Rudolph Friedrech Kurz

 

 

Christmas came a little early this year, this was sent to me by email by Isaac Walters and I felt like a kid on Christmas morning.

 

 Kurz made his sketches and wrote his journal in the years 1846 and 1852. Some might not consider this solid documentation for the rendezvous period, but there is so much evidence that these guys are just remnants of the decade before I believe it can be really useful in research.

   It is not often trappers out west this early were trapping anything but aquatic animals, this is rare sketch of the earliest dirt sets known out west.

   Kurz jumps around in his journal, from topic to topic , I only copied from two pages what is pertinent to this sketch topic :

   

October 25. With the remains of a lap dog we entrapped our first

wolf. In laying the smare they dig a hole 3 inches deep so that

the trap lies even with the ground, and then they cover it with earth,

grass, buffalo chips, etc.

A wolf or a fox, attracted by carrion, steps unawares upon the

springs and his leg is caught. To prevent his running off with the

trap the latter is fastened by means of an attached chain to a

heavy log or trunk of a tree. For fear of unnecessarily piercing

his pelt, an animal caught thus is never shot, but killed by a blow

on the head with a bludgeon…. 

I was here interrupted by Morgan, who wished me to accompany

him to his traps. We found, this time, a gray fox that I struck

dead and brought home to paint for Morgan. These animals are

full of fleas…..

When we went again to look after our traps we found that the

carcass had been dragged quite a distance away by wolves. Our

Spanish horse guard told us in his Spanish-French-English jargon:

"Jamme wolf dragge de carcasse way from de trappe. No seen una

pareilla chose. Ni now putte horse's snoute on de pickette, de wolf

no more carry awaye."

Night scenes here are decidedly picturesque. Armed with guns

and hunting knives and provided with lanterns, we moved across the

dusky prairie that seems to have neither beginning nor end but to

melt into the wide heaven from which it can be distinguished only

by scattered stars. About us are the captured animals struggling

and gnashing their teeth, the dead just removed from the traps. The

concentrated glow of lanterns, while the traps are being set once

more, the hunters' original attire, the dark background, all combine

to form a picture at once suggestive of animated life and awe.

October 26. At daybreak we found two gray foxes in the traps.

Painted a picture of one of them. In the study of hairy beasts

water colors are of little advantage, pointed brushes of still less.

For reproducing the curl of hair, broad oil brushes are best. By

adroit manipulation of the latter the effect is achieved,

There is actually many things happening here, in the journal and the sketch both, but together it's really great research material for the land set I've wanted to document.  A really good trapping method can be established here,

   I don't think I would use a lapdog for bait, or a horses head, but what they did either means they had only this to work with, or no preferred gland/scent type of bait.

  A hole is dug just big enough for the trap, and covered with dirt, grass or buffalo chips. I'd hazard a guess and say they used the grass under the pan to keep dirt from getting under it , and the dirt and buffalo chips covered the rest of the trap.

    Apparently no metal staking is used here, like we do in modern trapping, even though the trap is buried , the chain is still tied to a heavy log. In modern methods, long metal stakes 3 and even 4 foot long are used and the stake is driven right under the trap. This method isn't seen in history until much later, perhaps metal stakes are too hard to come by, too expensive, just attaching the chain to a heavy log appears to just be efficient enough, not something to improve upon in this decade.

   Kurz then mentions that the animal is never shot , obviously here it is dispatched with a club. We can probably assume it's for the sake of not ruining fur. It might be good to remember, this 'bludgeoning" with a club would be rare for beaver since they were always drowned in ideal situations, you would have to walk up on a beaver set just a few minutes after he is caught to find a live one. Never say never here however, a lot of trappers with years of experience have pulled in live beaver. Our trappers probably did, but most likely they would not be as prepared as for a wolf.

     Next, Kurz mentions the lapdog carcass was carried off, and then the trapper "pickets" a horses head for bait a second time. This is something a lot of trappers would be surprised about, a second chance is sometimes hard to get, but then again, who would ever get to gain this much experience with a wolf anymore. So the second time around he finally catches his wolf , with the horse bait.

