Seven years ago, we were grooving to “Sugar” by Maroon 5 and “Uptown Funk!” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, Fast & Furious fans were flocking to theaters to catch the seventh film in the franchise, I was studying for some high school exam in my parents’ kitchen, and a small but mighty team was preparing for the launch of Hakai Magazine. There was a lot going on, and even more has changed.
After nearly 2,000 stories, incalculable hours of editing, dozens of awards, hundreds of Zoom meetings, several interns and fellows (myself included), one prelaunch office break-in, and a handful of inquiries about our combined use of the metric system and American spelling—today is Hakai Magazine’s seventh anniversary! According to Hallmark’s exhaustive list of traditional anniversary gifts, this year should be marked with copper or wool. In honor of these unusual requirements, our gift to you, loyal readers, is a list of some of our wooliest, most coppery stories from over the years.
“No Wool, No Vikings” Wool was as much a part of Viking life as ships and the sea.
“Clues in a Copper Band” A copper artifact recovered on an island off the coast of Georgia provides insight into 4,000-year-old trade routes.
“The Dogs That Grew Wool and the People Who Love Them” Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest bred fluffy white dogs and wove their fur into blankets.
“When History Washes Ashore” Over the years, beachcombers have found thousands of counterfeit copper coins on Rehoboth Beach in Delaware from a 1785 shipwreck.
This also happens to be Earth Day, so if you’re looking to mark both of these special occasions, maybe head outdoors for a beach cleanup or say something nice to a seabird on our behalf—it’s up to you.
Devon Bidal
Associate editor
|