helfrich trapping supply

curiousity got me after reading the other post. Yrs ago I use to go to helfrich place before they vanished. Hadnt been for more than 20 yrs. Went today to try to get pics to show you all but couldnt find the right road and asked people my age and nobody remembered the place. Its been almost 40 yrs. Anybody have an old catalog with mailing address on it? Thanks wrr. If you could pass it on ill go again and try to get pics.

I have a couple of his books it may be in one of them I will check and let you know

Helfrich's
Route.1 C.R. 15
Fredricktown, OH 43019

On page 59 of his book Profitable Fox Trapping his address is listed as Rt 1 Fredericktown OH 43019

Thx I asked ppl that bot nobody refers to Rd now. Thx

That should work,thx......hope its still standing...could be farmground now

Welcome, Building might be gone, but one thing you can do is go to the county courthouse, pull up his name in the grantee or grantor deed records, and run the property address up to present day.

Just follow the money....(property tax money) Lol.

Seems like Helfrich got in trouble when he got a lot of irons in the fire.... Started making traps in addition to his lures and books, then opened up his western office in Texas to distribute to the western states...Maybe tried to get to big, to fast? ...Who knows.


He was a hero to many a up and coming trapper in the late 70's and early 80's...Tom Miranda seemed to for a lack of better words, take on Helfrich's role as idol to the young trapper crowd back in '83 to
'87 or so, then Mark June came on just a little later...I really like them all, a trio of good trappers to model your trapping after ...Your mileage may vary on the history of those years, just my observations of that time.

Thought I could drive right to it,I guess after this many yrs my memory has faded.

I was digging through a box of junk a few weeks ago and ran across his old catalogs id saved, my what memory's those brought back. Met in Tn. in '84, yep I thought he walked on water. Know the background story and can't say id vouch for the guy, sure he has his reason's BUT skipping town and ripping everyone off isn't a way to do things! Not if you care about keeping your good name!

nope its not...i know the story too.....seems to run in the family

I thought I met Helfrich in Union City, Tn at the 1982 FTA?....Maybe it was in 84? Cookeville?

He showed up at a district rondy here in the 80s a fella named Tex made his “sod set” demo look pretty foolish. Lmao

I was taken to his place by a man that new him well that lived in the same area of Ohio back in the mid to late 80's.
I remember there was a long gravel lane that went back to his house with a good sized pond off to the left of the lane.The house was an older 2 story farm house.The house was vacant and then off to the right of the lane was his lure n bait shop slash work shop and it was for the most part all empty and vacant too.At the end of the drive out by the road sat a full size Ford 4 wheel drive reg cab truck truck if I remember right.The man that took me told me Jim had went bankrupt and just left the truck to be repossesed.He told me about the same thing that maybe Jim tried to get too big to fast and maybe made some bad decisions.Then I heard later that he moved to Montana ?
I was still pretty much a kid.I had read his articles in FFG and really liked them.I remember it came across like pretty sad to me even though I was not even fully sure what bankrupt meant at that younger age.

house was at the back,,trap supply was back the lane on right,then the new trap shop -mft building was up by the main road.....

I sure liked him , Traps were ahead of his time and lures were good as any back then ,Boda , Helfritch ,Bishop ,Carrol ,Milligan just a few trappin fools.

Thats right I do remeber at least one other building too like you said.
I wish I could have visited while he was still there and while the times were booming.I bet that would have been something.Did you live right in the area while Jim was still there ?
I beleive one of the rivers that he and Carroll both trapped was called the mohican I beleive.I know Carroll had it split up into a cpl sections with the total of the two being over 20 miles.Some cold long days ! No warm pick up truck to jump into.And no thinsulate insulated neoprene waders back then
Only the all rubber kind of waders with not hardly much insulation at all.They just had to make sure they had several layers of clothes and socks I would think.

