Beaver Tales: The Fur Trade in the Old
West
The
beaver exhibits a deceptively unimpressive demeanor. Judged simply by its appearance, one
would be tempted to lump this dumpy looking creature--squinty eyes, webbed toes, naked,
scaly tail and all--together with other such uninspiring creatures as the guinea pig or
hamster. Such would be a mistake. Seldom has a single creature played such a profound role
in influencing the history of a continent and its peoples. Men conquered vast oceans, wove
their way across trackless wildernesses, waged wars, and debauched entire cultures, all in
pursuit of the beaver. Beaver furs and beaver castoreum were the source of vast fortunes.
The mere presence or absence of beaver determined the boundaries between great nations.
Just as a desire for gold and silver drove the Spaniards to explore and exploit Mexico and
Central and South America, a burning lust for beaver furs drove British, French, and
American entrepreneurs across the length and breadth of what is now the United States and
Canada. The beaver was the North American equivalent of the Incan silver mines, indeed,
for nearly two centuries beaver fur was as good as gold.
At one time, beaver colonies were found in nearly every stream from the Rio Grandè to the Arctic Ocean. Estimates on total numbers in pre-Colombian North America range from 60 to 400 million. One biologist, Robert J. Naiman of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, estimates that in 1870 there were at least 10 million beaver within the boundaries of present day Canada.
No one can accurately estimate the number of beaver harvested in North America during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. In 1824 Alexander Ross of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) led a twenty-two man expedition from Flathead House on a short excursion into the Bitterroot drainage. On one single, but notable, day the Ross party harvested 155 beaver, and returned to the base a short while later laden down with over 5,000 pelts. In 1854, nearly twenty years after the bottom fell out of the beaver market, over 500,000 North American beaver pelts were auctioned of in London. HBC records show that from 1853 to 1877, again long after the demand for beaver fur had dramatically declined, the company sold some three million beaver pelts.
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In addition to its other unique qualities, the beaver is gifted with a system of behavioral culture that is solidly embedded in instinct. The strength and endurance of this creature's instinct is amply demonstrated by the natural history of the beaver population of the River Rhône in France. A beaver colony constructs its dams, ponds, and lodges by communal effort and only does so when local populations reach a level sufficient to insure that adequate numbers of beaver are present to construct and maintain these structures. By the end of the 16th century the seemingly insatiable demand for beaver fur had pushed the Rhône's beaver to the brink of extinction. For over three hundred years a small remnant population of beaver clung to survival in the Rhône drainage. Although the beaver managed to survive, populations in the Rhône never reached the level at which dams and other structures were constructed. In the post-World War II era the French government placed a ban on the hunting and trapping of these beaver and took other steps to restore the indigenous beaver population of the Rhône drainage. Granted this protection, within decades the Rhône beaver made an astonishing recovery. After three centuries the Rhône's beaver population once again neared historic numbers, and once again, when the population was sufficient to supply the requisite labor, these beaver began to construct dams, ponds, and lodges. For hundreds of years no Rhône beaver constructed a dam or lodge. When at last, however, the time was ripe for such construction, the communal behavior necessary to initiate and guide construction was still there, firmly embedded in the beaver's instinctive culture.
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In 1818 and again in 1823-24, Great Britain had expressed its willingness to yield to the United States its claims to a sizable portion of what was then known as the Oregon Country. Britain's offer included that part of Oregon which lay to the south of line extending along the 49th parallel to the Columbia River and down that river to the sea. Well aware of its government's intentions, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) launched a campaign to exterminate the entire beaver population of the southeastern quarter of the Oregon Country. The HBC not only desperately wanted to harvest these beaver before American trappers and traders arrived on the scene, but hoped in so doing to create a "fur desert," a cordon sanitare, to protect their valuable fur-monopoly in the Pacific Northwest. In 1824 Sir George Simpson, governor of HBC's Columbia Department, described the Snake River country as "a rich preserve of Beaver . . . which for political reasons we should endeavour to destroy as soon as possible."
