I can't remember what number we are on, so I'll put he date in the subject from now on.

Here is an excerpt from W.A. Ferris' Life in the Rocky Mountains, written by him about his journeys between 1830 and 1835. This is a brief description of a trapper's camp, with information on fur handling (precious little, unfortunately).

In a narrow bottom beneath the walls of Gray’s Creek, we found a party of trappers, headed by
Bridger, one of the partners in the R. M. F. Company. Their encampment was decked with hundreds
of beaver skins, now drying in the sun. These valuable skins are always stretched in willow
hoops, varying from eighteen inches, to three feet in diameter, according to the size of the skins,
and have a reddish appearance on the flesh side, which is exposed to the sun. Our camps are
always dotted with these red circles, in the trapping season, when the weather is fair. There were
several hundred skins folded and tied up in packs, laying about their encampment, which bore
good evidence to the industry of the trappers. They found a rifle, as well as ourselves, which was
likewise robbed of the lock and mountings. It belonged to one of two men, who disappeared a
day or two previous to the battle, in August last. Both of these rifles were unusually heavy, and
were doubtless left by the Indians for that reason.

"Trapper's Encampment" by A.J. Miller

In my minds eye I can see that camp.

Good entry today K Snow. And nearly 200 years later this reader has 24 flat tails awaiting the knife. But for now, coffee and a nice read.

There is so much missing information. I wonder what cordage they used to lace the hides into the frames. Did they cut strips of buffalo hide? I haven't found anything yet describing the fleshing process. Was it over the knee with a knife? Staked to the ground like buffalo? There are references to fleshing beams at more permanent camps for deer skins, but I can't imagine putting up a fleshing beam every few days while beaver hunting.

You need a skinner/camp keeper for them beaver, your time is better spent catching more, ha!

Great Read

Strips of bark/wythe

Good questions all. My guess is beaver would have been clean skinned. But I really don't know. If your sets are a mile or two distant from main camp and you caught 3-4 beavers you might imagine they rough skinned those beaver and just brought back the pelts. On the other hand, finding food was nearly as important as the fur itself and there are plenty of references to beaver being cooked in camp. Therefore when times are tough (food-wise) you want to bring all those beaver (carcasses and all) to camp.

I have seen references, as I'm sure others have, that beaver were folded fur side in (two folds) and then compressed with a rudimentary press made on site out of wood and then packed into smoked deerskins into approximate 90 lb packs.

Also, there are some references I believe by Peter Skene Ogden with Hudson Bay Co about how it "did his heart good" to see the trappers' wives vying and competing to do the best job on putting up the pelts.
These women were either 100% Indian or more likely mostly half breeds (Metis) taken as "country" wives.
Somewhere there is a mention about how much better the put-ups were by their brigades compared to the "rough" looking beaver the Americans were producing. Later in the trade Hudson Bay would have had ample opportunity to see the Americans' fur handling from trading at Fort Hall, but some of the first they would have seen would have been the several hundred pelts recovered along the southern Oregon coast after the Jedediah Smith Massacre on the Umpqua. Chief factor McLoughlin bought those and paid Smith with a draft from London for the pelts and horses/mules they recovered.

That you Boco?

I was also going to surmise that bark was used as cordage in many if not most instances. Would have been far less labor intensive. Of course in the winter bark is less pliable and harder to get off the bone.

Bark cordage is sure a definite possibility. Most of the time they were trapping off horseback, and many of the sources state they brought beaver back to camp. I have read a few instances where they were skinned on site. Camp keepers were hired by the larger outfits, and they did the cooking and skinning for the party. The trappers were free to trap (and fight indians, and grizzly bears).

BP - here's Ruxton describing the folding of dried skins: When dry, it is folded into a square sheet, the fur turned inwards, and the bundle, containing about ten to twenty skins, tightly pressed and corded, and is ready for transportation

What is a little unclear in Ruxton's explanation is whether we're talking one individual pelt or 4 pelts folded twice into rough triangles and placed back to back together to make a square for packing purposes. Which is the way I assumed it would have been done.

I guess it would lead one to believe he meant an individual pelt as he states " it is folded".

I can well imagine a couple of beaver with their tails bound together slung over a horse like saddle bags.

The normal allotment of traps per trapper was six and I read elsewhere (Ogden journal of 1825) that about a third of the traps connecting was the normal catch rate. SO, two might have been a typical catch per night.

Saddle pack frames were common, so 1 beaver in the v and pairs hung from the sides for a balanced load.

6 traps is by far the most common number. Lots of 2 to 4 beaver checks the following morning in the journals. Sure kept the camp hands busy.

I think the hides were folded individually into rectangles, then stacked and pressed. I'll look when I have time to see if there are any better references. I have a fair share of the original journals in searchable pdf format. While i cherish print books, an unlimited index is pretty nice.

thanks for sharing,

K Snow, I think both of us spend a lot of time thinking about these kinds of things. Appreciate you man. Hey, and Merry Christmas!

If you hoop a beaver for decoration in your house; what do you use? If it is real wood, won’t it eventually crumble?

Anyway I like the painting! It makes me calm

Merry Christmas to you also.

Yes, I spend hours thinking about this stuff.



I use willow, peeled and sealed with a varnish. It might crumble at some point, but I'll be long gone by then.

The way I have always heard it they folded the skin in half and then half again. I have seen the presses, there is one at the fur trade museum in Wyoming. I believe I saw one somewhere else also, maybe fort Union. I suppose rawhide could be used as cordage but strips of bark would be easier to get.

So many of the journals and books concentrated on the exciting events and little of the everyday drudgery, which is too bad. There is little to no information on the basics of procuring beaver and putting up the pelts.

Bent's Fort in LaJunta, CO has a fur press also.

I would think they would want the folded skins to be the same rectangle dimension, so they would make nice, even bundles.

Yes, the mundane little details got very little attention in their journals. Would be like us describing brushing our teeth.

A good wood preservative is sun rendered oil from animal fat. Put it on a dry piece of wood, like a self bow, it soaks in and makes a nice protectant. Just heat it a bit and wipe it on when its a warm day. You want it to soak in. Rub it in with your fingers. Dont leave it wet with grease. If you hoop a beaver on green willow, store it inside, It wont rot.

Took this pic from a Readers Digest Book I inherited from my folks. "The Great American West".

I believe there is a fur press at Fort Bridger in southwestern Wyoming also

The following are some pics out of the book: "Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men" by Carl P. Russell;




Here he describes a single fold for beaver pelts and packs that weigh 90-100 lbs.