Good stuff K Snow. Interesting thread.

And you're right, they waded in that water to drive in drowning stakes in the deepest water they could find.

Bigfoot and I have had this discussion before, but I tend to disagree with the premise that traps were not the main means of taking beaver during the era. In Peter Skene Ogden's journals (of leading brigades into the Snake river country) he always gives an accounting of how many traps they had and it was usually around 375 or so. Trappers checked traps sometimes twice or more during a 24 hour period. It would have been by far a more efficient use of their time in the pursuit of beaver plews compared to other ways of hunting beaver.

Reminds me of a deal I got involved in a few years ago, I was off burning the last of my vacation for the year around Christmas time, I get a call that there is a "nut" at a USFS recreation area in my zone. Well I ask them to define "nut" as that could mean a lot of things they said it is a guy running around in a bathrobe and house shoes. Well since it was about zero degrees, I thought I should check on that so I get suited up and head up there.

I locate the guy right away and instantly realize he is a historical reenactor. But since I had already made the trip up there, I checked on him anyway, he was from FL and said he had came up here to go up a hollow and live like the hardy pioneers for a week but had quickly realized he was not hardy enough and had decided to camp in his van and reenact during the day.

I did get the opportunity to teach him a little about trapping as he was trying to trap but had no idea what he was doing so it wasn't a total waste of my time.

But back to the original post, that's cool that you went to the effort to try to learn about what it was like for the trappers that opened up this land.

In the West, traps do seem to be the most common method of taking beaver. Most accounts give the average number of traps carried by a trapper as 6. Each trap weighed 6 to 8 pounds. Seems the most common set was a castor mound with the trap staked deep. A second "tangle"stake was often added. If the trap chain was not long enough, rope was used to reach deep water.

Here in the Great Lakes, most of the fur was taken by hunting and spearing, work mostly done by natives. There are lots of pictures of natives spearing rats and beaver.

It's interesting to see the differences in fur harvest as the trade evolved.

Neat story. We reenactors do get odd looks when in the woods. Some guys I know do 14th century European hunters, they get really wierd reactions.

I think the mountain men used treated boots and didn't play 🤔 in the water if they didn't have to.

There is zero primary evidence for any kind of treatment for their mocasins. Mocs were a very disposable item, replaced every 2 to 4 days. All mountain men could make their own and often carried hides just for that purpose.

They almost always staked their traps in knee to thigh deep water. They didn't have feed sacks of rocks, cinder blocks or brake rotors for weights.

According to historical records steel traps were not used in the west before the 1790's

How would you have liked to trap with the bungees in western Canada?
I would.
This was about 50 years before the mountain man period in the western USA.

I went to the Mountain Man museum in Pinedale, Wyoming in September. Went back in the morning as I wasn't done by closing time. Great place and very educational. I was not to much into reading about the history, and now I am. K Snow is obviously well read and what he says concurs with what I learned there.

To surprises to me. First, the period was extremely short lived. Much shorter than the fur trade lived here in the Great Lakes. Second, most of the names we learned to identify as "Mountain Men" were in fact not so much trappers as traders and business men. And almost none of those famous were free trappers, if any.

I really recommend a journey through the place. I hope to get back when there is a rendezvous there.

One of the all time best bush craft men taught that air temps in the range you were in is the worst to deal with. Your either clothed to heavy or not enough. He taught getting wet at those temps can be deadly if you don't know how to deal with it properly. In colder temps, much colder temps, you can actually soak your heavily socked feet in water to keep them warm and from freezing.

I doubted that till I sorta found it to be right once while fighting a house fire. -15 that morning and I got drenched at the fire. For a short time I was cold, then warmed up and never got cold the rest of the time I was there. They had to chip the ice off my bunker gear for me to get out of it. Actually it happens fairly often. Most just don't realize why they don't get cold after getting really wet.

I always thought my dad was the toughest man alive when he was mink trapping. He would wade off into any water anytime to set his mink traps. No waders most of the time. Said he only got cold for a few minutes when he got out of the water. As soon s the ice formed on his outer clothing he was fine.

It is really cool you did what ya did. Gives a fella a whole new perspective on how things are done.

What book is that? Looks like one I may need to pick up. The fur trade was much more violent than most people know. Lots of fighting and not just between whites and natives. There was plenty of white on white and native on native violence.

One of the reasons why trapping was not a huge part of the fur trade in the great lakes was the scarcity of traps. The trade here was all but wrapped up by the late 1700s.

Ringbill, a trip through the fur trade west is in the works for next year. The fur trade museum in Chadron, the mountain man museum in Pinedale and lots of country in between. Glad you liked the museum.

Iltrapper, I agree about the 30 to 50 degree range personally. Tough to dress for it, especially when you have a mix of activity and rest. Layers work, but then I have to carry a pack just for the layers I need. Most of the time here, those Temps are also associated with damp air. Colder Temps and the air is drier, much more comfortable.

that's great , thanks for sharing , don't think I will try it ,

Or he was a BSer.

Thanks for sharing your experience, you obviously have a solid interest/passion for the history.

I dont believe very many people at all know the real history of the 300+ year fur trade in North America.
Most just heard the romantic fluff or the few years near the end in the mid 1800's that is nothing at all like the real history.
The real history is entwined with north american native equestrianism and the horse trade,and the buffalo meat/pemmican trade-especially on the Northern plains by native hunters to supply the fur traders and fuel the trade.

Russians in Alaska in the 1600's were some cold blooded ruthless characters. They liked to capture a few hostages from the locals. Young women were always a good choice. Then tell the locals they could have the hostages back after they has gotten enough sea otter pelts. Sometimes the women came home and sometimes not. Quite a few went to Russia, some died of disease or suicide and some went home with children they didnt have when they were captured.

400 plus years later and Russians are still the bad guys in any gritty movies with human trafficking as part of the plot line.

Any luck today ?

Nope. And I stayed dry checking them.

I did get a load worked up for the new flinter. 85 grains of FFFg, a .020 patch and. .530 ball shoots an inch and a half group at 50 yards.

Good points. I do think though that many of us have focused on the part the fur trade that explored and opened the west eventually to manifest destiny. Wild times. For quite a while after the war of 1812 (and subsequent joint occupation of Britain and the US of the far west) it was a foregone conclusion that eventually the border of Canada would be the Columbia river. Until a bunch of rabble-raiser ex American trappers decided it was 54-40 or fight!

K snow, awesome effort. I love it. Keep us posted. Great job on getting out and doing it. One thing many naysayers are forgetting is how much money a plew was worth to those trappers, and what a man will put up with for that kind of money. Wauuuugh!