I second that.I remember back in the early '80's when we had a lot of fox around some of the guys around here really liked his "Spotted Death"'cat lure for fox.At that time lure bottles often came with eye droppers,that bottle was so full of glands the dropper was a joke.Alot of fox went on stretchers around here due to that lure.And I definitely think he didn't get the credit he deserved on trap mechanics.Maybe some of these ideas were floating around before he came along,but he brought them out to the general trapping public along with his own insights in the numerous articles he wrote on the subject.I remember an article in FFG that he wrote about using 11/2 coils for coyotes,that had to be a first!Talk about blasphemy!He used the exact opposite approach to trap sizes than what was and is preached today.Instead of the largest trap,he set the smallest trap modified to catch the big critters.

I still have several bottles of assorted unused bottles of his lures from the 1980's .I guess by now it can be called aged

I live 60 miles from there,I was there during the boom many times because I trapped down that way and I would buy lure there or if I needed something. I used fox lures and masked death. A chubby kid worked in the concrete bldg.....I never ran into other guys there. Then the steel bldg was added .......i had stopped going there.(at that time Coon were bringing 40 on carcass for triples,ab,color,reds 70 or so if memory serves me right.

Jim Helfrich was a big part of my trapping success, his articles and books were written to help you. He is one of the only big-time trappers I ever sent a letter to, and I was in heaven when he replied back with a hand drawn diagram also. His methods really helped me catch raccoons. "Nothing like a greased up pocket set to catch their attention" or something like that he told me. I'm sure there are a lot of guys on this forum who have been through several marriages, bad business decisions or had a house foreclosed on. No point in beating those dead horses as you move on and start over.
If Jim is somewhere here in Montana he would be more than welcome to come to our house for a T-bone dinner.

He is a member on here, but he hasn't been on since 2010.

This appears to be copied from something written at an earlier time.. https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthr...earch/true/re-helfrich-traps#Post6504376

I met him several year's back now he stopped by my booth and bought some bobcat urine. And that was at the montana trappers rondy.

When someone rips you off, it kinda leaves a bad taste, kinda like some guy in Montana recently did to a bunch of folks. It's even worse when you really look up to the guy. But, stuff happens and Jim did have a positive impact on me as a young trapper. A student of Blackies and Blackie was Thorpe student, so they had some good methods.

Bishop lived about 10 miles down the road from me. He was the biggest con artist that ever lived.

Back In the day Jim and Charles were on the road giving demos. They did one down here for District 10 and they both stayed at my place.

Love threads like this,this is trapline history from guys who knew them.I was around then but never got to meet any of them,I did read everything these guys put out there.

Paul,
I thought I saw a post on here a few months ago that talked about your dad and him discussing trap development. I thought he even said that it was him in the post?

That's this one. I think Mike copied it from somewhere and posted it. I'm not sure though. https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthr...earch/true/re-helfrich-traps#Post6504376

I last spoke with Jim about 2(or 3) years ago. Contacted him in Montana looking for parts for his traps, of which he had none. Brief discussion during which he mentioned that he had contemplated building the traps again. I recommended that he add some distinct mark if he did another run and he said he would.

You should be able to find it with google earth. I did a google earth hunt for Hawbakers' a few weeks ago. It was not quite how I remembered it but I found it. Last time I was there was either 1964 or 1965.

tried but didnt know the address,,looked under rd1 and rd 2 on earth and co rd 15 (which it wasnt)i believe. Didnt see anything like it

Does anyone know if the Helfrich lures being sold today are the original formulas or have they been changed?

SALES
Date Buyer Seller Price
7/20/2005 MILLER CHARLES W & FOX BRYANT Y JR & 225000
4/24/1992 FOX BRYANT Y JR & SCHLOSSER STEPHAN R &50000
1/8/1988 SCHLOSSER STEPHAN R &FIRST FEDERAL S/L 42000
10/6/1987 FIRST FEDERAL S/L HELFRICH JAMES C ETAL 37767

GENERAL PARCEL INFORMATION
Owner
Property Address
Mailing Address
Land Use
Legal Description
MILLER CHARLES W & DAYNA J
19140 NORTH LIBERTY RD
19222 1/2 NORTH LIBERTY RD
FREDERICKTOWN OH 43019
510 - SINGLE FAMILY DWLG OWNER
OCCUP
12 8 2 SW OF 8 TRACT 6 5.20A

holy moly,,,the road doesnt even look the same....nothing looks the same,not even remotely. Im in the twilight zone!!!

