In the spring of 1912, Anishinaabe guide Billy Magee received a letter
from future conservationist Ernest Oberholtzer asking Magee to accompany
him on a journey. Soon after the two set off on a five-month canoe
expedition following the old way north, a largely unmapped territory
that would test both their endurance and their friendship.
Tracing the route of the Oberholtzer-Magee expedition, The Old Way
North transports readers through the history of this challenging
wilderness and introduces them to the mapmakers, fur traders and
trappers, missionaries, and Native peoples who relied on this corridor
for trade and travel. Through Oberholtzer's journals along with
historical records, personal interviews with Dene and Inuit, and
present-day canoeing accounts, wilderness and conservation writer David
Pelly reconstructs the many tales hidden in this land.