Relics of the Fur Trade #4

Should the Dumpdiggers unearth a forgotten fur trading post from the late 1700's, what kinds of relics could they expect to find?

Glass Trade Beads

Any glass trade beads found in Chester Huff's secret dig site on Lake of the Woods would pinpoint that historic fur trade company's European supply line. In the 18th century, Venice no longer enjoyed a monopoly on glass production, but this city was still one of the world's largest producers of beads. The Sun King, Louis XIV of France, through the genius of his first minister Colbert, employed master craftsmen to create glass windows and dishware for Versailles in the 1670s. Although some of these artisans no doubt came from Italy, many more were the apprentices of glassblowers living deep in the forests of Germany, where a determined craft had emerged in the early 1600s.

Glass trade beads have always been part of the exploration and colonization of the New World, and Dumpdiggers regrets that it cannot concern itself (in this post) with the yellow beads that traveled in the holds of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria when Christopher Columbus presented a necklace to the chief of San Salvador Island on October 12, 1492.

Over the next three hundred years, intricate hand-crafted glass beads become more affordable to European traders as glass making technology spread from France to Holland, and then to England in the early 1700s. This map shows the positions of the tribes in North America at the beginning of the Colonial Age. By following the paths of the explorers, a reader can imagine how the beads were traded among the First Nations.

While they were not entirely worthless in Europe, glass beads were not very valuable at their point of origin. They were however highly prized the forests and meadows of the New World. In the wilderness of New England and New France, these colorful beads brought wealth and prestige to the First Nations peoples who sometimes traded one beaver pelt each to obtain them for a necklace that would take a lifetime to assemble.

Venetian glass beads were particularly valuable as ‘status symbols’. Here are some examples of the most famous high technology beads that were frequently traded among the various tribes, following ancient Native American trade routes.

LEWIS & CLARK TRADE BEADS

The journals of the 1804 Lewis and Clark Expedition document an extensive exchange of glass trade beads with the Indians of the American Northwest – indeed some of the rugged Mountain Men traded thousands of glass trade beads to amass vast personal fortunes in beaver pelts.

Elizabeth Bennet of Africa Direct travels into the interior of the Dark Continent once every three years to fetch out the last remaining Lewis & Clark beads. These beads shown here are part of a necklace that's currently offered for sale on eBay for eight hundred and fifty dollars. According to the information she lists on her auction page, these beads were made in Venice and vended through a broker named J.F. Sick. Germany and Holland and his firm was one of the largest bead brokers / importers in Europe in the 1850s - the end of the fur trade. After mentioning the name of Moses Lewin Levin, who was a bead importer / exporter in London England from 1830 to 1913, Eliza offers no insight on how these beads found themselves in Africa? or for what commodity they were traded?

The popularity of genuine 'African trade beads' was revived in the late 1960s when they began to be exported from Africa back into the United States and Europe. The term "trade beads" remained very popular during this time period and is still used today. The signature Venetian millefiori beads were called "Love Beads" in the 1960's and were used in necklaces with peace symbols during the Hippie days. The irony is that these beads were the currency of war, whiskey and disease in the fur trade.

Although these objects are not very pretty, this EBay Auction offers genuine 600 year old trade beads from Europe. At that age these relics were probably vended through Spain. There’s some information here on the subject of early European trade beads, and I’ve no doubt this Seller is an authority on the subject.

There exists some confusion over trade bead names and classifications and that’s because the whole history of the enterprise is just becoming known today; unfortunately some previous scholars have named their beads too randomly, based on where they were found, who traded them, and what tribes wore them. Some archaeologists reference the methods by which they were transported (i.e., the ‘pony’ bead), or by the various ports from which they were shipped and consequently there are a lots of discrepancies.

CHEVRONS are probably the best known, oldest and most interesting historic trade bead. Often called ‘star’ beads or ‘chevrons’ by Spanish traders, these artifacts are quintessential fur trade relics - but yet they are rarely found in Canada and North US. They were traded here, but very early in the game.

Chevrons were traded with African tribes for slaves and ivory, and Native Americans, primarily in southwest Arizona. Blue and red chevrons are listed among the supplies of Coronado and his conquistadors in the year 1540 in what is today Arizona. These are prized beads - but they are rarely found in the fur belt. Some authors believe they were bought and traded by the Hudson's Bay Company early in the history of that venerated company - before glass making became common in England. There's also an interesting story which details how the exact recipe and process for making Chevrons (all fifteen steps) was one of the great industrial secrets to escape the Republic of Venice when several highly skilled glassblowers escaped from the Island of Murano to migrate north to Germany in the early 1600’s. The mills of Bohemia made the manufacture of these complicated beads more practical as a single necklace required hours of grinding – remember the beads start life as long sticks of glass that are broken into bits and ground into small spherical shapes.

