My father came home from the farm one day fuming. Beavers had plugged up a culvert drain and flooded the road and the adjacent field. He cussed out those beavers despite the fact that once, as a perfume oils salesman, he had made money off the beaver's castor gland oil. Castoreum also has been used in folk medicine to cure colic, arthritis and other body aches. Another use is as an attractant scent by trappers.
Beavers are one of Missouri's most common and least visible animals.
Every Missouri outdoor type has seen beaver cuttings, but few have seen the critter behind the toothmarks. Beavers are wary and often work at night. The late Conservation Department photographer Don Wooldridge spent a number of sleepless nights trying to photograph beavers who always were a jump ahead of his camera shutter. Yet beavers can be tolerant of a motionless human if they don't catch the human scent. Wading anglers often have beavers swim by them as they fish a stream.