Skinning skunks

LETTER, from pg. 6 early morning trap run (which included returning home to change clothes), I checked on a trap on the way to school. That required a trip home to change clothes. No matter how careful I was, the odor seemed to follow me!

One skink I caught was under the coal shed near the fresh air intake to our one-room schoolhouse. We sat in the school that forenoon with the windows open with our coats on. By then the girls were used to the smell.

The fur business changed according to the seasons. When winter came, the skunks took a long winter nap and the snow began to fall and drifts built up where they would rest until spring. During one of these changes, a drift covered one of my traps under about two feet of snow. I was in the snow tramping with my feet to find the stake the trap was attached to. As I was grabbing the stake the snow close to my feet burst open the there was a very angry and (it seemed) a very large animal. I took off for home and never looked back. At home, my older brother agreed to come along back with me with his .22 rifle to take care of that fierce animal. It was an almost pure white badger. Sears and Roebuck graded it as a one half albino because it had a little tint on the neck, shoulders and rump. That badger was worth almost as much as three skunks. There was a lot more work skinning and curing that hide. It had to be nailed to the wall. One day I found three badgers running down a ditch. With a 19-inch wrecking bar, I got two of them. As the cold weather set in, it was time trap mink and weasel.

Even jackrabbit hides were of value. Four rabbit hides made a pound. A pound sold for 96 cents and the jackrabbits were more than plentiful. Can you imagine skinning two dozen rabbits by kerosene lantern at night? It was money.

By 1935 the fur market began to slide and by 1940 it was down like the grain market was 10 years before (6 cents for a bushel of oats and 8 cents for corn). Although in the last 40 years or so, the fur market has improved. What seems unusual is that wildlife has never been as plentiful as it was in the 1920s and 1930s. Fox weren’t as plentiful at that time, but seemed to gain ground in later years. Now, the jackrabbits in this area almost seem to be gone. Still, in the 1950s it was not unusual for a rabbit hunt to bring in 150 to 250 jackrabbits and a half dozen foxes. The prairie chicken has been gone for a number of years. The pheasant populations, though climbing now, has never been like it was in the 1920s and 1930s. It wasn’t uncommon to see two dozen pheasants eating with the pigs in the hog lot. Hunting, trapping and fishing were always considered a sport, but trapping to a kid in the late 1920s and ‘30s meant dollars. Wild life was important in those days. Hunting and fishing put food on the table for many families. Many people ate wild rabbits until a disease consisting of some kind of boils came along. I don’t believe the game warden watched very close because people need the meat and none was wasted. v