   One really interesting part of this comes from the "picturesque" night scenes Kurz is writing about. "We moved across the dusky prairie" , I'm assuming he means late evening, as opposed to the "dawn" of morning. As Kurz seems to describes they keep working with no beginning or end , it would appear they are non stop working trap sets, obviously day and night. Other trapping parties would be leaving beaver sets undisturbed at night, but Kurz may not be describing beaver sets in this particular situation.

   Finally on the Oct. 26 entry he mentions painting a fox. This oil painting , where ever it is , would be an amazing find , especially if there is a trap scene associated with it.

    

The Quest Continues

 Perhaps I should say the obsession continues, the obsession with the fur trade. I was fortunate this weekend to spend some time with a great new friend Joey Shackleford and his 8 year old son Elijah. The intention was to spend time working on our historical trapping skills, which in such a short time we experienced a few challenges and obstacles to overcome next time. Being the month of May, and fur isn't in season it was just an opportunity to fine tune our gear and face the challenges we know we will have next season.
   We had hopes of finding beaver, but it appeared that our modern weather problems had run the beaver out. The creek which ran through the place should have been promising to hold beaver, but the past droughts and floods and real estate land management proved to be a problem for a beavers home. Oklahoma's weather constantly changes, I don't think in the 8 years that I have lived here I have seen the same weather twice. The rivers are up, then they are soon down. It can flood one month and develop a drought the next month. We found signs of beaver in our area, but most of it was over a year old. Joey spotted one good chew mark that might have been a month old maybe , no tracks , no castor mounds to be found. We did accomplish a goal however, since this is out of season we gained ground on our knowledge of finding beaver sign and we learned what is happening in our areas with the beaver.
    We worked on period land sets, the possibility of trapping coyotes was good. I've had a big interest in landsets , which again is something our 1830's trappers didn't do much of, however the art of trapping in our times may have begun with landsets.
  We discovered many challenges soon. With all the intention of doing this the way our ancestors did, our first hill to climb was the weight of all the traps and gear. We discovered that carrying 6 traps is just meant for a horse. All together I don't think they weigh over 35 pounds, giving the idea that a good beaver trap is a 5 lb trap, several of mine only weigh 3 lbs each. For landsets we carry even more, stakes and a hammer, now we are getting closer to 50 lbs of carry.
   Using stakes is probably not a historical thing to do for our trappers, and we wanted to use drags instead. We are limited in our modern times and often won't get a chance to trap a large area. Had we used drags the problem of a trap getting carried off onto someone else's property exists, so we leaned toward metal trap stakes , more a modern idea, but in our case it's called for.
     We felt like a horse is a must here, with large traps and an intention of making six sets or more , there is a huge burden of carrying everything on your back. If the horse is not a must have item, it's certainly a desired item for a working trapper of our times.
 The long metal traps stakes have to go , we encountered too many problems with them. They were of a modern idea used today, each stake is about 32 inches long. They work great for modern trapping, an animal cannot dig them up enough to become loose , but they almost always require a stake puller when your ready to pull traps out. They require a large hammer to drive them down deep enough. The weight and bulk of our gear is already a burden before we add the pullers and a hammer.
     It's not likely our ancestors would use stakes of this nature, the cost alone wouldn't justify them to be a common item. In the future we may choose a method of tying a trap to a small tree with brass wire , or cutting off a good sapling and place the trap ring over it.
  Everything points to selecting a perfect trap spot , it's becoming obvious that our trappers did this. Let the bait do the work for you, and give it time, but be selective on the trap location so it won't need a non period stake. This will mean less load for us to carry in the future.
   As mentioned in Sewell Newhouse's book, the clogs would be the best, perhaps using a large clog/drag such as a tree limb will do just fine. In our limited land area it could be a large enough clog to keep animals from moving into the neighbors space.

   Another challenge with landsets is making a trap bed. Without a shovel like we use in modern trapping, this is a small challenge. A hatchet or small axe works well here, however it does add to the weight we are trying to shed. A hatchet, or tomahawk however is useful, this is one thing we may not be able to do without. It works really good for cutting roots and making a better trap bed. I think I'll carry a small one each time, with beaver sets it's almost mandatory for cutting the drowning stick.

