There are no new problems in this world, just old ones recycled in different form. I think that saying holds a lot of truth in all aspects of life, including trapping. As I write this, the fur market is at one of its all time lows. Fur prices don’t come near reaching the cost of production for a trapper, and we struggle to see an end to terrible market conditions. Without an understanding of trapping history, many of us assume fur prices were always better back in the day, but that isn’t the case. There were lows along with the highs, and some periods were just as depressing to a trapper as they are today. When Walter Arnold wrote this article back in the early 1950’s, the fur market was at a very low point. Most species had little to no market, and trappers were struggling with what to do. Interestingly, the market was structured much differently than it is today. Instead of the modern day system that sees the United States as an exporter of furs to countries like Russia and China, the U.S. was a fur importer back then, with much of the product manufactured and sold domestically. Trappers struggling with low prices blamed countries like Russia for flooding the U.S. market with cheap fur imports. In this article, Arnold discussed the different topics top of mind for trappers during the market bust. And a little spoiler alert – the market did come back, as it always seems to do.
The Trapper and His Problems
First Published in Fur-Fish-Game October 1953
Walter Arnold
Realizing that some of the matters I am about to discuss are of a controversial nature, I am going to say right at the beginning, that when confronted with some problem which I wish to attempt to unravel, I do my best to work with an open mind and try not to kid myself. If it is the truth one wishes to learn, about all he can do is to use whatever facts available and follow through with them in his reasoning. To be sure, he may end up with answers which are not pleasing. Some of the deductions to matters taken up in this article are not to my liking. Maybe I am wrong in some of them. I hope so.
Low Fur Prices
One thing that probably all trappers will agree upon today is this: the real cash returns one will receive at the present time for a nice mixed collection of what would once have been a profitable catch, will now scarcely pay for the footwear and clothes the trapper wears out in obtaining it all, unless he is lucky and has found a good supply of the couple or three furbearers worth half what they should be.
Some of the catches that around twenty-five years ago meant the necessary cash to run the home and take care of all operating expenses was almost a certainty with experienced trappers. Prices paid for some of the different species may not have been very high, but living costs were nothing compared to that of today. To pay home and trapping expenses today, under existing conditions, one should be receiving at least double as much for his raw furs as compared to twenty-five years ago. The facts of the matter are, he does not receive near what he did back there twenty-five or thirty years ago.
For the past decade, it has been a case of only two or three species that have been worth going after. This has meant that every trapper who wished to make any real money has had to go out and concentrate his efforts on those few. Consequently, this has meant ganging up on two or three species, depleting their numbers to the extent that in many instances there are not enough left to make trapping profitable. In some cases, seasons have had to be shortened, allowing the trapper only a short period of time to operate and make a dollar. All in all it’s a deplorable situation for both the trappers and the furbearers.
The Wilderness Trapping Era
Not only the fur prices, but conditions in general have changed here in the real wild, wilderness sections of Maine. To give the reader an idea what is meant by wild, wilderness sections, there are around 325 unorganized townships in this state. In addition to that, there are probably all of 60 or more plantations which are about the same thing. Usually these townships run about 6×7 miles, or 40 square mile each. Also, there are many of the organized towns which are practically all wild land. There are places where one may drive a car as far as it will go, then climb out and hike back into the wilderness anywhere from 10 to 25 miles and spend the later part of the fall and the winter, seldom seeing the tracks of other men.
Twenty-five years ago, and from then back through the decades, this wilderness was inhabited by trappers who spend anywhere from six months to most of the year back there in their cabins. Each one had his own trapping grounds and with very few exceptions, these grounds were respected by others. If a trapper died, or due to older age or other causes moved out, then someone else took over the grounds. Many of these men would never have required any trapping laws to guide them. They saw to it they did not exterminate any species on their trapline regardless of its value. However there were laws, as not all were so minded. A few can do a lot of damage. Probably these same conditions existed in all other states which were fortunate in having large tracts of wilderness. It was possible to take anywhere from eight to a dozen different species of furbearers, depending on location and conditions, and every on worth skinning and adding to the collection.
The trapping season would run from around the middle of October through March 1st, with an open season on most of the species. This meant the trapper could keep busy and was earning money throughout the greater part of the fall and winter. Although the last two months might not always be as profitable, it was still worthwhile. Then came the time when beaver had increased in the state to the extent that sections here and there were opened to trapping. Each year there were more and more sections opened up, until the months of January and February, in many instances, would be the best paying months of the entire season. Sometimes it was the last two weeks in February that beaver really started coming to bait.
