Beaver trapping season opened on Dec. 20 and will close on March 31, 2026. A trapper will be allowed to take up to 125 beavers if trapping in several wildlife units. They may use up to 20 traps and snares statewide. The regulations on trapping beaver have greatly increased in the past few years.

When I was working as a wildlife officer, a trapper was only allowed to tend ten traps and catch three beavers. The beaver or the pelt had to be tagged by an officer after the season closed. Beaver trappers were restricted because the population was low. The reason for the low population was because the price a trapper received for a beaver pelt was well worth the trapping. Then the price of beaver pelts fell drastically low; trappers stopped putting out traps and the beaver population exploded.

Today, a trapper can take 125 beaver, and the pelts do not have to be tagged by an officer.

Some say that the history of North America was written on a beaver pelt. The beaver, more than any other animal, helped to settle North America.

In the book entitled “Indians of Pennsylvania,” the author states the Europeans had been trading with the Native Americans before the landing of the Mayflower. Approximately 600 voyages had been made to New England before the pilgrims’ famous landing in 1620.

What did the Native Americans have that could possibly interest the Europeans? Beaver pelts. It didn’t take long until the Native Americans became dependent on the pilgrim’s goods. The Native Americans became full-time trappers instead of planting and harvesting crops. In time, their territories were depleted of beaver colonies, and they had to move farther west into other tribes’ territories to find beaver.

This created conflicts between tribes, which were known as “The Beaver Wars.”

Why was the beaver pelt so desired? During the middle of the 1600s, anyone who was of some importance wore a high hat. These fashionable high hats were usually made from beaver pelts.

First the pelt was combed with a special comb that removed the guard hair. Next, the pelt was soaked to become pliable and then kneaded into a felt. This felt was made into a high hat.

In 1683, King Charles II made a decree that “All top hats must be made from beaver pelts.” There must have been some cheap imitations floating around. After making this decree, the king formed a fur company. This new company, which was the Hudson Bay Fur Company, immediately set up headquarters in North America.

The beaver was so important to this new company that it was depicted on its Coat of Arms.

The Louisiana Purchase was bought by President Jefferson because Napoleon needed money to fight a war with England. President Jefferson purchased the land in hopes that it contained a water route to the west coast. Also the area was reported to be teeming with beaver. The first thing Jefferson did was to send the explorers Lewis and Clark to see what he had purchased.

This expedition was known at the Corps of Discovery. On Nov. 8, 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the Pacific Ocean. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States and plunged us into the forefront of world power.

The two major fur companies, the Hudson Bay Fur Company and the Northwest Fur Company, hired explorers to find new sources of beaver pelts. These men lived in the mountains with the Native Americans and trapped all spring, summer and early fall.

By late fall, they would bring their catch down from the mountains. These trappers had worked long hours and faced many dangers. Wild animals and hostile Native Americans topped the list, but they also suffered from loneliness, fatigue and other hardships. If the trappers survived these hardships, they were well rewarded for their efforts. Some became well-to-do over the years.

A mountain man could make $2,000 a year in the middle of the 1800s. There is a report of one trapper making $50,000 in one year, however that seems an exaggeration. In the mountains, the beaver pelts were sold by the pound. The going price was $4 a pound and it took approximately 80 skins to make 100 pounds. A good trapper would average three beavers a day or about $16 a day. Compare this to a man working on a farm back east who was making 50 cents a day plus room and board.

You can see, being a mountain man was a way of getting rich, but it was, also, a way of getting killed by Native Americans, wild animals, nature and other mountain men to battle.

Beavers were plentiful and it seemed as if the supply would never end, but it did. In 1840, the discovery of silk saved the beaver from extinction. Top hats were then made from silk. The discovery of silk came too late for the beaver in Pennsylvania.

In 1917, Wisconsin gave a gift of a pair of beavers to Joseph Kalbfus, Director of the Game Commission. Kalbfus was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The mated pair of beavers were released in Cameron County on Cowley Run. Later the game commission purchased and released more beavers.

In 1920, the price of beaver pelts began to skyrocket, with $50 a common price. At a sale, in London, $100 was paid for one beaver pelt.

The Hudson Bay Fur Company set the standard for buying beaver pelts. When they bought the hides in the mountains, the company paid the mountain men by the pound, however at their frontier outposts, they bought pelts stretched and dried. The pelt was dried in an oval or round shape, and measured in length and width. A blanket is 70 inches or more, and an extra-large blanket would be 75 inches or more. This system is still in use today.

The beaver was the medium for barter and exchange. In 1733, a beaver pelt would buy one pound of tobacco, one half pound of beads or one-half pound of thread and four beaver pelts bought a gallon of brandy. Six skins would buy a blanket, and a musket could be had for a stack of beaver pelts pressed down in a press to the height of the musket.

It’s anyone’s guess what direction the price of beaver pelts will take in the future. One thing is for sure, the company that bought beaver pelts from mountain men, such as Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Jedediah Smith, have been having a hard time, and many have gone out of business. The end of a colorful era.

When a beaver trapper sets out his beaver trap, he is carrying on a tradition that is as old as our mountain country itself. Although the trapper may not be making the money those early men did, he’ll have the satisfaction that he is living out a part of history.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.