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The BEAV       in Monnesoa 
 
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We are reproducing herewith two articles on one of Minnesota's most interesting
mammals; 
one by Arthur G. Torgerson, a former Warden, at Fosston, and the other by
Felix Klett, at the 
present time a Warden stationed at Spring Lake. There are many divergent
ohservafions as to 
various habits of the beaver, possihly due to geographic differences in the
places where the differ- 
ent oblservations have been made. All otservers agree on one point, however,--the
beaver's mos. 
formidable enemy is the poacher--the greasy, ill-smelling thief who would
contribute to th, 
extermsnation of one species of our wild-life family that he might gain a
few paltry dollars 
 
The Beaver-Past and Present 
By ARTHUR G. TORGERSON, Fosston, Minn. 
Good literature on the beaver is extremely 
scarce; no writings are available except Mills' 
work. All Indian tribes in North America appear 
to have one or more legends concerning the 
beaver-most of these tales credit him with being 
a worthy and industrious fellow, and the Chero- 
kees are said to trace their origin to a sacred 
and practical beaver. 
Before the coming of the white man, beaver 
 
uted over N o r t h 
America, ,p e r h a p s 
more   widely  than 
any other fur-bear- 
ing animal. The bea- 
ver population was 
large, and probably 
was most dense 
southwest of Hud- 
son's B a y a n d 
around the Missouri 
and Columbia rivers. 
The scantiest popu- 
lation areas appear- 
ed to be around the 
1 o w e r Mississippi 
valley. The beaver 
and his pelt lured 
the hunter and trap- 
per into  all the 
American wilds. This 
pelt was one of the 
 
earnest mediums of 
exchange among the settlers of North America. 
For many years beaver pelts were one of the 
most important exports, and for a longer time 
they were also the chief commodity of trade on 
the frontier. A beaver skin was not only a stan- 
dard by which other pelts were valued, but also 
the standard of value by which guns, sugar, 
cattle, hatchets and clothing were measured. 
Though freely used by the early settlers for 
clothing, they were especially valuable as raw 
material for the making of hats, and for that 
purpose Were largely exported. Next to impor- 
tance of its skin, the beaver was valued for the 
castoreum it yielded; the pelt was also believed 
to be an excellent preventative of colic and con- 
sumption. 
The old hunters, trappers, and early settlers, 
sometimes with misplaced confidence, forecast 
the weather from the actions of the beaver-it 
 
was credited with being weather-wise to a high 
degree. From his actions, the nature of the com- 
ing winter was predicted, and plans to meet it 
were made accordingly. Faith in the beaver's ac- 
tions and activities as a basis for weather-fore- 
casting was almost absolute. If the beaver began 
work early, the winter was to be an early one; 
if the beaver laid up a large harvest, covered 
the house deeply with mud, and raised the water- 
level of the pond, the winter, of course, was to 
be a long and severe one. 
The beaver hastened, if it did not cause, 
the settlement of the country. Hunters and trap- 
ners  blazed  t h e 
 
trails, described the 
n a t u r a I resources, 
and lured the per- 
manent settlers to 
possess the land and 
build homes among 
the ruins left when 
the beaver were 
trapped out. Large 
trading comp a n i e s 
were formed early in 
the fur industry, the 
Hudson   Bay  Com- 
pany becoming t h e 
largest a n d most 
widely known. 
Today beaver are 
apparently exti n c t 
over  the   greater 
portion of the area 
which they formerly 
occupied, and  are 
;1   1   +1 
 
maining inhabited areas. The beaver often does 
a large amount of work in a short time. A small 
dam may be built up in a few nights, or a num- 
ber of trees felled, or possibly a long burrow 
or tunnel clawed in the earth during a brief 
period. In most cases, however, beaver works of 
magnitude are monuments of old days, and have 
required a long time in construction, being prob- 
ably the work of more than one generation. It 
is rare for a long dam or canal to be constructed 
in one season. A thousand feet of dam is the 
accumulated work of years. An aged beaver may 
have lived all his life in one locality, born in 
the house in which his parents were born, and 
he might rise upon the thousand-foot dam which 
held his pond and say, "My forerunners half a 
dozen centuries ago began this dam, and I do 
not know   which one of my ancestors com- 
pleted it."          (Turn to page 6, please)