It is my belief that the big money, or what looked like big money at the time, that was made in beaver trapping was responsible to some extent for the changing of conditions that eventually put most of the full season wilderness trappers out of business. Previous to this time, trappers went into the woods, lived in their camps, tended their own traplines, made good money, did little bragging about it, and stayed in business year after year. Few outsiders realized what it was all about.
Fame and Competition
With the beaver trapping came a tagging system. All beaver pelts had to be tagged before they could be sold. This brought the trappers out to the settlements where they would hang around a few hours, or maybe a few days showing their furs, while awaiting the arrival of wardens to do the tagging. Many times fur buyers would be right there ready to dicker for the pelts as soon as they were tagged. Then came a time when it would be made known that the wardens would be at a certain place on a certain day, and, shall we call them, “tagging days” came into the picture. Groups of trappers would appear on the scene with collections of not only beaver but sometimes other furs as they knew that fur buyers would also be there to bid against each other. Pictures were often taken, write-ups in the newspapers followed some of these sales, making mention of the large collections of furs and the worthwhile amounts of money that had changed hands.
The wilderness trapper was now getting his name and sometimes his picture in the papers – there was glamour to it. I remember way back at the first of these tagging and selling days, one old fur buyer, who had also been one of the old woods trappers, but a little smarter than the rest of us, told a group of trappers, “You are making a big mistake. In the past you have gone about your trapping, sold your furs quietly, kept your business to yourselves and made a good living with little or no competition. Now you’re advertising it to the world. There are going to be hobby trappers, mill workers, drug store clerks and what not, who are going to learn about this and ask ‘How long has this been going on?’ Some of them are going to take time off and go trapping, and many of them can learn to trap the same as you or I did. You’re going to get competition.”
The old fur buyer knew exactly what he was talking about. Competition came all right. It came on foot, by old cars and trucks over open lumber roads, and even through the air. Most of the newcomers were good honest men, but some were far from that, and it takes only a few to do a lot of damage. In many places where competition really hit, it meant that no longer could a local trapper nurse along his supply of furbearing animals like he had done in the past, and seeing to it that he had a good crop each season. Now it meant that if there was a female mink on a certain little brook, it was a case of getting her before the other fellows did.
Demise of the Wilderness Trapper
With more trappers operating than ever before, and with the incentive to practice conservation discouraged, it is little wonder that many sections were, to all practical purposes, cleaned out. It finally became evident that something had to be done. The trapping season was shortened, allowing only one month of legal trapping for mink, a year-round closed season was clamped onto fisher and marten, and there was no more December and winter trapping of muskrat. Outside of the November trapping, there was now very little to hold the old wilderness trappers in the woods. Gradually, one by one, they gave it up. It is seldom now that trappers are found who go into camp in October and remain there until the end of the trapping season, which is now the middle of February. December, the month of really prime furs, comes very close to being a dead issue. The few foxes found back in the wilderness are not worth skinning anymore. Any ‘coon or skunk that happens to be there is denned up. There are a few weasels, and now and then a bobcat.
Stan Howland and I, a couple or three winters back, went well back into the wilderness to do some beaver trapping. In the territory we covered, we found three different abandoned trappers’ camps, which had not been used for some years. They were still just as the trappers walked out of them, traps hanging up, snowshoes, sleeping bags, even food supplies. Some of the best molasses I ever ate was from a gallon we found at one camp, and at one place there was a winter’s supply of wood all fitted for the stove. These camps were hidden away where few people had ever found them. No doubt there are many more in the vast wilderness sections of Maine. Then of course there were many more which were easily found and have long since been ravaged and are gone. Camps out where they are easily found do not last long if left unused by the owner for a few years. There seems to be some fishermen and hunters who take delight in smashing up and burning for firewood anything they can rip loose, and then leave the place with the door wide open for quill pigs (porcupines) to get into and eat what the vandals can’t rip up.
Economic Realities of Backwoods Trapping
Probably there are readers now asking themselves, “Why can’t I go up and find one of these places and take over?” Well, brother, I don’t doubt in the least but what any good woodsman could go up into that wilderness and find a township no one has trapped on for some time, but please don’t write and ask me where they are. I have no idea. But if I wished to do so I am sure I could go up there, put in a week or so flying and cruising and locate some of these places. That is a job one must attend to himself. There is no one that I know of who is hiring planes and putting in their time locating trapping grounds for the purpose of telling others about. Just because a township was not trapped a year ago does not mean that no one is already making plans to spend next November there. That is one of the jokers in this wilderness trapping now – one is not always sure of who is going to hit what when the season opens. I have been told on good authority, that sometimes a township is opened to beaver trapping up in the heart of the wilderness, and not a person sets a beaver trap on the township during the entire open season, but that does not mean that there won’t be a dozen there the next winter.
