Beaver Trade

Beaver Trade. . The beaver trade brought a new figure to the American West, the "Mountain Man." Brigades of these rugged, industrious trappers worked rivers and streams in search of beavers. Between 1820-1840, millions of animals were trapped and killed, their fur used for top hats, their oils used for perfumes. , The heyday of the beaver trade here was short-lived, yet within just a few decades, a few thousand trappers changed the physical and cultural landscape of the West. , Beavers were hunted almost to extinction. , Alfred Jacob Miller, of Baltimore, Maryland, painted trappers at work in 1837. Miller was one of a very few artists who actually saw trappers in person and traveled to their annual summer trade fair, called "Rendezvous." , Trappers traded and lived with Indians and often married Indian women. Their presence brought alcohol, firearms, and disease to the tribes, which transformed Indian societies.