U.S. Also wangan, wanigan, wammikin. [Shortened from Montagnais Indian atawangan, f. atawan to buy or sell. Cf. Cree and Odjibwa atawâgan, ‘ce dont on se sert pour acheter ou pour vendre’ (Lacombe).] A receptacle for small supplies or a reserve stock; esp., a boat or a chest containing outfit supplies for a lumber camp.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Wangan. (Indian.) In Maine, a boat for carrying provisions.
1854. Americans at Home (ed. Haliburton), III. 254. The boats appropriated for the removal of the whole company, apparatus, and provisions [of river-drivers], when loaded, are called ‘wanguns,’ an Indian word…. Among the dangers to be incurred … is that of ‘running the wangun’ … which … means the act of taking these loaded bateaux down river from station to station.
1860. Harper’s Mag., XX. 451/1. Fortified with corrective noggins of brandy periodically administered, and toothsome viands from the ever-attendant ‘wangun,’ unless perchance that indispensable provender-boat has been swamped in quick water.
1878. Scribner’s Mag., XV. 150–1. The drive is accompanied by what is called a wammikin, consisting of a raft of square timber, or long logs, on which is built a comfortable shanty.
1911. S. E. White, Rules of Game, I. xiii. [Log-driving.] Ordinarily on drive we have a wanigan…. A wanigan’s a big scow. It carries the camp and supplies to follow the drive.
b. Stores, provisions.
1907. H. Van Dyke in Scribner’s Mag., Jan., 2/1. Now load up with the bundles and boxes, the tent, the blanket-roll, the clothes-bag, the provisions—all that stuff that is known as ‘duffel’ in New York, and ‘butins’ in French Canada and ‘wangan’ in Maine.
c. attrib.
1907. Black Cat, June, 19. An ancient Wangan-chest, relic of his father’s river-days.
1908. S. E. White, River Man, xv. 131. The ground had now hardened so that a wanigan boat was unnecessary. Instead, the camp outfit was transported in wagons.
