Live from 1831: Frontier Fur Traders!

Ever wondered how you would have fared as an early American explorer and entrepreneur? You can find out this weekend as you meet frontier fur traders and their wives at their encampment.

It’s the year 1831 here, and they’ll talk with you in the jargon of the day, demonstrate their firearms, fire-starting techniques and cooking over an open fire.

For instance, you can talk with Suzanne Crawford, the wife of a fur trader, who is of Native American and Scottish heritage.

“The women in the encampment were responsible for setting it up, tearing it down, and packing it on horses,” said Linda Evans, a senior living history interpreter who portrays Crawford. “They would snare rabbits, make moccasins and all of our clothes, chop firewood, do the cooking of game such as deer, elk, rabbit and turkey.”

Fur traders of the Hudson’s Bay Company and North West Company frequently married Native American women, and it was accepted for them to have more than one wife. Wives traveled with their husbands along their trapping route for eight months, and then on to the Columbia River forts to trade beaver pelts for beads, kettles, ironware, coffee, tea, blankets, cloth and good rum.

Check out what awaits you here in this video.