The FUR TRADE
The Ontario Fur Trade
With the arrival of the explorers came the trappers. Beaver pelts were highly sought after for the use of making top hats. Furs were easily tradable for goods needed to live in this area. A trading post was erected in Mattawa in 1784 at the conjunction of the two rivers where the Museum is located today. Then a permanent trading post was built in 1830 by the Hudson Bay Company because of the increase in fur trade.
See it at our museum, a
typical trapper's cabin, where you can even go inside.
This area has a variety of pelts such as beaver, wolf, fox, bear and wild mink.
They used snares, and later, leg-hold traps to catch furbearing animals.
Only a few are taken from their natural habitat. If no animals were harvested, many would starve to death due to loss of their habitat and overpopulation.
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