 One thing mentioned several times in journals is how the trappers avoided leaving their scent on a set. Today many trappers use treated gloves, however that's not an option for us. We noticed an obvious sign at one of our sets, and I know this happens a lot. A coyote came for the bait but sniffed something on the trap that alerted him. He carefully dug one edge of the trap jaw up and exposed the canvas ducking used over the pan. After he found the trap he managed to go around it and get the bait and leave behind a half exposed trap.
  This is real common when you leave scent behind , the trap should have been boiled better and I should not have left any of my own scent behind. I simply got sloppy with my method. The coyote has a keen instinct as well, if something just don't feel right he is going to be on his toes. Looks and smell both together will tell him that something is in the ground. In the real trapping season I'm going to have to be more careful. It's probably best to go in and make your set, leaving no scent, and get out without disturbing anything.

back to the book

On page 17 of Newhouse's book, The Trappers Guide, he writes a short paragraph about a "clog". It's basically a trap drag of the times.

The clog: Some powerful and violent animals, if caught in a trap
that is staked fast, will pull their legs off, or beat the trap in pieces; but
if allowed to drag the trap about with a moderate weight attached, will behave
more gently, or at least will not be able to get loose for want of purchase. The
weight used in such cases is called a "clog". It is usually a pole or stick of
wood, of a size suited to the ring of the trap-chain, and to the size of the
game. As the object of it is to encumber the animal, but not to hold it fast,
the chain should be attached to it near one of it's ends, so that it will not
likely to get fast among the rocks and bushes for a considerable time. The usual
way is to slip the ring over the large end of the pole and fasten it with a
wedge.

Since studying and using period traps for a few years now I have not seen a grapling hook style of drag as our modern trappers use at all. I don't prefer staking a trap , especially with no swivels. The animal can roll the trap and pull out so easy without swivels, and if one is staked it's easier for him to roll the trap and tighten it up given him the advantage of pulling out. With a drag, or "clog" I think I can keep the animal from rolling or pulling himself free. Finding this evidence of a drag being used in 1865 is as close as I've seen yet, even if it's a primitive wooden limb. Perhaps the iron grapling hook style of drag is yet to come?

As Newhouse mentions the wedge being used on the ring and pole the idea of an attached metal wedge that is seen on more modern traps comes to mind. The little wedge is so common, and yet some trappers do not even know what it was for. Victor traps and many others applied this wedge to the chain ring , like a standard option for several years. You can see in the above picture the wedge on the trap ring.

It's hard to determine if Newhouse is referring to one of these, or if it's a primitive manufacture such as a piece of wood , it's possible his wedge could be a seperate metal wedge and later the wedge became the standard feature that we seen in the Victors so often.

On traps known to be dated before 1850 you don't see the attached wedge, but it's hard to know since most old trap chains had been modified, many of them using a much later made chain. It could be , and just another guess, that a wedge was just simply a piece of wood gathered up at the time of the set. In my opinion this would be the case for the older methods of making a set, but at least a wedge is being used at the time of this book and offers a clue for a method of trap setting real close to my time period.

In determining the methods of trap setting , for the 1830's , I have one thing in my favor and that is trapping is a traditional art. Hopefully Newhouse collected his thoughts and ideas from his earlier days and put them into this book... if so I'm gaining good ground.

Beaver camp

This post should have been made last Feb. , better late than never I guess.

