I spent the day at the muzzleloader club for a shoot, and since I was all dressed up, and my moccasins were already soaked, I decided to take a few pictures and a video (not edited yet).

cool.

Watch out! Thought I spied some Blackfeet lurking behind the cattails!

Not much of a scalp for Bugs Boys on this head.

They'd have to settle for some traps and that dandy hatchet then I guess. Don't see any horses or mules...must have already got those.

I would be more worried about the Ojibwe lurking

Up in that north country in 1830 I think a still to make maple whiskey would have been a money maker. Could have traded it for a lot of beaver.

Here's the trap you should have been setting:



It came out of a cache at Siuslaw Falls Oregon with 5 others after a flood in 1962. It was determined to be a hand forged Hudson Bay Co trap from the 20's or 30's.

I would love to get hold of some truly period correct traps. #5 sized, five to six pounds with six feet of long link chain on them.
Unless I learn to blacksmith, I'll have to keep saving my pennies.

That's a nice looking trap for sure.

I was recently given an old book. The cover is leather but is worn so I can’t read the title. There is a newspaper clipping that seems to indicate it is a book on Joe Meek, written by Frances Fuller Victor and published in 1870 and title The River of the West. I am 140 pages in, spring of 1833. Great read so far only a few pages missing. Book has 602 pages total.

Drasselt, that is an amazing book. I have a newer reprint of it, fascinating reading.

I am not sure, but that could be one of the original printings of the book.

ay snow you skinnin today.... them old traps and books are treasures,take care out there.

Yes I know nothing about antique books.
One thing is how soon after the actual events that the book was written. That would seem to me to lend a lot of credence to actual events. Another thing is the starvation. Already several bouts of starvation. The book says Meeks said his lowest act was stealing a porcupine from Jedediah Smith's slave during a winter of starvation. The slave protested so much that Jedediah Smith then granted his freedom the following summer in St. Louis. And body lice. He said they would place their clothes on ant mounds and that the ants would pick off the lice. Nice!

Those trappers were darn tough men for sure. Seems like it was feast or famine. And the number of bear encounters is simply astounding.

As a reenactor/researcher, I try to use primary documentation (written by the person themselves at the time it happened) as my go to sources. The further from when it happened, the memory begins to fade/embellish things. Original journals, though hard to read, are full of amazing information.

Gotta have some cold feet and hands. The upside Kyle is if you caught a beaver, you could clean skin them right there by just your hands shaking so much to warm up! I have read some books by wilderness authers from the 1920s and 1950s with families in Canada and Alaska. Have not read much about the 1820-1840s.

Bryce

Yeah, the book by Stanley Vestal: "Joe Meek the Merry Mountain Man" was based almost solely on Frances Fuller Victor's book. That book was what ignited a fire in me to trap beaver at the tender age of 15.