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winter road
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
1 — Hist.
a route used in winter, especially by dog drivers.
Quotations
1801
One of the natives who followed us, called it the Winter Road River.
1820
The winter road through the woods from Rabbit Point to Moose Lake, had the men been acquainted with it, would have brought them to the post in two days.
1860
On returning with the mail packet, winter overtook them in the Abbittibbe Lake, when they abandoned their canoe, and not knowing the usual winter road, they were obliged to follow the course of the river
2a
a secondary road used only when the ground is frozen, usually because the terrain is impassable at other times, formerly used by sleighs.
Quotations
1808
The country people who first form the winter roads on the snow, direct their Carioles by the nearest course where the snow is most level; and they go in as straight a line as possible, to the place to which they are destined.
1842
We fear the French Canadians will not feel satisfied with being deprived of their good Winter Roads, which they were just beginning to enjoy under the Sleigh Ordinance.
1937
The winter road from St. Felicien, Lake St. John, to Chibougamau, was completed in time to permit of a considerable tonnage being freighted for mining interests before "break-up."
1957
This was evidently a "summer road," i.e. one which could be used at all seasons of the year by either sleighs or wheeled vehicles; a "winter road" was meant to be used by sleighs only, and therefore the construction cost was much less than for a summer road.
1964
It's carried out on a scale that would have been almost inconceivable a quarter of a century ago when "winter roads" were a political issue as debatable as socialized medicine
2b — Lumbering
a road swamped (def. 1) through the bush and used for hauling logs during the winter months.
Quotations
1847
As an instance of the importance of these roads, some enterprising Lumbermen on the Upper Madawaska have penetrated, at their own expense, the Townships in the rear of Victoria District [i.e. Hastings County], by winter roads, by means of which they are able to obtain supplies, delivered at their shanties, at Bytown prices.
1902
. . . the winter road by which they hauled saw-logs to the mill, cut right through the forest, where the deep snow packed hard into a smooth track, covering roots and logs and mud holes, and making a perfect surface for the sleighs, however heavily loaded, except where here and there pitch-holes or cahots came.
1947
To this day some of their winter roads may still be picked out from the air, but on the ground they have become so overgrown they are hard to find, except where the "corduroy" of logs over a gully or soft ground lies rotting among the second growth.
3 — Obs.
a route following the course of a frozen river.
See: ice-road(def. 2)
Quotations
1829
The winter roads are not those followed in summer: those of winter, are along the edges of the frozen rivers.