Trapper, snowshoe maker and basketmaker Bill Mackowski talks about a pair of snowshoes made by the Penobscot people.
Bill Mackowski, of Milford, has traveled from Maine to Newfoundland to Hudson's Bay to the Yukon for samples of and stories about snowshoes.
Bill Mackowski talks about making snowshoes in his workshop in Milford.
Bill Mackowski has documented the variety of snowshoes made by native peoples from Maine to the Yukon.
Bill Mackowski shows off the detail in the weave of a pair of snowshoes made by the Penobscot people.
Detail in the weave of a pair of snowshoes owned by Bill Mackowski.
The colorful yarn that snowshoe collector and expert Bill Mackowski originally thought was just decoration was later discovered to be a carryover from a technique once used by native peoples to keep their snowshoes quiet – for instance, while hunting. They would use moose hair or the like to prevent their snowshoes from making noise if they bumped together or hit a stick or log.
Fran Mackowski has traveled with her husband, Bill, on many of his excursions across the North. She says how surprising it was to see native peoples who had used broad round snowshoes still walking bow-legged in the spring and summer months after their snowshoes were off.
Late day sun sets across the front of Bill Mackowski's storage shed in Milford.
Outdoors 
