The Previous Examiner article explains why Oregonians honor their native wilderness engineer the BEAVER.

The Old World or Eurasia has almost exterminated them for fashionable hats?

The North American wilderness saved the beaver and our pristine watersheds; at least in the Pacific Northwest.

May this human lesson from our prehistoric past help us learn to appreciate what nature and animals do to help humanity in the twenty-first century forward!

The following three websites explore the reasons beaver were trapped in Oregon from 1810 to 1850s.

(1) URL: http://www.whiteoak.org/learning/furhat.htm

This section describes the process of making a beaver felt hat during the 1700's and early 1800's. A variety of factors contributed to the cost of beaver felt hats including the great distance the fur traveled to get to the hat makers and the rugged conditions under which the trip was often made. Once the fur reached the hat maker however, a long and complicated process was still required to convert it into a desirable hat. Given the time and effort involved, a beaver felt hat was considered extremely valuable.

European gentlemen wanted fine hats. Quality hats demanded the best felting material available. Beaver fur was an excellent raw material. Beaver fur is tight yet supple and will hold its shape far better under rough wear and successive wettings than felt made from wool or other types of fur.

Two types of pelts were sought. Coat and parchment. Coat beaver were pelts that had been worn by Indians as winter coats before trading them. Parchment beaver were those pelts trapped for immediate trade. Of the two types, coat beaver was preferred until the late 17th century because it was easier to process.

Prior to the end of the 17th century, only the Russians knew how to comb the wool from parchment beaver. Therefore those pelts had to be sent to Russia for processing. Of course, sending the pelts to Russia added more to the cost of the hats produced.

Coat beaver could be processed without sending the pelts to Russia because the Indians had worn off the guard hairs before trading the pelts. The main disadvantage of coat beaver was the uneven quality. Once the Russian technique for processing parchment beaver became widely known, the English and French felt makers preferred the parchment beaver.

Another Internet source Citation explains beaver parts traded:

(2) 'Bears ears - Beer vinegar', Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1820 (2007).

An amphibious rodent, noted in trade for the BEAVER SKIN used as a FUR, and for the soft under fur known as BEAVER WOOL. CASTOREUM was another product obtained from the beaver. The native beaver was hunted so extensively in the Middle Ages, that it became extinct during the early-modern period. During this time, therefore, a new field of exploitation was opened in northern America, whence most products came.

This is naturally dark brown, becoming paler towards the flank, where the coarse guard hair is shorter. The skins, most of which came from northern America, were imported either whole, or with the BEAVER WOMB, or belly part, cut off and packed separately, so both whole skins and wombs were included in the Books of Rates. The skins were normally dressed in ALUM and SALT, or in MEAL [Acts (1800)].
 

Beaver womb

The skin from the underside or belly of a BEAVER. Since it seems to have been desired mainly for the BEAVER WOOL, which was thicker there and less protected by a layer of outer BEAVER HAIR, wombs were often found associated with the wool as in 'Beavers wool and Wombs' [Acts (1762)].
OED earliest date of use: 1612

Beaver wool
[bever-wool; bevers wooll; bever wooll; beavers wool]

The soft wool-like under fur plucked or shaved from a BEAVER SKIN or BEAVER WOMB and used to make the BEAVER HAT. Such hats were much in demand, so ideas were sought for speeding up the process of separating the wool from the skin itself without harm, as a patent in the 1720s for an 'Engine for cutting the wool from beaver, coney, and hare skins, for making hats [Patents (1721)].
OED earliest date of use: 1757

Such hats went under a variety of names as one advertisement shows: 'fine Beavers, Beaverets, Casters, Beaver Carolinas'. The same advertisement indicates how expensive they could be, offering 'fine large Beaver hats at 25 shillings a piece which were formerly sold for 50 shillings' [Newspapers (1707)]. Inevitably, the hat attracted the attention of innovators. For example, in the 1790s, a patent was taken out for 'Manufacturing waterproof hats, in imitation of beaver-hats' [Patents (1794)].
OED earliest date of use: c1386.

THE BEAVER FUR HAT from about 1550 until 1850, felt hats were fashionable in much of Europe and the felt hat industry became the driving force behind the fur trade. By the late 1500's, the beaver was extinct in Western Europe and was close to extinction in Scandinavia and Russia. The North American fur trade became a new source and kept the fashion going for another 200 years.

(3) Beaver Hats Build a Nation or History Goes Into the Closet (Following the Money)

Beaver fur was the raw material for a high quality felt suitable for hat making. Felted beaver fur can be processed into a high quality hat that holds its shape well even after successive wettings, making it the material of choice for the hats worn by English gentlemen.

At first, British hatters imported beaver pelts from Russia and Scandinavia. When these populations dwindled under the overtrading due to the high demand for beaver fur, hatters turned to the American Colonies for their raw materials. Hats made exclusively from the undercoat of a beaver were the most expensive and of the highest quality. Lower quality, half-beavers, hats could be made of beaver fur mixed with wool or hare fur, to produce a hat that was similar in style, less durable, and less expensive in price.
Hat production was a staple of the British economy.
 

This industry employed many workers from low skilled carders to highly skilled journeyman and master hatters. Their production supplied not only the fashion industry, but also military contracts.

Beaver pelts for hat making were acquired from trappers who were often Native Americans by a network of trading posts. The revenue from beaver pelts and deer skins fueled the economy of the Colonies and Federal America and moving on to areas that weren't trapped out created a westward push.

The price a beaver pelt brought rose steadily over the 18th century, progressing from around 5 shillings to about a Guinea by the year 1800, when the animals had become nearly extinct. John Jacob Astor controlled the largest American fur trading company.

The beaver pelt was the first great American commodity and the trade in them made Astor a millionaire. Something on the order of 30,000 beaver pelts a year was exported from North America in the 1790s. The introduction of steel traps and heavy demand for pelts brought the animal to the brink of extinction. By 1834, Astor recognized that all fur-bearing animals were becoming scarce and retired.

The felt hats were produced in a process that involved removing the unwanted outer guard hairs, shaving the dense inner coat, arranging the shaved fur or fluff in random directions know as carding, and agitating the fluff producing a loose felt called a batt. Then the shaping of the hat could begin with the addition of heat and moisture and finally a stiffing agent like gum Arabic followed by steaming and ironing. At last, a silk lining could be sewn in.

Britain exported several hundred thousand pounds worth of beaver hats per year to other European nations. In 1700, 69,500 beaver hats were exported from England and almost the same number of felt hats. By 1760, just over 500,000 beaver hats and 370,000 felt halts passed through English ports. Over the seventy years from 1700 to 1770, 21 million beaver and felt hats were exported from England.
The clothing industry and fashion are important forces in history that are often overlooked in a war based history perspective.

A swimming rodent with a luxuriant coat played an important role in the development of North America. Beaver pelts were the first great American trade commodity. The beaver pelt provided an article of exchange that brought metal manufactured trade goods to America and bullion to English coffers. Maybe it is time the teaching of history went into the closet.

Go BEAVERS!
 

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