patrick McManus
Adopted by:
Huckleberries are popular in Bonner County and the Pacific Northwest. We all know someone who claims to have "the spot" to get their picking each year. The history of harvesting huckleberries goes back to the 1800s, and even back then they were using special tools to make the job easier. Many of the Northwest tribes made special combs of wood or salmon backbones to strip huckleberries and blueberries off the bushes. They dried the berries in the sun or smoked them and then mashed them into cakes and wrapped these in leaves or bark for storage. In 1868, Robert Brown wrote that great numbers of huckleberry cakes would be drying on roofs and platforms “supervised by some ancient hag, whose hands and arms are dyed pink with them." Women or their families often “owned” the berry grounds, and all the fields were named with trails connecting them. One of the four seasonal first fruits celebrations for the Nez Perce and Chinook tribes was September, which was berry month.
This custom huckleberry picker was made from a red Edward Can Co. container by none other that Patrick McManus. Oh the stories this picker could tell...
Donor: Patrick McManus
Adopted by: