The art was handed down from father to son, from uncle to nephew. These canoes were huge. They were carved from cedar trees, of course. For those of you who do not live in the Pacific Northwest, cedar trees can grow over 80 feet tall quite easily. Since the forests are so thick, there are few branches on the way up.
Cedar trees are tall, wide, strong poles with a hat of green leaves at the very top.
That makes them rather perfect for planks or for splitting into two long sections. That's exactly what these early people did. They built canoes that were 50 feet long and 8 feet wide. These were work boats. Each canoe could hold 20 warriors and 10,000 pounds of cargo, such as fish.