Trapping Fur Animals

Starting in 1902, Tom Larson hired a team and sled from his brother, Anton, to drive around the country buying furs from farmers.  Since there was no guaranteed market and because it was impossible to cover a large territory, volume was small.  Business fluctuated with one shipment to St. Louis, Missouri, bringing a profit, the next a loss.  The county dealer, like Tom Larson, was buying furs the trapper had either not shipped, had  been poorly handled, or were less than prime.

Trapping and trading seasons coincided and the best time to trap was when the pelts were thick and full.  Muskrats and mink were trapped from November 1 through January 1.  This usually also meant that the young animals were mature enough to be on their own.  Beavers, however, were trapped when they still had their young ones.  This was the time when the pelts were the best.

Since many acres of the townships are marshlands, especially in the northern part, fur-bearing animals were attracted to this habitat.  The lakes of the area were good breeding grounds for the fur-bearers, also.

A transition time for the fur business occurred in the 1930’s.  Large fur companies began dealing with the local fur buyers instead of directly with the trappers.  Now the local fur buyer had a guaranteed market.  By this time Archie Larson had assumed his father’s interest in furs.  He not only had a guaranteed price for furs, but often companies advanced money to him.  One illustration of such dealings is particularly interesting.  The Twin City Furriers Manufacturing Company, who supplied the Dayton Company, once advanced Larson $5,000 to buy muskrats.  He did not even sign a receipt for the money.  He was instructed to use his own judgment as to the price to pay trappers for the furs.  They also took his word as to how many furs were in the lot.

Since the fur companies were dealing through local buyers, trappers no longer made shipment to city markets.  Trappers sold unstretched, unskinned furs to local buyers such as Larson who would in turn dry and stretch the hides for the sale to city companies.  Consequently, trappers lost their bargaining power.  The middleman, the local buyer, gained financially.  Trappers had to make quick sales in the warm weather, but local dealers had a steady inflow of money and a quick turnover spread throughout the buying season.

A Baldwin Township area trapper named Harold Kennedy saved many township roads from the dam building of the beaver.  Some called Harold the resident trapper.  At 85 years old, Harold still traps an occasional beaver when asked by the township.

Archie Larson said he was “sure there were more mink, muskrat, skunk, and weasel trapped between 1930 and 1942 than since”.  In 1941, he purchased over 22,000 muskrat pelts.  Raccoon, beaver, deer, and fox were also bought.

Nearly every storekeeper in Sherburne County was into furs and dozens of dealers were sending price quotations to the trappers.  From St. Paul there were Rose Brothers, B.W. Harris and St. Paul Hide and Fur.  In Minneapolis, there were McMillan Hide, Northwestern Mid-west and American.

TABLE I

FUR-PRICING COMPARISONS FROM 1930 – 1960’s

“According to Melvin Enger, a resident of Orrock, Archie Larson made a mark in the Minnesota fur industry.  He [was] the number one fur merchant in Minnesota”,  Enger remarked.  Table 2 represents only a portion of the “conservative estimate of …over a million dollars” that Larson traded.