Omaha daily bee., 1917-08-03
The Beaver Comes Back
Bg Frederic j. Husksn

By Frederic J. Hasktn
Washington July 30-One figure that played a
part second to none in the development OF Amer
cs and that had apparently gone the way of the
trapper, the prairie schooner and the buffalo, has
reappeared upon the scene with every indication
that he intends to stay. This survivor OF pioneer
days is the American beaver-the furry citizen Of
woodland rivers that brought the great Hudson
Bay company into existence; supported Canada
and the northwest for centuries; led Kit Carson
and his followers into the southwest; furnished
the primary incentive for the exploration and con-
quest of halt of this continent.
Ten or fifteen years ago the beaver was
tinct over nine-tenths of its normal range, which
is almost the entire continent Of North America.
There were a few scattered colonies Of wild
beaver, and few beaver farms, where the ami
mails were raised for their pelts. Tim the state
legislatures began passing protective laws. The
beaver quickly demonstrated that all it needed
was chance. Today it is multiplying at great
rate in many localities scattered from Maine to
New Mexico. Ten years ago ancient beaver cut
tings in the southwestern Rockies were pointed
out wonderingly as evidence that the animals had
once existed there. Now in the same sections any
tourist can go out few miles from his hotel
and observe large beaver colony. In fact a
trained eye can see beaver cut trees and other
evidence of the animals presence from the win
dow of the Pullman along the Rio Grande and
building their picturesque lodges within two miles
OF Albuquerque, the largest city in New Mexico.
In this and other vicinties they have occasionally
done considerable damage by building their dams
so that valuable agricultural lands have been
flooded; and it has been necessary for the state
government to issue permits to the Ian iowners
to trap them. A ranchman on the Rio Grande
who had thus obtained the right to trap beaver,
and who had read that beaver tail is delicacy,
not long ago gave beaver dinner" to which
In1 e e.. -. Il
ates, however, were not attuned to such primitive
fare. Few Of them could eat beaver tail with any
relish.
The return of the beaver in the southwestern
Rockies is especially interesting because it was
in this section that the beaver played its last i'm
portant part in the American story. About CEN
fury ago New Mexico and Colorado were little
known wilderness, large part of which belonged
to Mexico. 1t might have remained both wilder
ness and part of Old Mexico for long time
had it not been for fashion edict which went out
from London
Beaver pelts had already been used to some
extent for the manufacture of hats, but the real
popularity Of that form OF headgear dates from
the time when certain London dandy, who was
an arbiter in matters of elegance, made his ap-
pearanee IN society wearing tall beaver hat.
Little did this beau imagine that he was sending
thousands OF brave men half way across 4 conti-
nent and deciding the fate of domain many times
as large as the British Isles But in effect he
did all of that The vogue for beaver hats spread
went up.
Now the upper waters of the Platte, the Rio
Grande, the Cimarron, the Canadian and a host
of other western rivers that rise in the Rockies
were aswarm with beaver. Much of this territory
was owned by Mexico and all of it was infested
by Indians. The Apaches, Comanches, Utes,
Sioux Navajo and a number of other tribes
roamed all over it. Such considerations as these
did not deter brave men. Outfits starting from
St. Louis and independence penetrated into the
heart OF the beaver country. A new class of pio-
neers sprang into beng--"the mountain men," as
they called themselves. Kit Carson is the most
famous of these, although Jim Bridger, Dick
IN their day. 1t was these men who first found
the trails across the Rockies. They were the
hrst men to cross the continental divide to Cali
tornia, the FIRST to the wonders of the Yellow
stone. The official government explorations of
these regions came much later and the trappers
who acted as guides were merely showing the
army officers the streams and mountains that had
been known to the mountain men for years.
About 1884 another fashion edict was issued in
London. Some langud ornament of London So
ciety decided that silk was really much nicer
material for hats than beaver skin. But the
beaver had done its work 1t had filled the coun-
try with white men, who now turned to the soil
Tor living. 1t had decided that this great land
should be ruled from Washington and not from
Mexico City The Mexican war, which brought
the southwest into the United States followed
as an inevitable. consequence of the conquest OF
this wilderness by the American trapper.
In after years trapping became sufficiently
profitable so that the beaver was almost extinct
in this region, but today they are abundant again,
In the very canyons where Kit Carson set his
traps and reaped his annual harvest Of furs ths
beaver is again building its dams and lodges. Il
formed. -