His knees weren’t what they were as a young man, but the hills and mountains didn’t care. Harry Todd knew the ins and outs of the fur trade but needed something a little less taxing on his aging body. The answer came in a small rodent that abounded across the Wind River Valley he called home.
Often confused with its much larger aquatic rival, the beaver, the muskrat is a prolific water rodent tipping the scales at three to four pounds. The beaver is at least 10 times that size.
Muskrats are native to every region of North America, from Northern Mexico to the edge of the Arctic Circle.
They were largely ignored by early colonists but were a reliable food source for many Native American tribes with a taste similar to rabbit. Their use as a fur-bearing animal came only after almost every other furbearer was driven to the verge of extinction.
Beaver, silver fox, bobcat, lynx, seals, sea lions, and exotic birds were all nearly driven out of existence by 1900. The wolf, coyote, and the lowly muskrat were the survivors.
Technology met the fur trade at the turn of the 20th century. The mania for silver fox coats, stoles, and muffs created a widespread fox farming craze. The pelts were more prevalent, but the costs of a coat remained astronomical.
Muskrat fur was found to be a close facsimile of silver fox fur when prepared correctly. That involved tanning the tiny hides, cutting them into matching strips, and dying them to match the luxurious silver fox.
By the 1890s, wild muskrats were in decline with the introduction of “Hudson Seal,” a fur style that closely resembled silver fox made from muskrat pelts. It took 30 to 50 muskrat pelts to make one coat.
The demand was high, and the price increase was dramatic. Muskrat skins brought 10 to 15 cents in 1890; by 1900, top-quality skins fetched $2.50 or more.
The muskrat farm was born in Canada at the turn of the 20th century. These farms, or “ranches,” were open wetlands, fenced around the perimeter, where semi-wild muskrats were able to forage. Farmers fed them carrots, corn, and vegetables, then harvested them with traditional trapping methods.
It was a “target-rich” environment for trapping, with the slightly domesticated rodents not nearly as wary as their wild relatives.
A farmer found a water source, built an enclosure, then added dams and dikes to flood the area. The threat from predators was great, especially hawks, eagles, coyotes, foxes, and even raccoons.
The best locations were in cold, northern regions, where the fur grew thicker and more luxurious.
In 1900, Louisiana harvested the most muskrats. By 1910, it was Minnesota, New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
The early success had land owners who were looking for a more lucrative crop than traditional grain or livestock, or who had swampy, marginal land taking notice.
Muskrat became an important fur in North America. By volume, it surpassed all other fur farming operations. There were millions of pelts harvested each year, and the custom “Hudson Fur” became popular with middle-class women across the world.
In Wyoming, the news came in a syndicated story printed in newspapers across the state in December 1924.
Casper Herald – December 12, 1924
Expect Big Fortune From Muskrat Farm
By International News Service
PERRY, N. Y., Dec. 11. —
“Butts and Claude Curtis have established a muskrat farm south of this village. The farm has been stocked with twenty-five pairs of breeders.
A natural increase of not less than ten muskrats to each pair is expected, and, figuring on a conservative basis, it is estimated that at the end of five years 14,856 muskrats will have been grown.
Ordinarily muskrat pelts are in great demand, and the pelts range from $1.50 to $4. Even if the price were but fifty cents a pelt, the owners say that the gross sum would be nearly $90,000 at the end of five years.”
One man paid particular attention to the profit potential in raising muskrats commercially.
Harry Todd was familiar with the fur industry. He was an experienced trapper working in northeastern Fremont County from Badwater Creek north to the Nowood area above Lysite and Lost Cabin at the foot of the Copper Mountains. Harry lived with his parents in Waltman a small town on the Chicago North Western tracks a few dozen miles from the area he hunted and trapped.
Wind River Mountaineer – December 12, 1913
Big Lot of Pelts and Fur
“Harry Todd of Shoshoni last Saturday brought in 60 coyote pelts and a large quantity of fur to the Shoshoni Hide and Fur Company.”
Todd was able to market the coyote pelts to fur buyers but also picked up predator bounties paid by Fremont County each month.
In January 1914, he made $56 on 46 coyotes, five bobcats, and a wolf. Equivalent to about $1600 today.
The next month, he brought in 36 coyotes, a bobcat, and another wolf and drew $42 from the county treasurer.