To implement its "scorched earth" policy, the HBC relied upon the Snake River Brigade system, an institution inherited from the old Northwest Company (NWC). From 1818 to 1821 Donald MacKenzie led these year-long trapping expeditions from the NWC's advance base at Fort Nez Perces into the upper Snake River country. After taking over the NWC in 1821, the HBC relocated the brigade's base of operations to Flathead House, near present day Thompson Falls, Montana. From 1822 to 1824 Michel Bourdon, Finian McDonald, and Alexander Ross led large brigades of "engagés" and free-trappers from Flathead House into the central Rockies. Typically, the brigades departed Flathead House in mid-winter and followed the Missoula (Clark Fork) River upstream to the Bitterroot before crossing Gibbons Pass into the headwaters of the Missouri (a blatant incursion into American territory), all the while harvesting as many beaver as possible along the way. From the Three Forks country, the brigades crossed into the Salmon River drainage, via Lemhi Pass, then to the Big Lost River and, finally, to the Snake River where the spring hunt commenced. The brigades trapped the rich beaver streams of southeastern Idaho or worked westward along the Snake to the Boise, Payette, and Weiser rivers. In November, their circuit complete, the brigades returned to Flathead House to turn in their beaver and re-equip for the next expedition.
Although profits under the leadership of Messrs. Bourdon, McDonald, and Ross were respectable, over 4,000 beaver were taken in 1823, Governor Simpson believed that too little was being done to hasten the region's beaver along the path to extinction. The Governor, accordingly, placed the Snake Brigade under the command of the most ruthless and dedicated man in HBC's employ, Peter Skene Ogden. From 1825 to 1832 Ogden and his successor, John Work, transformed the Snake River Brigade into a highly profitable commercial enterprise and powerfully effective political tool.
Every year from 1825 to 1832 the Snake River Brigade, generally consisting of at least 100 men and 300 horses, departed Fort Vancouver, Fort Nez Perces, or Flathead House in the late summer or early autumn. Although the brigades often ranged far afield, in 1827-28 for example Ogden pushed as far south as the Gulf of California, the brigades always returned to the Snake River country and, always stripped the region bare of beaver.
Under this unceasing pressure, HBC's plans came to fruition. The impact of a dozen or more years of relentless trapping drove the Snake River beaver population to the brink of extinction. In other lands under its control the HBC practiced strict conservation policies. The Company prohibited its trappers from returning to a stream for two or three years after they harvested its beaver, a rotation policy that seemed quite adequate. Modern studies have shown that if disease or habitat destruction are not a factor, beaver are able to repopulate a depleted watershed within three to five years. The Company's ruthless exploitation of the beaver resource in the Snake River country, did indeed, create a barrier that prevented American trappers from entering the Pacific Northwest. One American fur-entrepreneur, William Ashley of the Ashley & Henry Company, estimated that the HBC harvested over 85,000 from the Snake River drainage during the mid 1820s. The HBC's success was, however, a relative one. By the early 1830s just as the Snake River fur desert came into being, the bottom dropped out of the beaver market and in 1846, with the signing of the Buchanan-Pakenham Treaty, Great Britain ceded over half of the Oregon County to the United States and the HBC was forced to abandon its operations south of the 49th parallel.
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From the beginning of time humans have worn furs, and from that time, furs have been the subject of symbolism, controversy, and myth. The man or woman draped in fur projects the very image of wild primordial potency, calling to mind some great conqueror of the wild, a slayer of fearsome beasts. Indeed, it was often believed that furs imparted certain qualities and characteristics to those who wore them. A rabbit or polecat coat might shield one from the cold, but it surely lacked the "sex appeal" of a coat made of the leopard's pelt. In the time since humanity has grown civilized, furs have came to symbolize other symbols of potency, most notably monied wealth and political power. The Sung emperors readily decapitated any commoner audacious enough to be caught wearing garments made from sea otter fur, a fur ostensibly reserved for those of royal blood. Throughout the Middle Ages, kings and religious leaders passed laws and edicts regulating the wearing of furs. In 1127 the Westminster Church Council specified that winter wear for abbesses and nuns be limited to fur garments made of lamb skin and cat fur. Edward III, King of England (1327-77) decreed that only the royalty, the nobility, and those who donated at least £150 per annum to the Church could wear such rare and expensive furs as ermine and sable. Our myths and legends are replete with "fur lore," from the lion skin loin cloth of Hercules to Davy Crockett's coonskin cap. In the original French version of the old fairy tale, Cinderella's slippers were made of squirrel fur (vair) and not of glass (verre). However, of all furs, and items of apparel made from fur, none has had an impact on history comparable to the beaver hat.
