As a young man, my father was a trapper. He told me of his exploits, gathering fox, raccoon, muskrat and mink fur as a moneymaking project. He loved being an entrepreneur.
Unfortunately, his profits were all lost in the Great Depression when the local bank went under. When I asked for help in setting up a similar trapping operation, he indicated that I was on my own. However, he said if I would trap for mice, rats, pigeons, and groundhogs he would be happy to go into business with me. He set forth a schedule of payments for each category. I had a morning routine, setting traps in the granary for mice and rats, which was quite successful. Groundhogs paid more but were harder to catch.
Our farm, grandmother’s farm, and a third farm formed three points of a triangle, each leg 1.5 miles apart. Dad had let me begin driving the car between the three farms when I was 13. “Set the groundhog on top of the front sight and pull the trigger,” he had advised. “The shotgun would do the rest.” Dad said, “Groundhogs are curious. If they catch sight of you and run into their hole, just set about 30 feet in front of the hole and soon they will stick their head out. Boom!”
To make sure I caught them off guard, he told me that as I approached the farm to rev the car, put it in neutral, and turn off the key (in a 1958 Pontiac with ‘three in the tree’ I could do that). I was to open the door as the car glided into the barn’s driveway. Slowly creeping around the edge of the barn, I almost always found a groundhog. As soon as it saw me it would set up on his hind legs on alert ready to be blasted. It would hold this position for two or three seconds, just long enough to get off a shot.
As I became more adventurous, I told my dad that I wanted to trap mink. It paid more than anything else. He told me there weren’t any mink in our area and they were too tricky for me to catch. I had my first one within a week.
My cousin decided he wanted help with his trap lines, and we would go venturing in the local creek. He had traps set up on both sides of the creek. One winter day, my cousin easily crossed to the other side of the frozen creek. I didn’t realize that he was much lighter than me until the ice cracked and down I went. By the time I got out and got to the car, I thought I was going to freeze to death.
I’d forgotten about trapping until the idea was called to my attention by Charles McMillan. He had recalled to me his trapping experiences as a youth and suggested it might be a good newspaper article. Those days are gone. The Department of Natural Resources website notes that to trap nowadays you have to get a license even to hunt skunk!
Educational material and not legal advice, written by the team at Adler attorneys. Email andrea@noblesvilleattorney.com with questions or comments.