Former Fremont County sheriff Charles Stough, now the chairman of the county commissioners, considered Todd the best trapper/hunter in the state.
Coyotes paid a dollar each, and the pelts sold from two to four dollars. It was a lucrative business. It was difficult work, with no guarantee of success. The work was seasonal. The fur was only valuable after the animals put on their winter coats.
After World War I, the wolves were nearly extinct, and the economic collapse after the war ended canceled the bounties on predators.
Harry was an educated trapper. He read the local newspapers when he could find them and discovered the story in the Casper Herald about muskrat farming.
In 1925, he purchased a quarter-section of land along a natural drainage a few miles north of Riverton. The land is now adjacent to the minimum-security Wyoming Honor Farm.
Wyoming Eagle, October 29, 1926
Farm Owner North of Riverton Has State’s Largest Muskrat Farm
“Recently purchasing an additional number of muskrats for his farm, Harry Todd claims the largest muskrat farm in the state. His entire farm of 160 acres is devoted to the industry. Sixty acres are used to grow carrots and grain for the little animals, while 100 acres are inundated for the animals themselves.
The project was made possible through the organization of the Todd Gun Club which comprises fifteen members who took advantage of an offer of Todd’s to pay him a ten dollar membership fee with which to build a dam to hold the water for muskrat breeding purposes and at the same time furnish an excellent place for duck hunting on a private place. This fall some excellent shooting has been witnessed at the artificial lake.”
Harry found a way to earn substantially more than raising corn, grain, sugar beets, or grazing livestock on his 160 acres.
Muskrat farming was unique in comparison to other fur production. It mixed agriculture with wildlife management. Harry was managing habitat, not just raising livestock.
Feeding the muskrats was the biggest expense. Harry fed his carrots, oats, and barley. Other farms, such as one near Kemmerer, had frogs brought in to feed the little omnivores.
Harry trapped the muskrats, slaughtered them, then carefully skinned each rodent. It was a time-consuming process and an intricate one. One slip of the skinning knife could ruin a pelt. When he was finished, he stacked the pelts, much like stretched beaver pelts, and shipped them to processing factories near Chicago.
The process of changing a small, wet rodent into a luxurious fur coat was a long, arduous one with specific steps along the way.
Hundreds of muskrat skins arrived at the factory each day, piled high in large bins and carried through the receiving room. The skins were turned inside out and stamped before workers coated them in a secret chemical mixture. The skins were placed under machines called “kickers.” The kickers had long wooden beams ending in heavy aluminum feet that pounded the pelts over and over again for seven or eight days.
The skins then moved into wooden drums, almost seven feet wide. Workers dropped the pelts into the drums with sawdust treated by special compounds. As the drums spun, the skins rolled through the sawdust until dirt and grease were removed.
Each skin was carefully combed and brushed by hand with fine steel combs. Every tangle of fur and every tiny piece of sawdust was removed.
Workers plucked, sheared, unhaired, dyed, dried, and fleshed each pelt. If even the smallest flaw appeared, the skin was thrown away.
Then came the shearing process. Women first sewed the skins loosely together into long strips. These strips moved under razor-sharp knives that shaved away the long hairs from the backs of the muskrats.
The dyeing rooms were filled with enormous vats of black dye. Paddles churned the skins through the liquid. The pelts were dipped and wrung out six separate times so the color would never fade. A final layer of dye was added to create a glossy shine that made the muskrat fur resemble expensive sealskin.
The rough muskrat pelts had been transformed into luxurious black Hudson Seal fur. The finished skins were stacked together and sent away to be sewn into elegant.
Higher-end coats had the collars lined with mink.
Harry Todd was a muskrat farming pioneer. Others soon followed across Wyoming.
Casper Tribune – April 29, 1928
MUSKRAT FARM MADE READY FOR ANIMALS WEST OF CITY
Keeping pace with the development of new industries in Casper, a company has been formed to promote a muskrat farm to be known as the Madison Fur Farm.
Organizers include E. J. Reid, proprietor of the Cy Restaurant, 246 South Center street; A. H. Christensen and Nick Dickerson.
Twenty pairs of muskrats are expected here Monday, some coming from Maryland, Chester, Pa., and Caledonia, Minn. They are pure breeds of the black northern breeds, Mr. Reid said.
