With Her Own Wings; Beaver Fever

[Intro music] It's Oregon School of the Air Time, when we ask you to remember the brave motto of the first Oregon territorial government: She flies with her own wings. This series was planned for elementary grades, in observance of Oregon's 100th years of statehood. Today's program features 'Beaver Fever,' and the early Oregon fur trade. Your Oregon guide for this series is Mrs. Mildred Stapleton. [Mildred] Hello boys and girls. I'm sure most of you know that this is the flag of the state of Oregon, with the seal and with the date. But I wonder how many of you know what is on the reverse side of this flag? It is a beaver. Now why do you think we would have a beaver

on the reverse side of the flag of the state of Oregon? Before we can answer that question, we should probably think for a few minutes about the nations who had claims on the North American continent about the year 1800. England had claims over here, the United States down here, Spain on the West Coast and Russia in what is now Alaska. Then there's what this vast wilderness area in here to which no one had yet laid claim, but in which all four of these nations were interested. And why were they interested? Because this area was filled with very valuable fur bearing animals. Russia had already begun taking fur bearing animals from what is now Alaska, and also from the waters of the Pacific coast area, where she had taken the seals, the valuable fur bearing seals. There were

thousands of them along the coast, and there still are a great many, as you see in this picture. The United States was represented in this interest in the fur industry by a very astute businessman of New York City, John Jacob Astor. Mr. Astor was a very strong and forceful character and he decided that the United States needed to get into the fur industry because there was a lot of money in it. And being a businessman he liked to make money. He sent two parties to establish fur trading centers in the Oregon country. One party came by the ship Tonquin, around the horn and up to the mouth of the Columbia River. And then the other party came over land, over the mountains and down the Columbia River to what is now Astoria. And in 1812, Astor established Fort

Astoria, as you see it on the picture. Notice the block house. In the close up of the block house you see that it is very sturdily built, very well constructed and looks like a safe place to be in case of an attack. There are no windows, only holes for the lookout, or for use if the rifles are being fired or aimed. England was represented by her very powerful Hudson's Bay Company, led by that very wonderful person Dr. John McLaughlin. Dr. McLaughlin was a powerful man, physically and intellectually, and was a very great force in the development of the Oregon country. In about 1824, Dr. McLaughlin had Fort Vancouver Washington going as a very thriving community, as you can see by the picture. There was a flag also that they flew over the fort which bore the letters HBC, Hudson's Bay Company. Besides the

fur companies who were interested in the fur business, there were individuals who were interested also. The mountain men. The mountain men were among the ruggedest of the rugged individuals who helped to settle the country at that time. They traded with the Indians. They trapped. They acted as guides and generally lived a large outdoor life, and contributed a great deal to the development of this country. Of all of the fur bearing animals that were so sought after, the most important was the beaver. And this morning Ron Shay, of the Oregon State Game Commission, is here to talk to us about the history of the fur trappers and traders, and about the history of the beaver. Mr. Shay, what is the difference between a fur trapper and a fur trader? [Ron] Well there's a slight difference, and sometimes one became the other. The traders came first and got the furs from the Indians. They met at gathering places they

called rendezvous. And they got together for two or three days and had rather a big party and a lot of games and that type of thing, and in the process traded furs. They traded bright pieces of cloth, jewelry and so forth to the Indians in exchange for the beaver furs. Some of these men decided they'd want to cut out this middle man, so to speak, the Indians. So they decided to trap the furs themselves. So some of the traders actually developed into trappers. But the trapper was a man who took the furs, the trader was the one who swapped things for them. [Mildred] Oh I see. Well I'd been a little confused on that, I didn't really realize what the difference was. Why was the beaver so much sought after, why was it such a valuable fur? [Ron] Well you know surprisingly enough, of course nowadays the price of furs is dependent on women's fashions, in those days it was men's fashions. [Mildred] Oh? [Ron] The beaver hat was very popular in those days. [Mildred] Oh that's the picture you have here I guess isn't it... [Ron] Yes, the tall stove pipe type hat, and we see a hat shop with, well it was a store of beaver hats.

They were very stylish in England and also in the eastern part of the United States at that time, or the colonies... [Mildred] My this fellow in this picture, isn't he dressed too kill? [Ron] He's really a dandy. [Mildred] And he probably would feel not well dressed at all without his beaver hat. [Ron] According to the records you just had to have a beaver hat or you weren't anyone in those days. And that's what the beaver fur was being used for. [Mildred] They were different sizes apparently because here you have a picture of one that is larger... [Ron] Some of them almost look like they'd make the wearer stoop-shouldered they're so heavy, carrying the hat around, but you just had to have one of you were anyone. [Mildred] That was one of the sacrifices of being well dressed... [Ron] A gentleman, yes. [chuckles] [Mildred] ...and the gentleman. Well, were there plenty of beaver? Could they go on tapping as many as they wanted to take? [Ron] Well there were plenty to begin with. Like any of our natural resources, when we first arrived upon the scene there are lots of them. But as the trapping increased, the pressure increased of course the beaver numbers went down. [Mildred] And what did they do about it? [Ron] The first attempt to do something about it was by the Hudson's Bay Company. At first they held a monopoly of all the Canadian area where they were

trapping, and they inflicted upon themselves a quota system so that they would leave enough beaver for future trappers and future years. [Mildred] Oh, then they really had the first conservation program on this continent I guess, didn't they? [Ron] You might say so, on that trapping, and they were looking to the future which conservation is of course. [Mildred] And did it work? [Ron] It worked fine within their own ranks. But then of course the American Fur Company and the Northwest Fur Company started, you might say, cutting in on their territory. And then this fur war started and things went down the drain. [Mildred] Everybody took as many as he could take then? [Ron] Everybody, and particularly these freelance trappers, you might say, who didn't care much for the future. They'd just take all they could and sell them and get out and go somewhere else. And that happens in other resources too. [Mildred] Yes it does, and it's too bad isn't it? Let's talk a little bit about the beaver himself since he was such an important animal in this era. [Ron] He's a very beautiful animal. [Mildred] Yes he is. But those teeth have always intrigued me.

