A little history: back in the 80's as cat put-up was evolving, and as has been mentioned, buyers were measuring cats for grade size. large, X-large, jumbo etc. So it was very important to not loose length on your cats as they dried. A 36.5 inch cat brought more money than a 34" cat since it was graded a larger size. We started using center boards to tack the base of the tail to so we didn't loose any length when the cat dried. The natural evolution of that process was to close the legs together to show off the all white on the cat. I know a lot of Nevada trappers traditionally tacked the legs to the boards but hard to say who started to close them together first. It seems like I've always done it that way. I've heard old trappers bicker and say they did it first, but old men don't have good memories and all old men don't know all other old men.
Many, many trapping techniques evolved at the same time in different locations. Doesn't really matter anyway. The buyers themselves started referring to the style of stretch as the "Nevada style". They seemed to like it and that encouraged good prices and we kept doing it. I heard the term "Nevada Style" from our fur manager and mentioned the name in the bobCATching 1 video.
