Fur prizes in 1982

[Donkey Slayer]

We were cleaning out an old shoe box and came across a letter from the Ontario Trappers Association - Fur Sales Services. It was from the day when, as young teenagers, we trapped muskrats and hunted raccoons.

fur prices1b.pdf

fur prices sheet 2b.pdf

fur prices sheet 3b.pdf

fur prices page 4b.pdf

fur prices page 5b.pdf

fur prices page 6b.pdf

Enjoy!

[PCP_ECOM]

Originally Posted by Donkey Slayer

We were cleaning out an old shoe box and came across a letter from the Ontario Trappers Association - Fur Sales Services. It was from the day when, as young teenagers, we trapped muskrats and hunted raccoons.

Attachment 106579

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Enjoy!

Thanks for sharing Peter

[The Spruce]

Very similar to todays prices overall. I sure wish beaver prices were like that today. Man are the mink high! Mustn't have been 45 million ranch mink produced every day back then.

Spruce

[Marty S]

I hear numbers like 70, 80, 90 million mink nowadays, don't know which one is accurate, but the number is in that range. Also hear stories that nobody knows how many mink China produces, even though they are low grade compared to the rest of the worlds ranch mink, it has a huge impact. And that my friends is why wild mink will likely never be worth much.

[KegRiver]

Cool stuff. Boy does that bring back memories! Thanks for sharing.

That was towards the end of the last peak in fur prices. And it was right at the peak of my trapping career.

A few years before that Lynx topped out at around $1500.00 for a top hide, Fisher reached a top or $500.00 or a bit more and Beaver were averaging around $60.00

One has to keep that in prospective with what one could earn pumping gas or slinging burgers. Back then I was working of $8.50 an hour and riding high.
Lots of folks were earning less then $600.00 a month back then.

It seems to me that minimum wage was around $4.00 per hour back then.
So one Fisher hide could bring in a whole months worth of wages.

In 1980 I was driving truck in the oilfield. The boom was about to go bust. It was the last good year in the oilfield. That winter I took home almost $10,000. Meanwhile, my dad was trapping and that winter he took home over $15,000.

It was then that I decided that I'd had enough of the oilfield. I joined my dad on the trapline the following winter. There really wasn't any choice.
The oilfield had gone bust. Trudeau and his NEP had sent many companies into bankruptcy, those that survived had lied off most of their staff.
I had a choice, pump gas for $600.00 a month or chase the big bucks in trapping.

I had a few good years on the trapline but then it too went bust. I trapped when I had time but I had to raise a family so I turned to the only thing I had left, my class 1 license. I went long haul trucking.
I hauled whatever was available, dry goods, lumber, hanging meat, pharmaceuticals, steel, machinery. I even hauled some houses.

I never really trapped again. Oh I dabbled in it for years, running a few traps on my line but it could never pay the bills so driving truck took most of my time.

For a time I trapped beaver for the county. I tutored a few up and coming youngsters. I did a bit of problem wildlife work for local farmers, but most of the time I drove truck. It paid the bills. Trapping was just a hobby, a passion.

Time passed and my health declined. 14 hours behind the wheel of a lumber wagon 7 days a week will do that.
In the late 90s I pretty much gave up trapping. I held on to the trap line for a few more years. Partly in the hope that some day I would be able to go back to the life I loved, but more because no one wanted to trap back then. Or at least they didn't want to trap a marginal line in the remote regions of the north.
There were people looking for trap lines. Outfitters looking for an exclusive hunting territory. Wanna bees that wanted to live a life they had no concept of.

Eventually a couple of local trappers became interested in my line so I let it go. I had to choose between two friends but it was time and I knew it.

So these days I read about the life I wish I could return to and I remember the good times.

I try to forget the frozen branches tearing at my face as I sped through the bush, the electric jolt of ice water as I fished for a submerged beaver, the endless hours of tinkering with unreliable machines with frozen fingers so I could go the next day and check my sets.

I try to forget the many empty sets, the smells and mess of fleshing pelts well into the night. The dishonest fur buyers who so often tried to convince me that the fur market was half what it really was.

But you know what? Those were a part of what made trapping so worth doing. It was the challenge, the thrill of victory when things went my way.
It was the knowledge that I had done it all by myself. I could survive without any help from anyone. If I had to.

But most of all it was the feeling of being one with the world around me.
I was not on the outside looking in. I was a part of a much greater whole.

