What kind of a pack?

[50cal.cliff]

What kind of pack would an old Mountain Man/Trapper have carried back in the day?? If he were working a section for fur he might have been a foot at times and carrying traps and his supplies to do his trapping would have surely meant he carried some sort of a pack!!

Would it have been something made of canvas or something similar to the Adirondack pack basket??

 

[coloradoclyde]

Good question....
I think in the Rockies, a man without a horse may have found himself at the mercy of natives....
Even in other parts of the country some form of conveyance was probably necessary, horse, canoe etc....

 

[50cal.cliff]

Agreed on that but from my own knowledge on a trap line there would have been places I trapped that you could not have gotten a horse into easily. It would have meant tying up the horse or hobbling him while you worked a section. To return to the horse later in the day, or once you worked out and area!

I often followed a creek or a river and it would wind thru different bottoms!

A trap line means extra gear, traps, lure, etc, as well as carrying, your catches or skins if you took the time to skin it out! It often necessitated having a pack to carry other items.

I mean think about it you are already carrying a powder horn, a possibles bag, at least one or more knives, a tomahawk more than likely. As well as you have to carry supplies and the animals or their skins. If you have to take it back to your horse, you would spend more time doing that than trapping!


After asking the question and a little more thought I am leaning toward something made of skins, similar to what we might think of today as canvas back pack. I doubt they would have had a frame so to speak but possibly and inner frame, at the top, to give it shape.

Anyone else got any ideas on this? In all old pics and journals I don't really remember mention of packs so got me to thinking! :hmm:

 

[coloradoclyde]

It's entirely possible that a trapper did have a pack.....especially in winter.
I totally understand your line of thinking, but it is based in the 20th century...
Today we run dozens and dozens of traps...
A mountain man may have only had 1 dozen or less..
and trapped only beaver....Their methods were also different than today.....

Now! during other time periods and other locations across the country, things might have been very different.
If they used a pack it was probably canvas and like saddlebags or a large market wallet. where as in other parts of the country it might have been a basket....

I'll do some looking ....

If you want to read a really good book on trapping and adventure.....I recommend this.... http://www.amazon.com/The-wind-caribou-trapping-Laurentian/dp/077051183X

 

[50cal.cliff]

Thanks for the reference to the book!

I was basing my thoughts on my experience! From the time I was 14-17 year old kid, I ran a trapline. Back then I ran about 30 traps everyday! I walked the entire trap line and it covered about 8-10 miles of creek bottoms.

I ran my trap line at least once a day and a lot of days twice a day. I was up ever morning at 4 AM and ran it before school and if I felt that it was a good day for the animals were moving I would run it after school.

I had no vehicle or horse everything was carried on my back and once the traps were set out unless they were not producing or conditions warranted they weren't moved around much!

My biggest problem was the take. A few large ***** or beavers and coyotes, and I could not carry it. That is when I would do as the old timers and make a cache.
Then I came back with my Dad and his truck and picked them up. This is were a horse would have worked good! :haha:

Often though I had a sled with a box attached to it. If there was snow on the ground. Its a whole lot easier to drag them than carry them! :haha: Sometimes if time permitted I would skin on the spot and carry nothing but pelt. Muskrats were a quick on the spot skin for me! I carried a light weight skinning gambrel, that I could hang in a tree and tie of to the legs and go for it!

I had a pack I had made by hand out of canvas. Looked like an Adirondack Pack Baskets but it only had a frame at the top end, so if little was in it would fold almost flat on my back!

That is what made me think of the fur sack/backpack!!!

Anyway I wanted to see what other folks thought!

 

[coloradoclyde]

Your story is exactly like mine.....almost word for word. :haha:
I started out with a canvas bag but bought a packbasket as soon as I made some money...
Opening day was always a killer....I'd run my line before and after school, most of it in the dark, cold, rain and snow....
In winter I used snowshoes....
When I first started trapping muskrats I didn't even have rubber boots...

To this day I have very warm hands and feet(my wife loves them).....I credit it to all those years standing in cold water setting traps bare handed....

The book is set in northern Canada during the great depression but I think you'll like it.....

 

[tenngun]

MM were horse back, as were long hunters, and all the local varitions in between. That puts our sport of historic trekking on the edge of being hc....except when they weren't. Zenas Lenoreds party was robbed and they had to trek south to buy horses. Carson and Meek were caught in a fight and had to kill their horses for cover, then trek out of the area that night. Jed Smiths parties to California, both times, saw his party put afoot. I would lean to some sort of shoulder bag or forehead rig.
Running 6-12 traps and getting 50% would mean you would have 3-6 20-40 lbs beaver to carry. Makes my hernia gurgal just thinking about it.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well a prudent trapper..., meaning one who might understand that while working a trap line a short distance away from his transport, his horse or canoe, either could be snatched, or he could be forced to run away from his pursuers with the thought to circle back hoping they didn't mess with his transportation....might take something like a "pack", right?

OK it's supposition, but perhaps he'd take enough for him to make it tolerable to walk back to his station camp, if he was operating out of such....