He gnaws through practically anything that he wants to gnaw through, and how in the world can he do that? [Ron] Mother Nature has equipped him very well for that. He has these incisors, or front teeth, as they're called and they continually keep growing. We can see they're pretty good size, they go from here clear up to here, or there, we get a good view of them. And they're continually growing. If he doesn't keep them worn off they'll eventually grow right on down and under his chin and he'll be killed by them. He'll either starve to death or be killed by them, because they are constantly growing and need to be worn off. [Mildred] Then he has to chew doesn't he? [Ron] He has to chew [Mildred] To stay alive. [Ron] And the front edge of the teeth is harder material than the back part. And as he chews they wear differently and they end up like a chisel point then, with a tapered point. So he has to keep working, he can't get lazy. [Mildred] Yes he does. [Mildred] Well this fur looks so course, I thought beaver fur, now when you see it in coats it looks like velvet, what... [Ron] Well, we have to look a little deeper into the subject. [Mildred] Oh I see. [Ron] We might look at this fur here, it's a little easier to see. The coarse hairs are called guard hairs, the lighter colored ones that stick up above the other. Underneath is the dense under fur, and when a coat's made this is buffed

on the backside, the leather. These guard hairs are plucked out then, and then the coat is made out of this dense under fur, which is beautiful fur. [Mildred] Oh then this is the part that looks like velvet when it's in a coat. [Ron] It makes a tremendous coat, it's just a wonderful fur. [Mildred] Oh I see. Well then what's the purpose of the guard hairs? That's something the beaver needs, I suppose? [Ron] That's strictly for the beaver's purposes. [Mildred] Not for coats. [laughs] To protect him from the wet or something? [Ron] That's probably it, and it protects that under fur, it's just an overlayer that takes the worst of the abuse and protects the under fur. [Mildred] This tail has always intrigued me. I can't see how a beaver can swim with his tail flapping up and down, I don't think it would do much good. [Ron] Well, he doesn't swim that way as much as he turns it sideways and puts it vertically and waggles it back and forth like a man stilling a boat with a single oar off the stern. [Mildred] Oh, well that makes more sense, I can see now it would be a help. Well he has webbed feed in the back. [Ron] Webbed feet in the back and hand-like feet in the front. [Mildred] Well isn't that strange? [Ron] He's really well equipped for the type of life he has. And fortunately we have lots of them, again,

here in the State. Trappers take ten to twelve thousand a year in the state and they're not in danger of disappearing. [Mildred] Well now they haven't always been able to though. Wasn't their a protection on beavers for some time? [Ron] There was about the turn of the century until 1951, when we had another session of beaver fever. Everybody was going to be rich trapping beaver... [Mildred] I remember that. I knew some people who were going to get rich. But after they skinned the first Beaver they decided it was a tough job. [Ron] It's a real chore to put the hide up properly so that it does have good market value. [Mildred] Well how many do we take, about, a year now? [Ron] Oh 10 to 12,000. [Mildred] And that isn't too many? [Ron] No it's managed now so that we have a supply for the future. In fact we have some in some areas where they get in trouble by chewing down the trees that we don't want chewed down, like orchards and so on. [Mildred] Then what do you do with them? [Ron] We either have a trapper, if it's during the winter, he traps them for the fur. Or we live trap them and move them elsewhere with a trap that doesn't kill them. [Mildred] I've heard that they move them by parachute, how in the world do you move a beaver by a parachute? [Ron] Oh Idaho has been doing that, we haven't done too much of it. But they put them in a wooden box that immediately opens when the parachute hits the ground. They fly them into the high mountain areas where they build their small chuck dams

and help prevent erosion and rapid runoff. As the box comes down, hits the ground, it opens, the beaver takes off for the nearest stream and builds his dam. [Mildred] Well how does he operate the same as he did in his old home? [Ron] Just about the same. They make a bank den, here in this part of the country, dig a hole in the bank and make their den there and then build a dam there to keep the water above the entrance to the den. [Mildred] Well now is there a type of beaver who doesn't build a dam? [Ron] No not particularly. It just depends on where they're living. In the eastern state sometimes they'll build a mound out in a big marsh area and they don't need a dam then. The main idea of the dam, of course, is to keep water over the opening of their home so they can escape from danger there. [Mildred] But they would build a dam if they needed to. [Ron] Oh yes, they'll definitely do it. [Mildred] Well besides being a valuable animal he certainly is an interesting animal isn't he? [Ron] He certainly is. [Mildred] And he's contributed more than his share to the development of the Oregon country I'm sure. And thus it was that the fur trappers and the fur traders opened, as it were, the Oregon country to those people who came later. The

missionaries, the settlers, the doctors, the lawyers and countless others who came to Oregon, and who stayed in Oregon to make it the splendid state that it is today. And these people were so appreciative of the contribution that the trappers and traders made that they have placed on the reverse side of the flag of the state of Oregon a picture of the beaver. [Announcer] You have been viewing With Her Own Wings, a series of programs planned for elementary schools. Your Oregon guide is Mildred Stapleton, fourth grade teacher in Corvallis. Today's guest was Ron Shay, of the Oregon State Game Commission. Series producer is Elizabeth Padapoff. Programs are directed by William McGrath.

With Her Own Wings is presented in cooperation with the Elementary and Secondary Education Advisory Committee of the Oregon Centennial Commission.