There is no life like it. I wouldn't trade one day on the trapline for any number of days in the city.
I cherish the pain and the weary bones, the chilled feet and the loneliness.
Because without them there could be no victories, no triumphs, no life.

Without them I would be just another cog in a very large wheel. Which is what I am today. Just a number on an employers spread sheet.
A tool, a piece of equipment. To be used and discarded like the old truck I used to drive.

Two months ago that day arrived. I outlived my usefulness to the company. I was sent off to join that old truck in the rust heap of life.

That is what makes trapping so special. No one. No one but yourself decides when you are ready to retire. No one can tell you you aren't worth having around.
You live or die at your own hand.
And that is something no amount of money can buy.

[Muckwa]

Awesome write up Keg. Very well said.

[Big Grey Wolf]

Keg, your write-up is an excellent history typical of most hard working Albertans/trappers. Well done!

[Big Grey Wolf]

Keg where was your line located , what was your trapline number, just guessing was in Keg River area?

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf

Keg where was your line located , what was your trapline number, just guessing was in Keg River area?

Actually my trapline was in the Fort Vermillion district.
My memory is not what it used to be but if I recall correctly, I believe the number was 1865.

There are no roads to that line. The only access is via the Peace River.
My line ran from Carcajou south along the east side of the river to Big Bend then east to the base of the Buffalo Head Hills, then north to the Big Buffalo river and then back to the Peace River at Carcajou.
None of the borders were straight, they jogged this way and that but that is roughly how they went.

[Big Grey Wolf]

Keg, just thought our previous line by Notikewan/Whitemud river might have been near your line, but you were much furture north. Thanks

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf

Keg, just thought our previous line by Notikewan/Whitemud river might have been near your line, but you were much furture north. Thanks

Does your last name start with T, did you ever live in Dixonville?

[ifly]

Originally Posted by Marty S

I hear numbers like 70, 80, 90 million mink nowadays, don't know which one is accurate, but the number is in that range. Also hear stories that nobody knows how many mink China produces, even though they are low grade compared to the rest of the worlds ranch mink, it has a huge impact. And that my friends is why wild mink will likely never be worth much.

In 1978 I had my first trapping licence in southern Manitoba and at that time wild mink fetched double farm mink. There was a mink farm just outside of town and I would sometimes catch them in my traps along the river. A nice wild one would get me $40, a tame one of equal size was lucky to get $20.
I was one rich 12 year old at that time. Lots of great memories and frozen feet.
Caught the odd badger and fox but mostly went for the mink.

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by ifly

I was one rich 12 year old at that time. Lots of great memories and frozen feet.

No wonder your feet were cold, look at the boots that you are wearing!

[ifly]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

No wonder your feet were cold, look at the boots that you are wearing!

I burst out laughing, good eye Hunter Dave

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

No wonder your feet were cold, look at the boots that you are wearing!

I wasn't going to say anything. I thought perhaps that was all he could afford.

When I was a kid there were two brothers in our school who had boots something like that. Their parents couldn't afford two pairs of boots so they bought one pair and cut them in half. Then they sewed cloth over the missing half to form a full boot and WHALA two pairs of boots.


I did not have *** with that woman.

[JoshT]

That was a great write up Keg! Just this past winter I spent my first few weeks on the trapline but I know how you can feel that way. Especially when my grandpa introduced me to one of the old local trappers who even his late eighties would head out to the line alone! Unfortunately he passed away this winter.

Originally Posted by KegRiver

Does your last name start with T, did you ever live in Dixonville?

Big Grey hasn't responded yet but I believe you may be referring to some of my family that lives in Dixonville.

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by JoshT

That was a great write up Keg! Just this past winter I spent my first few weeks on the trapline but I know how you can feel that way. Especially when my grandpa introduced me to one of the old local trappers who even his late eighties would head out to the line alone! Unfortunately he passed away this winter.



Big Grey hasn't responded yet but I believe you may be referring to some of my family that lives in Dixonville.

As far as I know, the folks I'm th8inking of no longer ive in this area. At least I no longer hear the name around.

[JackB]

Awesome write up Keg! I too have fond memories of the trapline, then being pulled away to the draw of the oilfield money, but always thinking back and smiling. Now I read these forums so I can live vicariously thru the stories. So great work to all the contributors keep it coming (oh and the pictures make it extra special).

[Rabbit Snarer]

Top lynx $1100 and coyote $225. A friend bought a new Ford pick up with his coyote check. Those were the good old days.