For well over two centuries in Britain, Western Europe, and North America the very word style was defined by the quality of one's beaver hat and by the grace with which one wore his beaver topper. Before the introduction of the umbrella to Europe, beaver headgear provided more than just an elegant means by which to stay dry. The wealth of a man or woman was visibly displayed in the quality of their beaver hat. One's social position was revealed by their familiarity with the etiquette surrounding the wearing and display of their headpieces. After all, to elegantly doff one one's beaver and bow with grace and ease was surely the mark of social and class distinction. Beaver hats became all the rage in Stuart England, the fashion being adopted from the beaver bonnets worn by Swedish cavalrymen during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). From the early 1600s to the mid-1800s, if it was not a beaver, it was not a hat--but merely something that covered one's head.
But surely such a mark of distinction, such a symbol of wealth and status, was not some scrap of shaggy fur worn on the heads of these handsome beau brummels and elegant grandams. Surely not the Crockett model, with the creature's head and tail still attached In fact the beaver hat was not made from the creature's thick outer fur, but from its barbed, fibrous under-hair which was chemically treated, mashed, pounded, rolled, and turned into felt (it was, of course, the effects of the mercury used into producing felt that led to the expression "Mad as a hatter").
The production of felt is an ancient technology, probably first discovered by the nomadic peoples of Central Asia who covered their tents and wagons with water-resistant cloth made of wool felt. The Greeks and Romans also made water-proof tarpaulins and other materials from felt. The manufacture of felt eventually became the specialty of artisans in the bazaars of Constantinople. From there the secret of producing felt was brought to Western Europe, mainly to France, by the Crusaders. In later centuries, the finest felt cloth, and thus hats, was produced at Rouen, Caudebec, and other Norman towns. The most skilled French hatters were the Huguenots (French Protestants). Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries Huguenots hatters, fleeing the persecution of their Catholic neighbors, carried their art with them into exile to such places as London. It was, then, the presence of the Huguenots hatters in London, who incidentally specialized in the production of beaver felt, combined with the sex appeal of the Swedish cavalry's beaver bonnets that first sparked the beaver hat craze in England.
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On average, the beaver weighs between 40 and 60 pounds, although Vernon Bailey of the U.S. Biological Service once caught a 110 pound beaver on the Iron Ore River in Wisconsin. Bailey's specimen was, however, a mere pygmy when compared to the beaver's Pleistocene ancestors. These giant beaver often measure over nine feet long and weighed more than a modern day grizzly bear. The beaver's broad scaly tail, which is usually about twelve inches long, six inches wide, and three-quarters of an inch thick, is admirably suited for use as a rudder while swimming and as a prop when the beaver stands on its hind legs while gnawing through trees. Contrary to folk-wisdom, the beaver does not use its tail as a trowel when applying mud to its dam or lodge.
The beaver is truly an eating machine, for it must spend the majority of its waking hours chewing with its chisel-like teeth. The beaver is equipped with four self-sharpening incisors, coated with bright orange colored enamel. If these incisors, which can reach lengths of seven inches or more, are not kept ground down by constant gnawing, they can eventually grow into the beaver's skull, resulting in death. While beavers can gnaw through a six inch tree in five minutes, they have been known to drop trees as large as 42 inches in diameter. One source estimates that, depending upon its habitat, a single beaver can drop as many as 200 trees per year.
