The Story of Hart and Pine.

Kirk Hart is a man of the mountain. Raised on the Appalachian Mountain Range, he grew up hunting and fishing on the Shickshocks, where he spent most of his youth. There never was a mountain man quite like Kirk Hart. It’s told that he once saw a trout at the bottom of his fishing hole on Mont Jacques-Cartier, but he couldn’t reach it with his pole, so he picked up the entire lake and dumped it out into the St. Lawrence. For many years, he lived on those ranges and would travel every day from the Annieopsquotch Mountains to the New Brunswick panhandle. One day though, he decided he’d like to see the West, for he’d heard that the hunting and fishing was still quite good, so he decided to come out to British Columbia. Before he left, he thought he might long for his home, so he decided rather than leave it, he just plucked up a mountain from the ground near the Gaspe Peninsula, and he packed it on his back and carried it with him across Canada and set it down just near the coast.

William Pine, or just Pine as they’d call him, he was of the first Voyageurs, born in the rapids of the St. Lawrence by Tadoussac, he built his first canoe at the age of only three. When he was a young man, he packed his canoe with furs, and set out to paddling and didn’t stop until he reached the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia. Most times he’d be found on the river with his canoe, and when he wasn’t he spent his days sitting, or riding on the backs of grizzlies, or having a wrastle with the Sasquatch. Most often, Pine’d be seen sitting by the great Skeena or Kitimat rivers with his voyager pipe and scotch that he’d drink from a glass carved from a great glacier that held twenty fingers worth.

Both men were raised hunting and fishing, and never did want for more than what they had; a warm fire, a good pair of jeans, a sharp knife, a good boat, a fine smoke, a cold drink, and a roof over his head.

It’s said that many a great friendship is formed following a good, honest fight, and Hart and Pine started out no differently. It was just after Hart had got here, he was setting his traps along the Kitimat, and Pine was setting his along the other way, and the two men met. Well, Hart wasn’t about to reset all his traps, and Pine, he’d been out for nigh on two weeks setting his, and neither wanted to give way to the other.

So they decided to wrastle for the right, and whoever won could have the trapline. So the men grabbed each other by the shoulders, and they went at it. Sometimes it seemed like Hart was going to win, and sometimes it seemed like Pine would get the better. The two men rolled, and fought, and scraped and caused a great ruckus in the woods. Trees fell, and rivers flooded, and the earth shook with such force that it was felt all the way to Haida Gwaii – that was the quake of 1970,

This went on for quite a while, some say it was six months, but neither could get the better of the other. So they shook hands and declared that they were well met, and would share the trapline, where Pine could trap along the river, and Hart would trap along the mountain trails. This continued for many years, until they decided that they might set out and see some more of the world.

After a time exploring, what they found was that the world was afflicted with a sickness. We were living without purpose, shuffling across the mortal coil and leaving nothing but waste in our wakes. As good men, Hart and Pine decided to bring their brand of self-reliance, self-sufficiency and sustainability to the world through their hand-made, utilitarian products. The idea: that we can build what we need, that what’s important is the journey; that once upon a time, things were built to last for life, and that they could be again.