Thanks Paul for that very informative post...I had never seen it before.

Good work ebsurveyor!

makes me sick.......i guess i drove right by it and didnt even know it. If thats progress I surely dont like it.
looks more like swimmin pools and movie stars,,eek,,,sad,a piece of history gone.

County road 15 is several miles long and really a vague address. RFD routes change all the time and what was Route 1 back then might be route 27 now. My mailbox hasn't moved since the one in ~1985 and the address of it has changed 4 times in that time, including the street name, street number, route number, even the town and zipcode.

A James C Helfrich (formerly of Sun River MT and Fredericktown OH.) is listed in Vaughn Mt.
His profile on this site contains an email address, I'd guess if you have enough interest, you could contact the man and ask him the particulars of his former business and home.

> I see eb found it through records, good job

his email doesnt work already tried

Jim was the first trapper that actually demonstrated to me how to bed a trap right at a convention. I tried to take instructions from Jim but he was booked. He introduced me to Blackie for instructions, who introduced me to Mike Marsysada and Ray Milligan. They all gave me a solid foundation to build on. Hats off to all and Thanks Jim wherever you are. They all taught me to think like an animal.

interesting stories about days gone by. I met Helfrich at a convention many moons ago. He seemed like a quite and nice young man. Also met Blackie at a convention.
Had a chance to sit and watch a coon demo done by a Maine trapper with Carrol. Before and after we talked quite a while. He was a real nice guy.

One thing I remember about both of those guys is the articles the wrote, both wrote well. Also remember very well their ads for instruction. They used every psychological ploy in the book, often quoting well known authors. Paraphrasing, Give up your jobs, follow you dreams, the only difference between a rut and a grave is the dimensions. Follow you heart and be a professional trapper. Don't be a slave for the "man." etc. Those guys were good trappers but they were really good salesman as well.
We still have a few salesman types that are smoother than an ells tricker. You all know who they are. LOL


It was not but a few short years both were working regular jobs and or running a business. LOL. Good ads none the less.
Mac

I remember one article Helfrich wrote about setting traps, confidence, something along the lines of how your energy would effect the animals etc. I know I could dig around and still find it.
Lots of stuff to think about but actually not very helpful. Made a guy realize they really NEEDED professional trapping instruction.

pm back to ya Mac

wew,gotta go again

Jim Helfrich. was one of the few/first to use color photos in his fox book Vol II and catalog, very good pictures as they were expensive to print at the time along with the number of pictures that had to be developed that did not make the book. Printing was expensive back then. Any collector should keep a copy around as a bench mark reference. He did a good job.

He wasn't one of the guys that had anything to do with Montgomery Traps going under did he? I knew some kids who worked at the trap factory back in the seventies when fur was being trapped by about half us guys in my high school.

No he wasn't,but that would be an interesting story.Always wondered what happened to Montgomery,as far as I was concerned they were the best trap manufacturer in North America.Then they disappeared.

went today the boy and I,,shame to see progress. where jims place was is now 3 fancy houses





pic 1 is his old road,3 is his long driveway before,the storefront gunsmith is the little town of fredericktown,,,the graves are my great aunt and uncle who lives in back of him about 3 miles. Farm is all gone now too. Spent fun times there at my sons age playing with cousins

rolled the snapper off the highway,,he was mad(scared .....so many cars and trucks straddling him....he had mouth wide open when i went up. Rolled him off into grass with boot. About once a yr i take one off. many times i grab tail but this guy was too determined to bite.

You were in my hometown.I currently live on the last street at the North end of town.

lol,i never go that far north(close)dont have much use to go to f town nowadays. Family lived out near north liberty.....house and barns are gone now.