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Running a trapline in the remote Alaskan bush sounds like a pretty sweet gig for a young man seeking adventure and independence. But how would you go about finding such a place? All of the good ground must be claimed by other trappers, right?
Ray Tremblay, a young man from the Lower 48, found himself in the arctic in the late 1940’s. He’d dreamed of running a trapline since childhood, and now was his chance. Fur prices were adequate to make a living wage, but trapping was competitive, and he didn’t know a soul up there.
Ray’s strategy for finding a trapline proved ingenious. He took a job as a deck hand on the old sternwheel river boats that traveled up and down the Yukon and Tanana rivers, delivering freight to the small remote villages throughout the interior. In between navigating and unloading supplies, he found plenty of time to mill about the various villages, meet people, ask questions and make connections.
With a few leads, Tremblay became acquainted with Fabian Carey, one of Alaska’s best known trappers, and resident of Lake Minchmina, in the center of Alaska. Carey guided him along and put him in touch with neighboring trapper Carl Hult, who sold his trapline to Ray the following spring.
Technically, you don’t ‘buy’ a trapline in Alaska. What you’re buying is the seller’s gear, often traps, cabins and other equipment, and their agreement to no longer trap in the area. Though there are no legal restrictions or protections for traplines, the vast majority of trappers respect others’ claims to an area, a system that has worked in the bush for more than a century.
Ray trapped more than 100 miles of line with a dog team out of Minchumina for a few years. It was brutally hard work at times, but the reward of working independently in such beautiful country was something he would fondly remember for the rest of his life.
In “Trails of an Alaska Trapper”, Ray Tremblay tells stories of his first few years in Alaska, and the adventures he and others had while trapping in Alaska’s interior. He eventually made his way into town, worked as a wildlife enforcement officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and became an accomplished bush pilot, and eventually chief pilot for the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
“Trails of an Alaska Trapper” is the first of three books Tremblay wrote about his experiences in the bush. The other two cover his life as a warden and bush pilot, and all three are readily available online.