Beaver Club (1785)
The English tradition of dining clubs was carried over to the Canadian territories in the 1700s, but with a very Canadian twist. To celebrate the emergence of the fur trade in the Northwest territories, members of the Beaver Club were dedicated to consuming only meat they acquired in the Canadian territories. This of course, was venison, quail, bear, buffalo, and fruits, vegetables, and grains.
Members dressed in their finest, and wore a large gold medal with “Fortitude in Distress” on a blue ribbon around their neck. But the best part of the meal were the after-dinner fun, where members would sit on the floor and pretending to paddle a canoe as they loudly (and drunkenly, as one story has the group drinking 120 bottles of wine) told stories of great voyages.