Two age old methods come to mind as feasible....a blanket pack trussed up for either one or two strap carry i.e. the tumpline..., and the other is the blanket roll. You couldn't go wrong with either, and they are both fast to fashion. N'est-ce pas?

:idunno:

LD

P.S. Tenngun posted as I was writing this, and he gave some great examples of what I was supposing at least about suddenly ending up afoot, so perhaps some took steps in case??

 

[jethro224]

Not being a trapper my opinion ain't probably worth much but, if I were trapping beaver, I'd most likely carry my bottle of castor in my shoulder bag. Assuming I was trapping where a horse couldn't go, my traps would be tied to a strap and carried over my shoulder from my horse until set. Beaver would be skinned out and the skins would be tied in a bundle which would be carried on my back like a blanket roll. The thongs/straps necessary for this would be carried in my shoulder bag until needed.
This seems the most simple method. In addition, by keeping the pelts separate from my other gear I have the option to drop the pelts and run. That could save my scalp and I'd still have my shoulder pouch with my gear in it.
When the chase got too hot I could also shed the shoulder pouch and run lighter with only my rifle and shooting bag.
Of course, these days, I'm too old to run away anyhow. Guess I'd hafta stand and fight...

 

[tenngun]

I often wondered about skinning beaver in the field. I always transported anamal to home to skin or in camp, never near where I trapped it.Beaver is a pia to skin, about the toughest I know next to a turtle. You would take at least some back home, after all, along a beaver creek there was no point to hunting as boiled beaver makes as good a stew as deer.

 

[jethro224]

Right, you'd want to eat some, and you wouldn't want to leave carcasses right there along the creek. But, you wouldn't want carcasses piling up around your camp either.

 

[50cal.cliff]

I agree with a lot being said, it is a subject that I never remember being covered in anything I read, or in any pics I have seen.

Of course most pics were staged affairs anyway! The one thing that made me think about is when I was on foot running my trap line I would often see more game!

I often came home with a duck, pheasant, bunny, or sometimes even shot muskrats and mink.

I still feel it might have been something similar to the, one made by LL Bean. Except it would be made of furs.
Goggle LL Bean trappers pack and imagine it being made of fur!

Anyway that is my take! So I guess if I built one, no one could say it ain't right because there is no documentation to one!
:haha: :haha: :haha:

 

[tenngun]

Some would argue. I think if we study what was known and the way things were made and what was avalibale any thing we can think of they could have thought of. Of corse you don't want to go all bush craft or primitive but there is no reason some one didn't put a gusset in a haversack type bag and then double straps. Any country boy would know how to weave a basket or make a rope bag. The MM would have seen a lot of parflech and tipi pockets. Snapsack S are thought to have went out of style about 1800 or earlier, but photos from the Alaskan gold rush show a lot of bags that look like snapsacks :idunno:

 

[coloradoclyde]

In winter a sled is much more useful than a pack....

Here's a story worth considering....

When I was younger a friend of mine was trapping beaver along a creek on the high bank and wearing a packbasket. He broke though the ceiling of a beavers den and fell in up to his neck. he had a heck of a time getting out of that hole with a packbasket on. Easily could have become his grave.....
This also makes me wonder how many mountain men knew how to swim :hmm:

 

[50cal.cliff]

In winter a sled is much more useful than a pack....

Here's a story worth considering....

When I was younger a friend of mine was trapping beaver along a creek on the high bank and wearing a packbasket. He broke though the ceiling of a beavers den and fell in up to his neck. he had a heck of a time getting out of that hole with a packbasket on. Easily could have become his grave.....
This also makes me wonder how many mountain men knew how to swim :hmm:

Don't have a problem with moving the thread I wasn't sure where to pose the question!!

Clyde, I made up a sled like a short toboggan sled and had a fruit box fastened to it. Sleds with runners don't work well in brushy areas, where as a toboggan style will ride over a lot of things!

The pack would have had to go if I were faced with life and death.

I went thru the ice one time. Went up to my arm pits. I lived because the current was not swift and I controlled my panic. Which I did do for a few seconds. That and I didn't want to lose my rifle, I could drown but couldn't lose the rifle!!! :rotf:

Tengun, I figure most ole country boys would have probably swam a creek or river.

Swimming in ice cold water is another thing though. The day I went thru the ice I debated for a few seconds on how far it was to home/shelter and whether to build a fire.
I opted for shelter and took off at a trot, one to keep moving for heat and the other to shave time off of the journey. By the time I had jogged the 1 1/2 miles to home. My cloths were frozen nearly stiff. I was running straight legged almost!! Had it been any further that day I would have opted for a quick shelter and a fire! I always carried a small tarp. Throw it over a tree and stake it out, roaring fire and dry clothes. Boy those were the days!! :blah:

Necessity is the mother of invention! I believe that even the Mountain Man would have had to follow that logic.

Being a foot would have definitely had its disadvantages in Indian country but then again, when I was a foot my progress was usually quiet! I have walked up on deer more than once while running a trap line!!