My good freinds from northern Louisiana have this amazing place to play on. Unmolested, we can have all the fun four trappers really need to have. This year was suppose to have been more people, but that don't always happen, and it rained a bunch. The sloughs, backwaters, and creeks really camp up high. I set two traps the day before the rains came, the next morning they were 8 foot under water, no beaver of course.
We held off setting anymore traps until the rain stopped. The next problem would be how to judge the water levels , would they recede fast or slow?
It was a judgement call that I think many trappers encountered in history. Take a given water level, make a set and judge where the water will be the next day. You want to make sure you have enough water to drown a beaver, but also the trap bed has to be correct.
I made a poor judgement in setting one of mine too deep , I lost my beaver, the trap was moved and appears I caught a toenail. My trapping pard, Ron Butler judged the other way and had little drowning water, his beaver chewed out.
It was still a learning experience, and thats what we were after. The traps worked fine, we just judged our water levels wrong. I feel like the same concerns would have been encountered in history, and probably judged more correctly.
We did make a few land sets with the new leaf spring traps I made. There was much to learn again while using these. The long bar on these traps were noted as being a problem area, for coon especially. Right away, the wet ground was seen as the challenge. You couldn't bury the bar, for the wet dirt was holding the spring back. Being 24 inches long, it made an obvious "something is buried here" getting the curiosity of a coon real quick.
Knowing he would likely dig the trap up and toss it aside, i cut a channel just wide enough that the bar would set in it. Then covered it with loose leaves, adding a heavy broken limb over the bar lengthwise, making it real hard to divert the coon to it as he has more important things like bait to look for. The limb doesn't touch the spring, it just lays over the channel , giving the spring all the room it needs.
Something still went wrong , the next morning I found tracks around the set, but nothing would go to it. With all the messing around trying to figure out how to make a perfect set I probably left too much scent behind. Maybe next time I'll get it done right and get off the trap bed without leaving my prescence behind. Had it not rained so much, there would have been more days to work traps, with the limited amount of time, there was only one decent night of trapping.

New thoughts from an old book.

I haven't even tried to maintain this blog like I should, maybe I'm just off to a slow start. It's been a weird winter, or maybe I should say weird season. We had no winter at all, but fur wasn't all bad, and I did get to trap a few times. In between making traps and other goods I made the trip to northern Lousiana and trapped with my buddies, we were rained out , the beaver even ran for high ground. It was still fun as usual.
For the history endeavour , there has been more thought about the older methods of trapping. Now that some of us are understanding the older traps, it's time for the methods of trapping.
On the subject of landsets, there isn't much to offer in the journals about landsets. In fact there isn't much of any trapping other than beaver. One quote from Townsends journal I found interesting this year:
20th.‘
Yesterday one of the Canadians took an enormous wolf in a beaver-trap. It is probably
a distinct species from the common one, (lupus,) much larger and
stronger, and of a yellowish cinereous color. The man states that he found
considerable difficulty in capturing him, even after the trap had been fastened
on his foot. Unlike the lupus, (which is cowardly and cringing when made
prisoner,) he showed fight, and seizing the pole in his teeth, with which the
man attempted to despatch him, with one backward jerk, threw his assailant to
the ground, and darted at him, until checked by the trap chain. He was finally
shot, and I obtained his skin, which I have preserved. – Townsend.

I like this quote, and for this trapper to be making landsets could mean he has done it before on occassions. Also what Townsend will do with that hide could be interesting to know..

In the search for more period methods of making both water sets and landsets, I found an online book , The Trappers Guide, by Sewell Newhouse. I had this bookmarked for a few months and just now getting around to reading on it.

http://books.google.com/books?id=lrcUAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA113&ots=FhhbljZo-D&dq=sewell%20newhouse%20trap%20history&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q=sewell%20newhouse%20trap%20history&f=false

It's 1865, although thats a little off the mark for our fur trade, possibly this will add clues to how the 1830's trappers did things.
On page 17, the mention of a "clog" , a pole or limb used as a trap drag. I have yet to see a clear example of a trap drag made out of metal, similar to a grapling hook. Most appear to have been added to the old traps still in use way up into the 1900's.
My good freind Cody Livingston from Louisiana taught me a new trick. This could be the answer to pan coverings. At trapping camp he broke out pieces of sheered wool, or greasy wool it's called when it's taken right off the lambs. He uses this under his pan, so there's no need for screen mesh, or cloth duck. It's claimed that the lanolin from the wool also helps attract varmints. In Newhouse's book, under the section for trapping fox , he mentions using wool sheared. I'm actually excited to see this in use at the time of this book, possibly this is leading to a documented find for the 1830's.
Also Newhouse mentions the use of beeswax to coat a trap , however he is referring to scent masking , instead of waterproofing and rust preventing as we do today.
There is much more to study in this book, it's worth the time to read.

