Mike Laughlin USDA USF&W article Trappers World

I have been working on an article for Trappers World on Mike Laughlin. Mike is a retired Supervisory Wildlife Biologist with 31 years (9 states, Mexico and Canada) with U.S Department of Agriculture & U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and a degree in Wildlife Biology from Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. He worked or associated with most of the famous names in coyote and lion control over the years. I recently submitted the article to Tera and it will probably be in the Nov/Dec or Jan/Feb issue: we submitted quite a few photos more than can be printed and below is a sample of some of the photos. Note the photos of Willey Carrol, he and Mike were friends and they worked together for a very long time, There are a couple of stories on Wiley in the article. Hope you old wolfers get a copy of TW as the proof readers all thought it was a pretty good article. Article and photos are donated to Tom Parr at the NATCA museum. Good luck trapping this year and tight chains to you all. Henpecked.

Great pics! Thanks

Just renewed my subscription for 2 more years. Great pics and I'm looking forward to the article. I love their articles about the trappers who lived it from past generations.

Cool!

Love that hound picture...that's a classic.

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Look forward to the article.
Mac

I've seen that picture before, I think it might be in Wiley's book.

photos are from Mike Laughlin, Mike has original photos from his personnel collection which were taken over 30 years,, Wiley lived down the road from Mike (even after he retired) and Mike has an extensive collection of Wiley photos. It may be in the Lion book but the hard photo is from Mike.

And no matter how 'romantic' that government trapping job / lifestyle may seem. . . you see that trailer he's holding a wolf pelt up against ?
That's your home ! That's where you're living in many cases, like some immigrant sheep herder. Meager pay , truck, gas groceries.
THAT'S MAINLY A YOUNG MAN'S GAME.
You're not making a lot of money, not like you can make doing ADC work in town. Not even close.
Great read on those ol' boys who did it, to be sure. Life has changed since that time. Trapping along with it

Not many would choose that lifestyle today.
I would bet 'burnout' would be fairly common.

LT, I remember reading one of Thorpe's writings. He wrote that old E.J. could pen a tail that made a tent in the woods sound like the Waldorf.

mac

Oh yeah. . .
I did that tent life. I couldn't do it now. That's a rough life.
Most want paid better that what that lifestyle offers.
Good to do it once, it ain't no place for a married man or anyone who isn't as tough as nails.
Easier ways to make money, even trapping !