Folks, not sure what made me think of it this morning as I'm sipping coffee and listening to the rain coming down (grrrr getting sick of rain). I absolutely love coyote trapping, but, is there anything cooler than standing near a beaver dam, hearing the water running over the low spots, and breaking open a big foothold over your knee to catch that dam builder?
Invokes all kinds of thoughts of the LONG history of beaver trapping in this country, and what an important piece of the economy in the early days of our nation.
Sometimes you have to trap a beaver or two just for the pure cool factor of that.
Jim

i still to this day take an apple and 4 traps down back on t-giving day for rats like we did back at 8 yrs old in the seventies.

Jim, i understand

I used to think the beaver were just responsible for westward expansion of this country. But have done some reading on the fur trade from as early as the 1600's, trading was already happening on the east coast and it was mainly about furs. Wars were fought over trading post sites between the dutch and english, and english and the french. Wall street started as a trail from one set of docks to another to facilitate the fur trade. This country was built on fur and beaver in particular. And it was never the trappers or the natives who caught the fur who made their fortunes. It's always been the middle man and the big dealers.

we pa guys should have an old fashioned beaver camp up here.lord knows we have the beaver.

Beaver are a close second to coyotes when it comes to trapping for me.

Any good books with historical info o the fur trade? Sounds like something I could dive into during a long sit on the deer stand.

I agree!

I find the history of the eastern U.S.,1600'S to around 1800,far more fascinating than the west.There were battles fought,forts built,and massacres that have long since been forgotton.The French and Indian War era,could be called the beaver wars since it was the industry that was being fought over.

Jim,,,,,,It loses some luster when this is your 3rd trip in and its about August first at 10:00 a.m with the temp at 90 and the humidity at 80%, 1/8 of a mile from the truck, surrounded by 10' corn, with a landowner breathing down your neck while his center pivot tower remains stuck in the beaver pond, with the mosquitoes, no-see-ums and Chinese lady bugs taking their shots at you, with prairie cordgrass cutting your hands and face (never that good looking to start with so can't afford to lose any !) and snapping turtles plugging 330's.

Don't know if there is, or not. But, I can tell you...I like it!