Glass beads are still sold today.

Today there’s still a demand for glass beads in North America. There are markets for new beads both online and in boutique shops in high culture shopping neighborhoods like Kensington Market, and the ever- fashionable Queen St West in the Canadian city of Toronto.

In downtown Toronto, Dumpdiggers had the good fortune to meet Claude and Anastasia at 446 Queen St West – The Beadery sells all manner of beads, mostly mineral including jade, turquoise, ceramic, vinyl, kryptonite but no historic beads.

However when I asked to see his ‘Italian glass beads’ and I used the adjective ‘millefiori’, Claude was quick to fetch out the nicest reproductions I could have imagined.

When I asked the price, Claude said 'For you, three strands for fifty dollars.' And as I could count about thirty beads on each strand, I reckoned that would make them about fifty cents each; that's probably comparable to what European adventurers paid in the 1750s when they were outfitting their trade ships in the markets of London and Amsterdam.

Relics of the Fur Trade #3

Chester Huff is still digging pits in Kenora, or rather somewhere outside the town on the north shore of Lake of the Woods, Ontario. Friends tell me that he’s dragged an ice fishing hut over the excavation (for warmth) and he found a rust covered iron beaver trap six feet down. According to a very reliable source, he sold the item online for 120 bucks!

If Dumpdiggers unearthed a forgotten fur trading post from the mid 1700's, what kind of relics could they expect to find?

Early HBC beaver traps? I’m skeptical. Aboriginal people didn’t use iron traps, and Chester’s fur trading post site (near the original Rat Portage, which is actually located near the town of Keewatin) is supposed to be the exchange point between three Indian nations, and the Europeans (specifically the British in the HBC).

I’m told the Indian fur trappers had developed excellent all-natural methods of hunting beavers without using guns or iron traps. They used snares which would trap the animal in a wire noose, and baited traps, which would attract the animal with food or another substance. The 'deadfall trap', which dropped a heavy weight onto the animal to kill it, was also used. In addition to these ingenuities, the First Nation's people had perfected a method of trapping the beaver inside his own wooden lodge. They somehow blocked the submerged entrance of the beaver den, and then broke into the side of the hut to take the whole family at once!

Iron leg traps (which were cruel and inhumane) came about much later in the history of the fur trade. The first mention of iron leg trap is from David Thompson, the foremost cartographer of North America notes that (white) fur trappers in the lower Red River started using castoreum and beaver traps in 1797. After relocating to Fort Vancouver in 1818, the Hudson's Bay Company’s pacific division sent out brigades of trappers that included from 50 men (and sometimes women and children) with iron leg traps. By all accounts the trapping of beavers was an awful job and dangerous work, particularly because it had to be done in the winter when animal pelts are thickest.

Some of the very first iron traps were made in Fort Vancouver in 1818 and these were designed to catch the beaver by the leg in shallow water. It was attached by a chain to a sharpened stake that was planted in deeper water. The traps were baited with castoreum, a scent obtained from glands in the hind legs of the beaver. Now picture this for a moment, to plant the device the European trapper stood in ice cold water so that he would not leave his own scent on the shore. After the curious beaver, attracted by the castoreum, stepped into the trap the hunter had to be quick to retrieve the prize of the pelt would be destroyed by another animal feeding off the carcass. The trapper skinned his catch at the first opportunity. Back at camp, he would (or perhaps his Indian wife) had to scrape off all the flesh from the skin and the stretch it out to dry. After almost a year in the wilderness, the trapping brigades, with their furs in tow, returned to the trade posts.

Finding an early French Canadian iron beaver trap from the 1780’s and 1790s would be a spectacular relic! It would be extremely collectible and certainly worthy of a museum, (Chester!) and that’s because these items are very rare.

Indeed according to The Fur Trapper the use of iron traps did not become wide spread until the early 1800s. This web page reports that that the iron beaver traps created the Mountain Men, and eventually the Rocky Mountain fur trade. The sole purpose of the American and the Canadian fur trade brigades between 1807 and 1840 was to locate and trap beaver using such devices. During that time frame, it came to pass that trapping beaver by the white European mountain men (in United States territories) was illegal, but the laws were difficult to enforce in that area of the country.

