For el smasho who wanted to see an end of season shot:


A few years back with a disabled vet friend of mine who was putting them up for me that year.
That was the blanket stack.

Thank you! That’s rad

What a mess a work

Yep, 336 beaver that season. 41 otters

WOW!!!

Thank you!
I’m impressed

Cool shot BP!
I can’t recall who I was arguing with over stacking put up beaver. Over 4’ it'd tip over and impossible…..
One more on that stack and it’d topple over…..lol

Nobody says rad anymore.......
And that is an impressive pile, peeler.

I’m an 80’s baby. I’ll say rad till I’m dead

BP, you or k snow would know the answer to this.
I've heard it said that Indians used to trade beaver pelts for 28 bore smoothbores, and that they had to stack them to the height of the gun sitting on its butt. Any truth to that?
If it is true, you better get that stack a little higher or you ain't getting much for barrel length. Lol.

Nice pile of beaver pelts.

I would have been more impressed if you didnt pay that guy to put them up for you,lol.

I've heard the same story but find it hard to believe. Mountain prices for beaver during the heyday was about $3 a lb. Beaver were averaging about 1.5 to 1.75 lbs per pelt. I can't remember how many beaver were in that stack but I would guess it would have bought a passel of smooth bores. Even at mountain prices.

Me too. He was the last guy that ever put up beaver for me though. I think he died in 2015 or 16.

Sorry, missed this one. That story is popular but patently false. There was an interesting article written a while back about it, and they tried to stack beaver pelts 4-5 feet high. Once the pile reached 3 feet, it became very unstable. It also started to compress itself, to the point where additional furs would actually shorten the stack.

At its height, beaver was from $3 to $6 a pound. 1.5# average per hide.
Trade guns were around $5 wholesale price, and in the $20 range mountain price. It wouldn't take anywhere near a 3 or 4 foot stack of beaver to purchase a trade gun.

Thanks for the confirmation K.

Agreed. That old yarn about trade guns is just that.
I would add that trappers did compress and bale stacks of beaver pelts for shipment purposes.

Trappers would bale their hides in the field, for transport to rendezvous, in a field made press like this:


At trading posts, a more substantial press like this was used to bale the furs:


Bales would generally weigh 90-100 pounds, containing roughly 60 hides.

That's awesome ksnow. Thanks for sharing