Traps

Trapping Beaver by Alfred Jacob Miller

I think I've started and re-wrote this blog several times now maybe this time I'll stick to a plan. My main purpose is to share and inspire others to include steel traps in their history portrayals. I think there is a lot left out in many historical presentations of the fur trades when traps aren't present. In the last few years however there has been more traps have come into the scene and hopefully it will continue on and grow into a more complete historical scene.

A few years ago it was thought that steel traps were rarely known before 1800. Now it's becoming more known , thanks to good researchers, that steel traps were actually common and the numbers are large. By 1790 we see big numbers of traps being made out of New York and Montreal factories. All the research and studies have brought better awareness of where the traps came from and more types of traps are started to appear.

I portray an 1830's fur trapper , I started trapping when I was a kid and had good influence from family and freinds who also trapped. It wasn't long I met trap collectors who owned and traded some of the older traps. I needed traps in my presentation, not having any just didn't make any sense for a beaver trapper in the Rocky Mountains. I found that modern traps just didn't compare to period traps of the time. I found there is only a few blacksmiths out there that would make them , and they were too expensive to have made. After doing a little research I started making my own. It has been a great history lesson and I feel like my display of the fur trade is more complete.

But moving on , whether it be a longhunter, market hunter or mountain man , traps were around and the art of trapping was beginning to be a standard way of harvesting tons of fur each year. There is a big difference in traps and the methods of trapping next to our modern world. Although trapping in general has always been mainly a traditional art, the comparison is important when using historical traps.

One of the key elements about the early steel traps is understanding how they work compared to modern traps. A modern trapper would see our traps as crude and primitive , most would never use one. It's obvious that historical traps are weaker, slower, and had many faults in craftsmanship. The key is knowing how to use them. It was the challenge of a trapper to be successful with them and it's most certain that the challenge was overcome. Steel traps evolved over time and the old methods changed and evolved as well.

The above trap is an 18th century, French gear trap. Just one of the oldest and more complicated traps known. It was meant to clutch the neck of the animal and kill fast. Not exactly to prevent suffering, but to keep him from dragging the trap off or pulling out.

This is a trap I built for Isaac Walters, these were made in many sizes. The modern term for this trap is "leaf spring" trap. It's about 24 inches long with a 6 inch jaw size. This was a common size noted in several journals. It may be that it was the best all around size for the majority of the animals harvested during the fur trade. It is an English design, as most of our traps were. A modern version of this trap can still be bought today in some countries. This style of trap was largely used in Australia and New Zealand , some huge size leaf spring traps were used in Africa where the English had influence. It can also be made with double springs, one on each end of the trap.

This is a really nice beaver catch by Isaac Walters using the trap above. Isaac is a really great historian, and fur trade enthusiast. His success with using a period trap is due to his research and study on the methods and techniques of trappers in history. It was a great pleasure to work with him on building this trap.

One small detail about Isaac's catch that I'm really proud of is that it caught the beavers leg higher. I copied what trap makers were doing 200 years ago , by making the jaws taller. This is likely their intention when they designed traps according to the demands of trappers. By doing this the trap immobilizes the leg and he can't work himself free , a lower clutch would give him leverage to move out. However Isaac makes the perfect catch by fast drowning and eliminates all chances of him getting free anyway.

This is a similar "leaf spring" trap, most likely an Isaac Veal , a maker out of Montreal Canada. Veal was an Englishman who came to Montreal and set up shop. Often these have differences but basically the same trap. The base on this one serves as a support so when the spring rises to close the jaws the trap base is supported and doesn't absorb the spring pressure, intending to make the trap faster. The jaw shape has that raised curve to it , something you can find in many of these traps. The Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly has a great article on Isaac Veal.

It's most likely that the traps seen in Alfred Jacob Miller's painting, Trapping Beaver, is a leaf spring trap.

Finally we get down to the Icon for all traps , the long spring. These were made by many English makers working around the Quebec, and New York area factories early on. It became the trap that everyone wanted.