FORT NELSON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 October 1941, Page 7

FORT NELSON

ONE OF EARTH’S RICHEST VILLAGES. CENTRE OF TRAPPING INDUSTRY. FORT NELSON, B.C. Perched high above the fast-running Nelson river, 300 miles from its nearest 1 neighbour and deep in the British Columbia timberland, is Fort Nelson, a frontier town which outshines all the wild and woolly fiction of. the subArctic. Fort Nelson is one of the richest villages on earth, and its 278 men, .16 children and six women have a better’ average income than the people of any Canadian city. However at Fort Nelson, which is 1,000 miles due north of Vancouver, gasoline costs 2 dollars a gallon, and soft drinks are 45 cents each. This is the only place in all Canada where trappers, in season, can take all the beaver they can catch, and the finest beaver creeks in the world are situated here. The export of beaver from Fort Nelson this spring exceeded 4,000 pelts, at a total value of 116,000 dollars. As high as 50 dollars has been paid for one pelt, but the average price is 26.50 dollars. Fort Nelson is also the finest marten country in Canada, and th'is spring’s catch ran about 1,200 at an average price of GO dollars, making the total value 72,000 dollars for these skins. Lynx, otter, fisher, fox and muskrat are also trapped. In the season just ended the trappers of Fort Nelson have received over 300,000 dollars for their pelts, or more than 1,000 dollars for every man, woman and child in the village. The Worst enemies of the trappers on the trail are wolves, grizzly bears and black bears. Bears, given enouph time, can break open any cache built by man. Caches here are built eight to ten feet high, on stilts, and set with an overhanging roof at such an angle that a bear can’t smash it apart without weeks of effort. Even so bears sometimes crash their way into a highstilted cache and devour a whole season’s supply of skins. Trappers pay a 10 dollars licence fee, and a royalty of 1 dollar a pelt. Trap lines are patented, just like mechanical gadgets. Only residents of British Columbia can trap at Fort Nelson,