Copyright © 2015 by Stephen Brennan
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover design by Jane Sheppard
Cover photos: ThinkStock
Print ISBN: 978-1-62873-709-7
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62914-049-0
Printed in China
CONTENTS
THE TRAPPERS BY W. F. WAGNER
TRANSPORT
Bateau
Keelboat
Whaleboat
Pirogue
Flatboat
Dugout Canoe
Building a Birch-Bark Canoe
Bull Boat
BUILDING A BULL BOAT
A Trapper’s Raft
Horse and Mule Packing
Crossing a River or Stream
Travois
Snowshoes
An Indian Toboggan
BUILDING AN INDIAN TOBOGGAN
SHELTER
Forts and Trading Posts
Stockade Building
Lean-to, Tents, and Tepees
Caches
UNDERGROUND CACHES
Splitting Logs
Building a Trapper’s Log Cabin
THE CABIN ROOF
LOG ROLLING
Building a Stone Chimney
Sod House Construction
Knots and Rope Work
CAMP COOKERY
Fire Building
FUEL
STARTING A FIRE BY THE BOW DRILL METHOD
FLINT AND STEEL AS A FIRE STARTER
THE LENS METHOD
Brunswick Stew
How to Make the Burgoo
Roast Beaver Tail
Beaver Tail Soup
Lumberman’s Baked Beans
How to Barbecue Venison or Sheep
How to Cook Venison
Sourdough’s Joy
Doughgod
How to Dry Corn
Sweet Corn
Parched Field Corn
Ash Cakes
Pone
Pulled Firebread or Twist
Johnny-cake
Flapjacks
Camp Corn Bread and Corn Dodgers
Camp Biscuit
Boiled Potatoes
Roast Potatoes
Bean Hole
Pork and Beans
Baked Beans
Brown Bread
Camp Soup
Mountain Man Stew
Fried Squirrel
Venison Steak
Jerking Meat
How to Dress Small Animals
Roast Porcupine
Camp Coffee and Tea
TEA
TOOLS OF THE MOUNTAIN MAN
Knives
A Trapper’s Ax
HOW TO FELL A TREE WITH AN AX
Tomahawks and Hatchets
Broadax and Adz and Other Tools
Sawpits and Trestles
FIREARMS OF THE MOUNTAIN MAN
Swivel Guns
Flintlock Rifles of the Mountain Man
Trade Guns
The “Plains” Rifle
The Pistol
Black Powder
How to Make a Powder Horn
HUNTING BIG GAME
The Bison or American Buffalo by Mayne Reid
Mule Deer Hunting
DEER HUNTING TIPS
Big Horn Sheep
Hunting the Big Horn
Grizzly Bear
OLD PINTO BY ALLAN KELLY
TRAPPING
Snares
THE COMMON SNARE
THE GROUND SNARE
Steel Traps of the Mountain Men
NOTES ON THE STEEL TRAP
TRANSPORTATION OF STEEL TRAPS
THE SPRING POLE
The Sliding Pole
Fur-Bearing Animals
BEAVER
MINK
WEASEL
MARTEN
OTTER
WOLVERINE
MUSKRAT
RACCOON
BADGER
FOX
BEAR
SKINNING AND PROCESSING OF PELTS
READING TRAIL AND TRACKS
Trailing—Indian Sagacity by Randolph Marcy
Finding Your Way—the Sun by Elmer Harry Kreps
How to Use Your Watch as a Compass
Tracks, for the Trapper
Tracks, for the Hunter
TODAY’S MOUNTAIN MAN
RENDEZVOUS
THE TRAPPERS BY W. F. WAGNER
The evolution of the trapper may be traced back to the old French régime when the coureurs des bois, rangers of the woods, or the peddlers of the wilderness, held sway. These were, however, more traders than trappers, purchasing the pelts from the Indians for trifles and frequently accompanying them on their hunting excursions. They were as profligate as their successors, and their occupation passed away with the passing of the French control of Canada and with the establishment of the interior trading-posts by the merchants of Canada, who later formed companies and conducted the business in a more systematic manner. From these interior trading-posts. traders and trappers were sent out to trade with the Indians and trap in their territory at the same time. The trading gradually fell into the hands of the trading-posts; the trapper meanwhile pursued his vocation, and it became his recognized and established business, where he remained an important factor in the fur-trade down to the time of its decline and ultimate death.
While Mr. Hunt was at Mackinaw engaging men for the Astoria venture, there arrived at this place some of these characters, and his description of them is so accurate that I take the liberty of giving it here:
A chance party of “Northwesters” appeared at Mackinaw from the rendezvous at Fort William. These held themselves up as the chivalry of the fur-trade. They were men of iron; proof against cold weather, hard fare, and perils of all kinds. Some would wear the Northwest button, and a formidable dirk, and assume something of a military air. They generally wore feathers in their hats, and affected the “brave.” “Je suis un homme du nord!” “I am a man of the north”—one of these swelling fellows would exclaim, sticking his arms akimbo and ruffling by the Southwesters, whom he regarded with great contempt, as men softened by mild climates and the luxurious fare of bread and bacon, and whom he stigmatized with the inglorious name of pork-eaters. The superiority assumed by these vainglorious swaggerers was, in general, tacitly accepted. Indeed, some of them had acquired great notoriety for deeds of hardihood and courage; for the fur-trade had its heroes, whose names resounded throughout the wilderness.
The influence and part played by the trapper and free trapper in the development of our great West has had up to this time but little consideration from either the government or the people. We have given entirely too much credit to “pathfinders” whose paths were as well known to the above as is the city street to the pedestrian. It is true, however, that they gave to the world a more complete description and placed these secret ways of the mountains in a more correct geographical position than the uneducated trapper was able to do.
There was not a stream or rivulet from the border of Mexico to the frozen regions of the North, but what was as familiar to these mountain rangers and lonesome wanderers, as the most traveled highway in our rural districts. The incentive was neither geographical knowledge nor the honor won by making new discoveries for the use and benefit of mankind in general, but a mercenary motive—the commercial value of the harmless and inoffensive little beaver. The trappers followed the course of the various streams looking for beaver signs and had no interest whatever in any other particular. Every stream had a certain gold value if it contained this industrious little animal, and so they followed them from their source to their mouth with this one object in view. For their own comfort and convenience they observed certain landmarks and the general topography of the country, in order that they might rove from one place to another with the least labor and inconvenience. In this manner they came to have a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the geography and topography of the great West, and were in truth the only pathfinders; but they have been robbed even of this honor to a great extent.