Its great history for sure and goes along with some great life lessons to be learned by trapping. Persistence may be #1.
One bit of history that I have been researching lately is the story of a little hill called Alec's Butte. It is usually within sight in the areas that I trap beaver for ADC. Alexander Carson 1778-1836 was murdered by Indians on the butte his namesake in April or May of 1836. He was a cousin of the famed Kit Carson, and I think that just by that connection the story has been tweaked just like the dime novels about Kit. Alexander Carson was associated with the Lewis and Clark expedition by helping return some of the natives west in 1809 after the main expedition. He was a part of the Hunt and Astor expedition of 1811 as a gunsmith. He settled as freeman trapper in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
There are at least three versions of his murder. One is that he was being tracked by Indians and hid in a hollowed-out tree only to be discovered when he had an untimely sneeze.
Another version was that he had an Indian employee named Boney and Boney's wife and son accompanied them. It was said that Boney's 12–14-year-old son was talked into shooting Alexander in the head while he was sleeping.
The other is that Alexander fell ill that spring and Boney and his son went off alone for trapping duties. This left Carson alone with Boney's wife to take care of him...... and apparently, they had a thing going on if ya know what I mean.
Boney caught wind after a couple of days after running into an Indian on the trail that had just been there and relayed that Carson seemed very healthy. Boney and his son then returned swiftly and brutally tortured him to death.
I enjoy pausing now and then when I'm out tending to my trapline to sit and look at Alec's Butte and think about how things where back then. It's surreal that undoubtably I've crossed his path, doing the same thing he was. Chasin' Beav!!!