Idaho Notebook by Dennis Sonius

Author:Dennis Sonius
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: idaho history, idaho social studies, idaho textbook
Publisher: Dennis Sonius

1. How were the beaver pelts used by gentlemen in the cities?

2. What fur company was the largest company in the world?

3. What was a rendezvous?

4. Where was the first trading post in Idaho located?

5. Why did the beaver trapping end in Idaho?

Idaho Content Standard 1: History Goal 1.2 Obj. 4.SS.1.2.1 Lexile 790 top

TRAPPING

The trapping of small animals for their fur brought many men to Idaho. The most common animal they trapped was the beaver. They lived throughout Idaho in beaver ponds on small streams or in river burrows along the banks of fast moving streams and rivers. Several million beaver lived in Idaho.

The beaver lived in family units. Two kits were born each spring. The kits needed three years to grow to adult size. The tom beaver grew to four feet in length and weighed sixty pounds. His system allowed him to stay underwater for fifteen minutes without breathing. He could chop down a five inch diameter tree in three minutes and drag it to the water.

The trapper used steel traps weighing five pounds each. He would make sure the human odor was not on the traps. Then he would bait the traps with castoreum. Castoreum was taken from the beaver’s glands. It would attract other beaver. The trap was stuck in the mud with a stick and a bag of sand was attached. The sand made the trap too heavy for the beaver to drag it to shore.

The traps were set at night since the beaver works at night. The beaver would get a foot caught in the trap and drown. The trapper would rise early, wade into the water and find his traps. The dead beaver needed to be removed early in the morning before other animals discovered it.

The best trapping was done during the cold fall and early spring months. That was when beaver had a heavy winter coat and was most active. Many ponds would freeze over in the winter and the deep mountain snow made it too difficult for the trapper to work.

The beaver was skinned down the middle and around the feet and tail. The pelt was stretched over a willow stick frame and scraped dry. A trapper hoped to have five pelts each morning. The pelts were packed in 100 pound packs. A horse could carry two packs at a time.

Packs were stored in caches until time for a rendezvous. The cache was dug on a slope above a stream bank. The entrance was two feet across and three feet deep. The hole dug below the entrance looked like a small cavern. The floor was lined with sticks to keep the pelts from moisture. Worthless hides were placed on top. Dirt was packed in the hole and the ground covered with brush so Indians or other trappers would not find it.

Hudson’s Bay Company trappers packed their pelts many miles to a fort. The fort shipped them to a factory in eastern Canada. American trappers sent their pelts to St. Louis, Missouri. The fur was removed and sent by boat to factories in New York or Philadelphia.

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