Here we have LaBonte and a party of Trappers starting out on their fall hunt, after the yearly rendezvous.
This passage talks about beaver sign, numbers reduced during spring hunt, and the use of a float stick.
And the words "skinned carefully" makes on wonder if they were, in fact, clean skinning the beaver.

Following Deer Creek to the ridge of the Black Hills, they crossed the
mountain on to the waters of the Medicine Bow, and here they discovered a few lodges, and La
Bonté set his first trap. He and old Luke finding “cuttings” near the camp, followed the “sign”
along the bank until the practised eye of the latter discovered a “slide,” where the beaver had
ascended the bank to chop the trunk of a cotton wood, and convey the bark to its lodge. Taking
a trap from “sack,” the old hunter, after setting the trigger, placed it carefully under the water,
where the “slide” entered the stream, securing the chain to the stem of a sappling on the bank;
while a stick, also attached to the trap by a thong, floated down the stream, to mark the position
of the trap, should the animal carry it away. A little farther on, and near another “run,”
three traps were set; and over these Luke placed a little stick, which he first dipped into a mysterious-
looking phial containing his “medicine.”
The next morning they visited the traps, and had the satisfaction of finding three fine beaver secured
in the first three they visited, and the fourth, which had been carried away, they discovered
by the float-stick, a little distance down the stream, with a large drowned beaver between its teeth.
The animals being carefully skinned, they returned to camp with the choicest portions of the
meat, and the tails, on which they most luxuriously supped; and La Bonté was fain to confess that
all his ideas of the superexcellence of buffalo were thrown in the shade by the delicious beaver tail,
the rich meat of which he was compelled to allow was “great eating,” unsurpassed by “tender loin”
or “boudin,” or other meat of whatever kind he had eaten of before.

Very interesting ksnow I have hunted elk on the head waters of Deer Creek south of Glenrock and trapped just west of the area described on Bates Creek The Little Medicine Bow River starts right where your article says and runs ssw through Shirley Basin towards the town of Medicine Bow and the Medicine Bow River Would you mind sharing where you found this article?

nice article

Interesting take about beaver tail being preferable to buffalo. I've always assumed that with a lean meat diet that the fat from beaver tail would have quenched cravings. I haven't seen much about beaver meat being especially relished by the hunters, but certainly taken advantage of. Fat cow gets talked about a lot for sure.

I like beaver meat. I have trapped Medicine Bow and Rock river area. Living on beaver meat would get old. I bet they looked forward to May- June when wild edible plants were available. Winter there can get brutal. Ice two feet thick. I suspect they built shelters and layed up a few months. Maybe staying with a wifes family. A rifle in camp would have been a real asset to an Indian family. I bet a fat coon would have been a real treat when everything froze solid. Chopping through two feet of ice, rigging up a bait pole between the lodge and feed pile in February takes awhile. Especially without steel snares.

That's George Ruxton. He was the real deal. Did all that he did, then died of dysentery in a St' Louis hotel room at the age of 27. I guess you can say he led a full life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ruxton
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149998623/george_frederick-ruxton

You can buy his books on Amazon or about anywhere. Buffalo Press has some. Or you can read them free on the Internet.
I think the article you ask about it from 'Life In The Far West'.

Yep, that's where its from. George Ruxton's "Life in the Far West".

Most of the trappers, etc stayed in the "parks" in the Rockies over the winter. With luck, they would pick a good valley with plenty of buffalo (that stayed the winter) and sweet cottonwood for their horses. A few of the winters were actually quite pleasant in the Mountains. They spent most of their time either hunting buffalo or lounging in their camps. Other winters they travelled far and wide, nearly freezing and starving to death, trying to find anything to eat. Out on the Missouri River plains, they would shelter at forts, or travel back to St. Louis. The vast majority of their diet was buffalo hump rib, from good "fat cow", not "poor lean bull."

I have yet to find any mention of them trapping through the ice. They would trap til freeze up, then camp for the winter. Trapping would commence with the Spring hunt when the ice went out.

Thank you Osagan. I am learning a lot from your posts k snow now I have a good idea how La Bonte creek and the La Bonte Inn in Douglas came by their names I can’t imagine how much they must of craved fat to prefer beaver tail over the actual meat thanks for taking the time to post this stuff

My pleasure. Ruxton's book is the best reference for La Bonte material. Ruxton was a good writer, his book is a very easy read. I think true "fat" was a real treat back then.

K Snow, are there any books that reference fleshing beaver or other skins? I imagine they had to so they would dry properly and for the weight, especially with beaver. Did they have specialized tools; fleshing knives, fleshing boards, stretching boards?

I have found little to no information on how they handled the skins, other than "stretched on hoops", "skinned carefully", etc. Hoops are described as willow, or bundles of osier.

There are a few mentions of fleshing beams at the forts and posts, but I believe those were for larger hides, deer, elk, sheep and bison.

Knife wise, the trading lists are full of scalpers, butchers and pocket knives. The curved blade "skinner" style comes in about the mid 19th century, after the Rocky Mtn. trade era.

I'd love to know how they fleshed otter tails.

Here's an excerpt from Rufus Sage's Rocky Mountain Life about the winter camp of a trapper.
He talks about a "graining block" (fleshing beam) and a frame to stretch hides in.
This is in reference to dressing skins for the manufacture of clothing, not preparing furs for market.

His shantee faces a huge fire, and is formed of skins carefully extended over an arched frame-work
of slender poles, which are bent in the form of a semicircle and kept to their places by inserting
their extremities in the ground. Near this is his “graining block,” planted aslope, for the ease of the
operative in preparing his skins for the finishing process in the art of dressing; and not far removed
is a stout frame, contrived from four pieces of timber, so tied together as to leave a square
of sufficient dimensions for the required purpose, in which, perchance, a skin is stretched to its
fullest extension, and the hardy mountaineer is busily engaged in rubbing it with a rough stone or
“scraper,” to fit it for the manufacture of clothing.

Interesting stuff. So maybe clean-skinning was the norm and any excess fat was removed with whatever knife or knives happened to be in the trappers possession?

There seems to be some correlation between the size of the trapping parties and how beaver were handled.
Smaller parties often talk about "carefully" skinning them where they were trapped.
Larger parties had "camp keepers" that would skin the beaver that the trappers brought back to camp.
If I had to pick one knife to carry based upon the old writings, it would be an 8 inch bladed butcher pattern.

Merlin Frye was a fur buyer out of Douglas that I sold to a couple of times in the early eighties he fleshed beaver over his knee with a butcher type knife he stated that he learned from his father and I believe his grandfather that method He told how they would sit in camp after checking the traps and take care of the fur with each mountain man having roughly 6 traps I would think they had time to flesh and stretch plus didn’t the actual hired fur trappers have camp helpers(engages?) I could see also why the free trappers would look favorably on a Indian wife lol

Right on Squirt, I do believe they either clean skinned em on the spot, or fleshed them over their knees.

k snow, I use a knife to fillet out all my otter tails. Always have. I imagine the mountain men did as well.

Thanks, I'll have to look into that.