Ever wonder why we love the outdoors and Hunting?
Let me give you a little history. Around 1661 a couple of French-Canadian men, traveled the Ottawa river, from Quebec to the point they crossed over to the James Bay. They had hunted and trapped the whole time and had a bounty of furs that made envy of everyone, including the Governor of the French.
Thinking they would be herald as hero’s, instead they were fined and all there furs ceased, because they had not at fist obtained a license allowing them to hunt and trap in new territory. Never the mind that these adventures had discovered a overland route to the North Sea.
Disgusted with the treatment of their government, they took a boat to Port Royal and then to Hudson Bay. These men filed a lawsuit in Boston, due to the fact that they had been relieved of their furs and denied payment for all their hard work and travels.
The Royal Commissioner of New Jersey, Sir George Carteret, sent these men back to Quebec with a letter of Commendation to Prince Ruppert of London. The Prince, astonished of the story’s of the bounty-full land, at once outfitted the men with ships of supplies and they departed for Hudson Bay on another adventure. When they arrived, to their surprise, they found that French and Boston groups sent by the same government that has ceased their furs had now sent groups of trappers who were they felt Poaching their land.
Then in 1667, the Hudson Bay Fur Company was granted a charter. The men of HBFC, had to contend with Poacher’s, Raids between the French, eventually led to the downfall of the French at Quebec around 1759. The HBFC, finally had full control of the land, and the Poachers, were driven North of the 50 degree parallel to hunt and trap.
According to the minutes of the HBFC record books, the men wrote of their adventures and travels and conquering of a continent not for Religious or Political freedom, but because of the lure of adventure and fur pelts. They made their way over Ice packs of the Hudson straits and paddled canoe’s up the Saskatchewan River.
There were many struggles, like Guerrilla Warfare, trader’s back stabbing each other, Rum mixed with poison. Shootings and knife fights. Today, the trapper has been replaced by the Hunter. A quick shot from a long range rifle that brings more meat and furs than a months worth of trapping .