A member of our Fish and Game Department was complaining to me not too long ago that the trappers are not going out where the going is hard and cleaning up the beaver on these back townships as they, the Department, would like for the trappers to do. Competition is not so keen when fur prices are down and it is not a worthwhile business. When complaints come in from lumber companies and the Department opens up territory, they want someone to go in and thin down the numbers of beaver.
Now just in case there may be out of state readers who may still believe this sounds like a bonanza, let’s run through a few things that could happen if one went up in there and set up with the idea of working something like a township. After a suitable pace was located would come the task of getting a cabin ready, equipment gotten into place along with canoes, if needed. There would be the task of looking out traplines and probably in many instances cutting trails through swamps and thickets so one could get through these places after snow came. Crossing places over deadwaters and other places prepared so high water would not prevent one from tending his trapline, there is no end of work that may be done. Then comes the time to trap and a non-resident must purchase a $200 trapping license and a $20 hunting license. At the end of December he would discover that to finish out the season he would have to purchase another set of licenses, as all licenses expire the last of December. There would be around $450 paid out for licenses the first of the year.
The man is now ready to start building up the territory into a profitable trapping ground, providing furs are ever worth going after again. If it was a year that there were muskrat around, he would start working on them, taking enough so the remainder could winter on the food supply, and not all winter kill. A perpetual supply of muskrat is essential in cold Maine climate to hold up the mink population. The wise trapper would work along conservation lines. After all, it requires trapping to bring up and hold a steady supply of animals. If left to themselves, they run into their cycles. One year there may be plenty, then nature steps in and the next year there will be scarcely anything left. Wise trapping prevents overpopulating and keeps them breeding and at the same time allows the natural food supplies to increase.
One could build up the territory to its maximum of production in mink, muskrat, otter and beaver and would be all ready for the payoff. Now let us assume that prices went up, mink would come back and average $28 to $30 and beaver came back to a $35 or $40 average. The fellow who did all the work would be ready to collect for his sacrifices. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well, brother, then is when some of those who care nothing about you or the work you have done are very likely to come crashing in, in more ways than one. If you are not right on the job, nearly all your mink can be cleaned out ten days before the season opens. They have no work to do – you have attended to that faithfully. Everything has been prepared for them, all they have to do is trap, and there are thousands who can trap just as well as you or I. in fact, there are thousands ore who are well versed in the art of killing than there are who know anything about conservation or how to use it. That is just another one of the reasons why many of the old wilderness trappers who spent most of their lives up there have quit. One could easily spend two or three years of hard work along with all its sacrifices and then have the fruits of their labor snatched out from under them.
Imports and Low Fur Prices
Getting back to fur prices, which is probably of more interest to the reader, let’s consider what we are so often told is the reason why prices of our raw furs are so low. We are told that imports from Russia are responsible. Now personally, it would not hurt my feelings any if we did not buy anything from them. However, I became interested in finding out just what the imports were and where they came from. In 1950 I asked one of our Maine senators if he could dig up some information for me, and I was furnished with quite a bit of data on the 1949 imports. I was particularly concerned in what I considered were, at that time, the best money makers for the American trapper. I was not interested in red fox, as I realized that even if there were no fox imports, they still would not be worth skinning, as the women folks were not wearing them.
The information I had showed that during 1949 there had been 3,278,429 muskrat imported. Russia had shipped in 1,895,994. Canada had shipped us 1,447,337. On ermine and weasel combined, total imports were 1,507,475 and of this number Russia had furnished 146,523 and Canada came up with 286,517. Total mink imports from all countries was 1,228,086, of which Russia sent in 26,645 and Canada 833,309. I really received a surprise on beaver. I found none from Russia, but there were 138,312 from Canada. The records showed that considering the American furs, the type for which there was a good market, our chief competition was not from Russia, but from our next door neighbor, Canada. What a revolting let-down that was to me. As I have said, when one gets to looking into things with an open mind, he sometimes runs into things he does not like.
There are many other items imported. Take squirrel for instance. The total imports were 5,282,683 and Russia furnished 4,445,873 of them. I honestly do not know if there is a squirrel catch of any importance in the United States. However, if millions of imported squirrel are used in this country, then that could mean that the use of some of our cheaper furs is being slowed. At least that was my reaction. Then I ran into the big item, rabbit, which I believe is being used for many things, including imitation seal and others. Imports of this item were 11,873,725 pounds. Please note, pounds. How many pelts make a pound I do not know, but no doubt this represented at least 50,000,000 pelts. What a mountain of cheaper furs could be made up from that huge quantity of pelts. Where did they come from? Russia furnished a mere handful – 46,417 pounds, and Canada could not do much better with 62,519. The records I have do not state where the bulk of these pelts came from, but they are probably from Australia.
