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A few fur trade relics
- Thread starter upnorth
- Start date
Sorry about the mellow drama there gents. I have been kind of busy. Anyway.....The warden and I drove up north to visit some old friends in the Boreal forest region. There were several old fur trade posts in the area. This one in particular is about all washed away from river erosion. So much so that it lost its historic designation. You do however find the odd relic eroded out of the river bank. These are from Peter Ponds old site..................
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pond
I have many outdoor interests which include outdoor wood processing with knives\axes for fires etc. I try to combo these interests whenever possible. B.T.W. I was walking down along the Sturgeon river, (a small connecting river) and a couple came up to me. They had just seen a cinnamon black bear, and had seen several in the area before. So I kept an eye out. I didn't find a whole lot this time, a mashed musket ball and a few brass trade rings from the 1780's. I appreciate every find though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pond
I have many outdoor interests which include outdoor wood processing with knives\axes for fires etc. I try to combo these interests whenever possible. B.T.W. I was walking down along the Sturgeon river, (a small connecting river) and a couple came up to me. They had just seen a cinnamon black bear, and had seen several in the area before. So I kept an eye out. I didn't find a whole lot this time, a mashed musket ball and a few brass trade rings from the 1780's. I appreciate every find though.
William-NM
New member
Very cool finds, upnorth! The rings may not have great $ value, but they sure take you right back to another age. Is that an iron arrowhead? I'd call that a nice group of trophies! Thanks for the interesting post and pics! 
Those old rings are awesome! That metal projectile you have (I have found a couple) have an interesting story. I was speaking with an archaeologist about those, and he said quite often the foreign settlers traded metal pots & pans for furs. The aboriginals would then make arrow heads for hunting out of them, having no use for using pots for cooking.
Wandering Yoda
New member
Very nice upnorth!!! The country up that way is beautiful. Watched a Ray Mears show once that was about the French fur trading Voyageurs. Those fellows sure put some miles in a canoe and also portaging of course!! I find axes, knives, and fire pic's are awesome to,
here's one of a Tom Brown Tracker and a silver ring I found last year.
here's one of a Tom Brown Tracker and a silver ring I found last year.jim tn said:
They strike me as brass Jim, but I'm unsure. They are always crusty from a couple hundred years in (good\mild) soil. I watched the LCD on the ATP as I swung over one ring and it was bouncing 51-53, which is nicklish maybe ? I am notorious for digging by tone and ignoring the graphics.
William-NM said:Very cool finds, upnorth! The rings may not have great $ value, but they sure take you right back to another age. Is that an iron arrowhead? I'd call that a nice group of trophies! Thanks for the interesting post and pics!
Yes the rings have value, but not as much as they used to because a guy in Michigan sells a lot of them. Myself, I have no interest in selling. I try to save them for history. Every spring flood sucks more into the river to be gone forever.
Wandering Yoda said:Very nice upnorth!!! The country up that way is beautiful. Watched a Ray Mears show once that was about the French fur trading Voyageurs. Those fellows sure put some miles in a canoe and also portaging of course!! I find axes, knives, and fire pic's are awesome to,
Cool. I find the outdoors to be endlessly fascinating, whether through historic relic finds, camping, fishing, using outdoor tools, or simply enjoying the sights and smells. I admit a real concern about bears though and I try to avoid them .
mudpuppy said:Yeah...you got us hanging here! Thats a silver ring alright...what else?
Mud
My impression is that they are brass mud, but one of the rings numbered 51-53 ? I really don't know. I think that they were basically costume jewelry for the Euro masses in the 1700's. But they were quite eye catching when fresh out of a cask or chest I bet. None the less, these were all hand set and nice even to this day. My impression from reading historic journals from the day is that traders wanted to maximize profits with the lowest cost items. And seeing that rum was also very inexpensive, traders used a lot of it up here. The American and Canadian traders were pretty bad for using booze. The Brits (H.B.C.) saw the trade as long term and knew that booze had a devastating effect on the Indigenous population, which would ruin long term profits. So I doubt that the Brits were any more altruistic, they just wanted to keep in the trade for the long run, which they did. These are just my crude impressions from limited research. The natives were not dummies though, in many ways they called the shots up here in trade as they were also the main meat\Pemmican suppliers and knew junk tools from quality. They would refuse to trade if obviously low grade junk iron tools were set out.