The beaver, a strict monogamist, typically mates in February and produces from two to fours cubs or kits in late May or early June. After about two and a half years the kits reach maturity and are driven from the lodge by their parents. Depending upon local conditions, these displaced young adults often establish their own colony in close proximity to their parent's lodge.
Prime beaver habit consists of slow moving streams and small lakes with clay banks that are well wooded with aspen or cottonwoods and willow. Streams that flow through constricted valleys with high flood potential and streams with a gradient of more than 12% are generally avoided. In the Rockies, the beaver habitat encompasses a wide altitudinal range, from the foothills to alpine streams at the 10,500 foot level. On the Great Plains, the beaver generally inhabits sluggish streams with clay or alluvial banks, where the beaver relies on lodges dug into stream banks. One the main factors involved in determining the distribution of beaver populations is the availability of its preferred food sources. The beaver's favored foods include aspen, birch, elder, willow, and cottonwood as well as such aquatic plants as sedge, cattail roots, and water lilies. While conifers are not eaten by beaver, they are, at times, used to construct dams and lodges.
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In addition to its pelt, the beaver was also valued for its pear-shaped perineal scent glands. These glands, which contained an orange-brown alkaloid-based substance called castoreum, were highly prized as for their use in medicinal compounds. Solomon was reported to have used castoreum for his migraines. Both Hippocrates and Pliny the Elder prescribed castoreum compounds for the treatment of hysteria. Through the Middle Ages castoreum was used to treat various symptoms of mental illness, as an anti-spasmodic to treat epilepsy, and a "cure" for tuberculosis. In 1685 Johannes Franco, an early advocate of "scientific medicine" noted that "Castoreum destroys fleas; is an excellent stomachic; stops hiccough; induces sleep; strengthens the sight; and taken up the nose it causes sneezing and clears the brain." Although castoreum may not have been the miracle drug touted by Franco, there may actually be some valid basis for these claims. Laboratory tests have revealed that castoreum contains substantial amounts of acetylsalicylic acid, the main component of aspirin.
Castoreum also was highly valued by beaver trappers, who used the substance to create a scent lure that drew the beaver to their traps. Once the trapper had located a likely site and had set his trap under water, he then dipped a twig into his supply of scent (castoreum) and hung the twig above his trap. The beaver, being an extremely territorial creature, smelling the castoreum and believing that his territory had been invaded by a stranger would swim toward the scent. Then, while attempting to reach the castoreum-coated twig, the beaver was, all too often, caught in the trap.
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Recommended Readings:
Blanche, Norcross, E. THE COMPANY ON THE COAST (1983).
Chittenden, Hiram Martin. THE AMERICAN FUR TRADE OF THE FAR WEST, vols. 1 & 2
(1935/1986).
Dale L. Morgan, JEDEDIAH SMITH AND THE OPENING OF THE WEST (1953/1964).
Dale, Harrison Clifford. THE EXPLORATIONS OF WILLIAM H. ASHLEY AND JEDEDIAH SMITH,
1822-1829 (1941/1991).
Deconde, Alexander. A HISTORY OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: GROWTH TO WORLD POWER,
1700-1914, vol. 1 (1978).
Galbraith, John S. THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AS AN IMPERIAL FACTOR (1957).
Goetzmann, William H. EXPLORATION AND EMPIRE: THE EXPLORER AND THE SCIENTIST IN THE
WINNING OF THE AMERICAN WEST (1966).
Merk, Frederick. THE OREGON QUESTION: ESSAYS IN ANGLO - AMERICAN DIPLOMACY AND POLITICS
(1967).
Newman, Peter C. COMPANY OF ADVENTURERS, THE STORY OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY
(1985).
Newman, Peter C. CAESARS OF THE WILDERNESS: THE STORY OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY (1988).
Rich, Edwin E. HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY, 1670-1870, 3 vols, (1961).
Rich, Edwin E. THE FUR TRADE AND THE NORTHWEST TO 1857 (1967).
Ross, Frank E. "The Retreat of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Pacific
Northwest," CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 18 (September 1937).
Wishart, David J. THE FUR TRADE OF THE AMERICAN WEST (1979).
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