According to the Fur Trapper website, Lewis and Clark did not have beaver traps listed among their Indian trade goods, but several of the expedition members carried iron beaver traps for their personal use. Before the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Pacific, a North West Company fur trader, François Antoine Larocque, had taken beaver traps to the Crow Indians along the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers. Lisa, Menard, and Morrison (1807), the Missouri Fur Company (1812), the Astorians (1811) carried beaver traps. From 1818 to 1821, the North West Company's sent three fur trapping brigades to the upper Snake River country under Donald Mackenzie, a former Astorian. The Snake River brigades outfitted each trapper with six beaver traps.

The Newhouse Community Trap is one of the earliest traps used in the fur trade. It is very similar to the Hudson's Bay traps.

Here's a suspicious consignment of historical milieu that has been dressed to sell as Fur Trade relics on eBay. The seller lists the items as ‘Assorted nails from trade posts or battows (boats), part of a fur trade trap, two folding knife blades, end of rifle or pistol barrel, French amber musket flint, five cast brass tacks, Woodland pottery chards, metal arrowhead, copper dangle cut out of a trade kettle, small fur trade ring broach, and what looks to be part of an ice chisel.’ This load of debris is congruous with Dumpdigging. Somebody somewhere at some time dug up an 1800’s fur trade post. But is this evidence of Chest Huff’s amateur archeology in Northern Ontario? Nope. The Seller is listed as American, and I doubt Chester would cross the border. This lot is currently listed for sale at $25.00, and there are still five days left in the auction. I seriously doubt these bits of iron will sell for such a high price (shipping will be expensive too no doubt), but I hope they do find a buyer as such a transaction would further evidence the ‘commodification of history’ in the age of high technology.

Relics of the Fur Trade #1

If Dumpdiggers unearthed a forgotten fur trading post from the mid 1700's, what kind of relics could they expect to find?

This is a good question that was put to me recently by a Kenora Ontario digger with a bad reputation.

Chester Huff claims to know a secret spot on the Lake of the Woods, some distance from the original 'Rat Portage' (referencing the 1821 sketch by James Bigsby), and boasts that he's now excavating the remains of the area's first fur trading post!

But Chester is a big talker (no offense Chester, you know you are) and I'm extra skeptical... yet even the possibility HOWEVER makes me contemplate this delicious subject in extra detail, and institute this blog's first serial post, RELICS OF THE FUR TRADE.

FUR TRADE RELIC #1
Hudson Bay Trade Axe

Trade axes are the most essential Fur Trade relic, and that's because the axe is such a versatile tool.

Native Americans used the artifact everyday for all manner of chopping tasks. And they had ceremonial applications, and could also be used as weapons. In the 1600s - 1750s these iron axes were imported from England and France by the boatload for trade in the colonies - later, cruder version were forged inside the blacksmiths shops associated with colonial forts and armouries. These relics are more primitive because they were hand forged; they were often made from a single piece of iron, heated and folded over a mandrel to make an opening for the handle, then forge welded together - this closure was sometimes referred to as a lap-weld.

Early "eyes" were round holes. Later the eyes became oval shaped, or tear-dropped and later still rectangular. Handles or helves were made by the natives, but there are first hand accounts of the Voyageurs or courier du bois relaxing against beached 42 foot Montrealers, whittling small hardwood limbs into handles by the campfire at night. Many axe heads bear their parent metalworkers marks - these are commonly referred to as "touch marks".

Touch marks are made by touching the axe head when it's red hot, and leaving a mark on the metal. Cast or factory made axe heads with makers' marks are often referred to as guild marks. The most commonly found style of axe heads known are the Biscay style, since they were manufactured in the Biscay region of France.


Many different sizes and shapes of trade axes were found in the underwater search conducted at Double Rapids on the French River out of Lake Nipissing in 1961, and are dated late 1600's to mid 1700's. One hundred and twenty some axe heads were found in crates in a sunken long boat by amateur divers. These finds were donated to the Royal Ontario Museum in August, 1964.

How much is a genuine 1700's trade ax worth these days? Well let’s investigate that... The very best way to track an authentic trade ax's value would be to find a genuine 1700's trace axe on eBay, and wait to see who pays what, (and where they live.) *Question for the comments: Would you sell a Hudson's Bay Trade Axe, found in Canada, across the border?