The inventor of the steel trap is unknown, but it is believed to date from the 1400s. European immigrants brought the first traps to North America.
A mountain man paid about five dollars per trap and used about six to twelve on a trap line. After finding a likely spot, he waded into the ice-cold water and set his trap. He would hold the trap in one hand and with the other reach to the end of the chain and stake it on the bottom of the lake or river. The typical beaver trap weighed three and one-half pounds, enough to hold a beaver underwater until it drowned. Then very carefully he laid the trap on the bottom. Then he would bait the set by sticking a fresh-cut willow branch into the mud so it angles over the trap. He daubed the willow with a little of the “medicine” he kept in a horn or wooden bottle.
The
recipe for making the medicine: “Half a dozen castor glands from the beaver,
nutmeg, twelve to fifteen cloves, thirty grams of cinnamon, all finely
pulverized and stirred well.”
A few drops of this medicine would attract the attention of any beaver in the area and it would follow the odor to the set. As it stretched to check the bait, it would lower its hind feet to the bottom for support. When a foot contacted the pan, the jaws snapped shut. Instinctively the beaver would dive for deep water and drown.
When the mountain man checked his traps, he would take the beaver from the trap, remove the beavers tail and later roast it over the fire for his evening meal. The castor gland he took to replenish the medicine. He stripped the hide from the carcass, scraped, stretched and laced it to a frame made of a willow sapling. He hung the pelts and after they were dry, branded them with his totem and compressed them into a bale. Then the mountain man moved on.
The plews (beaver skins) weighed about one and one-half pounds each. He might take a couple hundred beavers in a good season. He would take them to a rendezvous to sell or trade. The plews were worth four to six dollars each for quality plew.
After selling his furs, replenishing his supplies and enjoying some revelry at the rendezvous, the mountain man would return to the mountains until the next rendezvous.
Broken Hand