The company has obtained land situated near the Alcova Road, about ten miles west of Casper, for a farm. Sheds have been constructed and arrangements made to provide feed. The farm will be in charge of Mr. Christensen, who was formerly engaged in the business in Iowa.
“The climate here is ideal for fur farming, we believe,” Mr. Reid said, “and we hope that our farm will grow into a thriving business. It is the first muskrat farm to be established in Wyoming.”
Muskrat pelts are said to be worth $3.50 on the market this year. The fur industry depends on the muskrat fur trade as a criterion of conditions and prices, Mr. Reid stated.”
The Alcova venture didn’t make it, closing within a couple of years.
Land that was once considered useless suddenly gained in value. Swamp land, that could be flooded, was marginal at best, but with muskrat farming all the rage, landowners were suddenly able to sell the wetlands.
Riverton Review – March 17, 1927
ACQUIRES THIRTEEN ACRES OF SWAMP FOR FUR FARM
“William Meekem of Dubois has acquired a tract of 13 acres of swamp land which he believes suitable to fur farming and will raise muskrat next year if his plans carry and he is able to get his equipment ready and obtain the breeding stock, says the Lander Journal.
He is convinced that the demand for furs will continue stronger than ever and the shortage of wild furs will be greater due to encroaching civilization which is pushing the old time fur trader further and further into the Northland.
The fur industry he finds upon careful study a profitable one when properly handled and he believes the muskrat is the best bet although the fad of the day is the raising of blue and silver foxes. There are 2,500 fur farms in the United States and Alaska representing an investment of more than $80,000,000. Canada has 1,500 farms with approximately $11,000,000 invested. European countries and Japan are also getting into the industry on a large scale.”
By 1929, there were 14,000,000 muskrats harvested each year in the United States. The money was good, the investment small, and the potential seemed endless. Then October 1929 hit with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange.
People lost millions in minutes, the economy was ravaged, and the well-to-do weren’t flush any longer. The market for even lesser quality “Hudson Seal” began to vanish.
Still, people hoped for a breakthrough, and the muskrat farms continued to pop up around Wyoming. There were farms near Laramie, Worland, Kemmerer, Lander, and Dubois, but they were too late in the game.
Harry Todd was more than just a fur farmer. He was a committed outdoorsman and conservationist as well. Two stories, separated by 300 miles across the vastness of Wyoming, show his love of wildlife and the beneficial work of the Izaak Walton League in Riverton.
Dubois Frontier Courier – March 1, 1929
RAINBOW AND BROOK TROUT DOING NICELY IN THE VALLEY
“The twenty-five thousand Rainbow and Brook trout “fingerlings” which were placed in three retaining ponds on the Harry Todd place in the lower end of the valley are reported to be doing nicely and have attained a size of about four inches.
The ponds have a natural supply of water vegetation, being situated in a well-protected gulch supplied by seepage water forming a constant spring running from the gravel beds of the banks. The fish will be planted in the streams of the county this spring, according to information given out by officials of the local chapter of the Izaak Walton League.”
Sheridan Journal – February 8, 1929
Sportsmen Donate Money to Save Wild Ducks From Starving
“Eugene H. Dobson, inspector for the workmen’s compensation department of the state of Wyoming, who has been stationed in Riverton for the past several days, sends a clipping to the Journal, from the Riverton Review, telling of the efforts made by sportsmen of that region to save a number of wild ducks from starvation.
The story, in part, follows: “Due to the efforts of Harry Todd, of the Todd muskrat farm down the valley, some 500 wild ducks have been saved from the fate of extermination by starvation. Mr. Todd had discovered the plight of these birds, which had been wintering on the lower drainage ditches. During a period last week, he endeavored to appease their hunger by throwing buckets of grain into the ditch where they could get it from the mud, but found their numbers too great to sustain on his own accord, finding many of the birds too weak to fly to safety.
“He came to town last Saturday and gave out the information first hand, with assistance coming forthwith from local sportsmen and the Isaac Walton League, who subscribed amounts assuring plenty of feed for the birds.”
A final muskrat farm opened in Dubois in the spring of 1930, but the end was near. Fashion trends are fickle, and the market for “Hudson Seal” and the muskrat pelts that supplied it were gone.
The fur industry would never be the same, but trends abound in the minds of people looking for an easy fortune. Like every western boom before it, the muskrat craze rose quickly, promised fortunes, and collapsed just as fast.
The boom-and-bust remains alive and well in Wyoming.