1975 Trappers’ Workshops in NW Ontario

The flight from Toronto to Dryden was uneventful. We drove to Ignace for the first course. There was not a large crowd, due to a heavy snowfall that made travelling very bad. Back in Dryden there was a big turn out. There was much interest in fur handling though some of the trappers did not need much instruction. For the first time I saw a man fleshing beaver hides with an axe. Like a small broad axe, sharpened only on one side, but kept with a very keen edge. This was used with a large flat board, and while it looked a bit strange, this trapper made an excellent job of the beaver skins he worked on. Besides beaver we had otter, mink, muskrats, marten, lynx, fisher, coyotes, and a very large timber wolf.

Talk turned to an earlier season on beaver and what to do about the wolves. It seems there are quite a number of wolves and since the deer have about disappeared, wolves are killing a lot of sheep and some cattle.  Funny, but the only friends the wolves seem to have are the people who live far from the woods, and have little knowledge of the damage they do.

Next day we drove to Red Lake. The weather was cold, but clear, and since it was all new it was all interesting. From southern Ontario Red Lake seems to be so far away, but there life goes on as in other places. The map shows it to be quite a large lake, but the town is at one end of it, so there is not much of the lake to be seen.

The first thing that registered on my mind at Red Lake was the number of airplanes on the ice. Several flying outfits have their base at Red Lake, and in summer time it is floats, then when there’s ice the planes all have skis.

There is a class for outdoor activities at the high school. The children have a small trapline, and the teacher, who was one of the class, takes them into the woods, while in the classroom they are taught to make snow shoes and other things pertaining to the outdoors.

We drove to Kenora and another two days with local trappers. The two days passed very quickly. Then we took a full day to drive to Sioux Lookout, well over three hundred miles I believe. As at the other meetings the trappers complained about the amount of slush on the ice. Again a very friendly, interested group of trappers. The chap who was conducting the tour (Doug Sayers) I had known in Algonquin Park, and when he was a guide and later a fire ranger. He is now posted at Sioux Lookout and he drove me to where I could see the high hill or mountain that gives this place its name, for it was from this point the local Indians kept watch for the Sioux, the dreaded warriors who had to travel perhaps five hundred miles just for war and plunder.