Mackinaw jacket

The word "mackinaw" is derived from the Odawa Ojibwe language word "Mitchimakinak" meaning a large turtle. When French Canadian fur traders transliterated the word, they spelled it as Michilimackinac, but pronounced the final consonant as "aw" rather than "c". The British later shortened the word and changed the spelling to match the French pronunciation: Mackinaw, though the French spelling was used for Fort Mackinac when constructed in 1780–81. ==Origin==

The origin of the mackinaw jacket is owed to the British Army Captain Charles Roberts, while commanding Fort St. Joseph along the St. Mary's River near Sault Ste. Marie. Roberts was unable to obtain military-issued winter greatcoats from his general headquarters (G.H.Q.) located in Montreal, Quebec, for the forty soldiers of the 10th Royal Veterans Battalion under his charge. The date was November 20, 1811, and Captain Roberts, wrote a letter by candlelight to the then Captain Thomas Evans, adjutant general in Montreal, Quebec, making a requisition, written as follows: To alleviate this health and safety concern, Captain Roberts acquired a supply of 3.5-point Hudson's Bay point blankets and requisitioned John Askin Jr., a Métis and keeper of the King's stores at the fort, to design and manufacture forty woollen greatcoats. and the 61 men of the 1st American Artillery Regiment during the siege of Fort Mackinac and then occupied Fort Mackinac located near present-day Mackinaw City, Michigan. At first, the mackinaw jacket was produced in blue and was later replaced by the more popular red and black tartan pattern. The new design of the mackinaw jacket was so beneficial for travelling through woods and trails that orders were received from people located from Fort William to Penetanguishene. More than a century later, when the Hudson's Bay Company began to commercially sell point blanket coats the mackinaw jacket remained popular with their customers. ==Poem==

The mackinaw jacket, created as a child of grim necessity for cold weather conditions, had a short rhyme written about it, adapted from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade: ==Modern times==

In modern times, the mackinaw jacket has proven to be effective as cold weather workwear and popular among the blue-collar working class including farmers, fishermen, lumberjacks, longshoremen, trappers and outdoorsmen. The demand for the mackinaw jacket has decreased by the end of the 20th century; however, it continues to be manufactured by several companies including: C.C. Filson Co. and Johnson Woolen Mills. ==In popular culture==

wearing mackinaw in On the Waterfront, 1954. • In the 1954 movie On the Waterfront the actor Marlon Brando wore a mackinaw jacket. • In Ernest Hemingway's short story, The Last Good Country, the character Nick Adams wears a mackinaw jacket. • The Mackinaw jacket is one of the best jackets acquirable in the game The Long Dark and the best non-crafted jacket available on the hardest difficulty of an interloper. ==See also==