Snowshoes and Poles Leaning on a Cabin Porch

The snowshoe most people picture, a bent wooden frame laced with rawhide, comes from the Indigenous peoples of North America. Spreading a person's weight over that broad lattice keeps each step from sinking to the knee in deep powder. Two pairs lean against a log cabin porch with a set of old wooden poles, snow caught in every gap of the lacing. Beyond the steps, spruce woods and a frozen lake finish off a snowshoe jigsaw puzzle made almost entirely of old wood and snow.