Beaver Skins and Mountain Men , Dutton 1968, Burger, Carl Author and Illustrator.
Thesis: The author emphasizes the importance of the beaver as a catalyst used to develop the American fur trade and industry. The story begins with the history of the Castoroides also known as the present day beaver (once as large weighing as much as 400-500 pounds) to the present day species and eloquently directing the reader through the adventures of the historical Fur Trade Era stressing the European demand for beaver hats and the quest of the explorers" push to the western frontier from 1500 through the early 1800's.
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Relation to text: The author relates daily routines such as daily foods eaten, normal clothing worn, religions, weather anomalies, animals and their migration routes, ordinary tools, etc. of the Indians, traders, explorers as well as the coureurs de bois where as The American Pageant relates this historical period in general seldom touching on the daily norms of that time. The detail in Beaver Skins and Mountain Men is much more enjoyable focusing on the colorful Fur Trade era of our history.
The writer accomplished this book with an extensive research to recount the voyage of Jacques Cartier in 1534 through the invention of a better steel beaver trap (effecting the demise of the beaver) invented by ironmonger, Sewell Newhouse. The text has an extensive bibliography citing such writings as The Journals of Lewis and Clark, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1953; New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest, Henry, Alexander, Francis P. Harper, 1897; Lasalle and the Discovery of the Great West, Parkman, Francis, Little, Brown &Company, Boston and The American Beaver and his Works, Morgan, Lewis H., J.B. Lippincott Co., 1868.
Content: This book recounted the fortunes made from the pelts of the beaver. At different times the dividends paid to investors was as high as 40%. Lured by the hope of a short passage to China and the abundance of codfish in the Gulf of St.