I am not in sympathy with any of the fur imports from any country, but I tackled this question with the idea of forgetting about personal feelings to see if I could find out anything about these imports outside of hearsay. Back through the years I have done my part in circulating petitions, protesting against Russian imports and the 20% excise tax, mailing them to Washington, also contacting senators and representatives. Many of us trappers from coast to coast have received letters from our senators and representatives, and in just reading through them, some of them sounded pretty nice, but I have studied some of these letters. When one gets down to business in the matter, there is not a heck of a lot of real meat in any I have seen.
My personal opinion is this. It may be the facts of the matter or it may not, but I think that the rank and file of our servants in Washington know deep down in their hearts that there isn’t a ghost of a chance of stopping the flow or raw furs into this country. They are not telling us that because they feel we wouldn’t understand and they can lose votes. That is my own honest opinion.
This idea of attempting to put our domestic raw fur business back onto a sound basis by trying to cut imports from one country is, to my thinking, just lie being out in a big boat and being blown onto a reef, having a dozen or more big holes poked through the bottom, and then drifting back into deep water, sinking, and then in an attempt to save the situation, try covering just one of the holes. The one hole may be covered over, but there will continue to be much water that would have gone through that hole that will eventually slip through some of the other holes that had not been covered. Certainly no caption would try such a stunt or attempt to kid anyone into believing it could be done. If one really wishes to save the ship he will cover all the holes.
If we are going to get relief from raw fur importations, then something like a ban or a heavy duty should be placed on the imports from every country. That of course is not likely to happen. Let’s assume that a ban is placed on the importation of Russian furs. No doubt it could tangle up matters a bit, and possibly eliminate a few minor items and those would likely be the ones that we would wish to import, such as sable. But it is my firm belief that we would still receive huge quantities of Russian furs that would then be coming in from other countries, as imports from those countries.
If it worked out the way it seems to in some states, someone would have a very active job on his hands trying to prove where this or that piece or lot of fur originated. We hear a lot about these expert fur men, but somehow, here in this state at least, the officers have never had any luck in talking fur buyers into going into court and helping to decide when and where certain pelts were taken. As one game warden told me some years ago, “Walter, we hear a lot about how expert these fur buyers are, how they can tell from what part of the country a pelt comes from, when it was taken and other information, but what amazes me is how damned little they know when you try to get one onto the stand to testify against a trapper.” Not many fur buyers are sticking their necks out – snares can be set for them, and they as a rule are taking no chances of getting their necks into those snares. Now from what I have been led to believe, there are no states that have experienced any great success in inducing experts to aid them in clinching convictions.
After all, before anyone can be fined or thrown into jail, he can demand and obtain a trial in which the prosecutors have the job of proving the defendant guilty. The defendant does not have to prove himself innocent, however he can have his own experts testify for him. At least that is what I have been told. I know nothing about law myself, but have on several occasions served on the jury, and one thing I gathered from the experience was that suppositions, probabilities and hearsay don’t go far in a court room. Somehow it seems to be the facts they are looking for. Some government department, I think, would have a merry time attempting to prove just where certain shipments did originate.
Then there is that grand opening, as far as anything that I can see, where other countries could easily but the cheaper Russian raw furs, use them in their own domestic trade, releasing larger quantities of their own raw furs to dump into our markets. I don’t believe that this attempting to save the old ship and make it watertight by just covering up one hole is going to amount to a great deal.
There is no question but what the huge quantities of raw furs pouring into this country from all parts of the globe are playing a major role in putting the American trapper out of business. If anything more is required to finish the job, our own 20% tax on dressed furs should do the trick very nicely. That tax really does us harm. Take for instance our best American furs, the beaver, mink and muskrat. When manufactured into the luxurious garments they make, they run into real folding money. Then when the consumer is asked to dig down for 20% more, it hits him or her. There is no question in my mind but what a great many people balk – they just won’t do it.
If only there were some way that all imported furs could carry the 20% tax when sold as the finished product, and the tax eliminated on the finished American furs, it would even things up and help us out a lot, especially if half of that tax was returned to the various states to be used by the wildlife research units to better wildlife conditions all over the nation and its territories. But there again, in a great many cases the question could arise as to which originated from where, and then our own state department might tell us that other nations might feel that they were not being fairly treated and would feel offended.
Why, oh why, are we American trappers caught right in the middle of such a diabolical mess?