Show w u if l I tWIn t- t f. f 1 WIn Ring t- t t THE GREAT OUTDOORS s j Trapper Pe Bert rt Allen Uen was born at atc t c Green reea reen niter lither Wyoming ing In HU Ills His father tather was waa kilted in n a railroad a Incident t eight mo months later Jitter and andt t Bert ert was waa brought to Morgan to tobe tofie be fie raised by his grandmother and her husband James Durrant Durrani jAnd And A d Ive I've Ive I've been catchin ani animals male mals m l. l ever since I wis was big enough to pack a trap Milton Milton- lie Ite Bert says eay with a twinkle In his hie blue eyet eyes When I 1 was wal seven or eight years rears old Lynn Phillips would set my traps for lor me Then Id I'd tie em down with a string etring and I head ead up the river or up Fry Holler Hol ler lu to set em Once a net was was was' made Id I'd undo the string If one of ot the danged things went off oft accidentally then Id I'd have to take it back down and find Lynn Phillips Phillips Phil lips UPI again Id Ill trap all fall and winter that way way and and maybe get one or two coyotes or a n bobcat or some some- I thin r. r During the past 67 years yearn Ive I've trapped along Just Stint about every overy creek and trail 11 between Morgan wand and Park City CHy I dont don't suppose theres there's s 's a canyon canyon in fn Summit um l end and Morgan n counties that I haven't I s spent ent some time in Born To Trap Berts Bert's Interest In trapping Is L. Inherited Mrs Allen tells us us u. His grandfather John Ager Agel traded a nice place there In Farmington for an old cow a shotgun and a half dozen tr traps ps then he came cam to Mon Mor gan One Ono day though John Ager ger was crossing the river there In South Morgan with Morgan with Noal Hemming and John Fry Fry Fry- and was drowned when their boat turned over Berts fathers father's twin brother froze trozo to death on his way back from an Alaskan trapping i tion Uon Government Predator Controller i- i Between 1916 an and 1948 P Be Bert BertAllen rt t Allen worked from tram time to time lot for the government Owen W W. Morrie Morris District Agent f for th the 11 US U.S. Fish h J. I and nd WU Wildlife lite eryl e has bas very kl kindly provided us with ome some trapping totals which were achieved d dby by Bert d during his hIe 19 years of service to a government Predators taken taken 23 23 bears bobcats 1841 coyotes Total predators taken 2024 In 1933 Bert turned In 11 bear scalps And in 1936 alone he caught coyotes The rhe government trapper could mean the difference between success success suc suc- cess teas and failure to the stockmen Many a nian nn many who raised domes domestic ic animals a livelihood was put yut putout putout out of ot Business ss overnight by marauding coyotes or cougars One Une clever v r female coyote nearly bankrupt t a a s at not Dot long Jong ago It took trappers trappers and and good ones ones to to cut down this areas area's once large population of at predators preda tors A government trapper had to put In a good days day's work work remembers Berf ert A guy W was ll pretty much his own boss th though and ugh and the pay was good They're still pay In me In fa fact t Pets N Pelts In the early days Bert trapped muskrats and sold their hides bides t for fora r ra a dime apiece Mrs Allen re re- re calls Then at one time muskrat pelts brought aa as much as Now they're way down again Badger hides s were once worth ten or twelve dollars No never llever been out nut trapping trapping trapping trap trap- ping with Bert says Mrs Mra Alien But Dut Ive I've sUU had bad to live with it It He once kept pot pct badgers and end raised p fn In the he herant rant yard One day his hla badgers got g ot t loose bone and headed beaded straight tor for forthe the chicken coop I got there ere just in Sn time turn turned the garden gardell hose bone on on n them and k kept pt jt It t th there t Th Thais Q po Door poor r tu gora were Ivere almost drowned by bT the tan time Dart Bert finally came home Koine and rounded them up Another timo I 1 let lot Berts Bert's little pet coyote Ginger ride rid rid a over town with me mo In th the pack back a k window of qt our 9 coupe I b bought ak of steak toak took It out and nd put It In the tho car seat leat then th n returned to the toro store t to tb b buy uy the tha rest of 0 fry my 1 groceries When Wheat I finished bed shopping and nd t I ck I H to the Jo car cat Ginger snarl e t f t rt j j let Itt me in SD In I J hadon had Aad to itt U v on the barest erat and wait watt time G U tJi the little Utu devil had bad eaten every en bit bU of ot that weal meat hang ong the tho uses to be quite a few tew tat IU i old rd d here bare too Cert AUen rUfI u I 1 e nt a lot ot or red redone one on r up Lot Loot CreeL Creek Their pelts petta were only lifty cents ceU to a d t. doUl x I tr-s tr t By By Stan Stan SHirl Tg T lr brought up to about A skunks 1 fur fut It ii i. i co ref like a house cat caU I 1 I. I never did rd get moto more than two WO dollars for one of them I caught a tat eat up East Canyon about ten years yearl ago Bert Vert used sell to haul haut an on old t tent nt to tu Peterson on a packhorse set it up and trap from there Hed He'd Iove i move ove the tent headquarters tent as he lie J varied or extended his j Ho Ito usually returned home on Saturday Saturday Sat nights Years Yearn lat later r Bert would take his hili horse to Peterson in a car car trailer From there hed he'd ride hed ride and trap the east slopes of th the Was Wa ate at atch back over as tar far as aB Hards- Hards cra adle ble Then return to Morgan at night Id Pd d let act et to 12 traps along that line Bert relates and mabe maybe maybe may may- be have llave one or two coyotes each time Ume- around Sheep cattle hunters bunters hunt bunt hunters ers and everything else elso bothered those traps Id I'd Just have to em i i J That pe er Cn Creek Cr ek ar and Hardscrabble country Is II about I the roughest I 1 ever got Into You stayed on the trails up In I there or yon didn't go anyplace any any- place I I Helped By Indians The easiest I ever got coyotes coyotes coy coy- otes says Bert was one winter when I was out at Park Valley for the government It was a hard winter and a bunch of ot Indians not far from my camp amp were the wool off ort of ct dead sheep to make warm clothing Id I'd tell those Indians where here Id I'd seen dead sheep and then they'd tell me where t ey had come onto dens of young coyotes I got more than fifty there in a a month that way They got gut plenty plent of wool I 1 got plenty of coyotes Cats Less Common In those days I only caught cue pue pe bobcat to ev every ry ten or twelve e coyotes The last few years its it's I s 's been the other way around We have a lot tot more cats now I You can cant can't t poison a bobcat A coyote just grabs grabe poisoned neat meat reat arid swallows it it A cat chews her meat and spits It out If Its It's bitter I caught a lot Jot of bobcats on the main ridge between Dry Creek Crook and Sharps Sharp's Canyon there east of Morgan recollects D Bert rt Made some sew sets around a dead deer up on that ridge once and caught a female lemale bobcat and her four tour kittens Another time I hunted for a ab b trapped bobcat for tor half halt a day but couldn't find her A few days days' later along the same i 1 could smell the thing By Dy fol fol- fol lowin my nose I finally located her That cat had dragged the trap up into a tree got its chain hooked on a limb and died Bert says that hes he's had some close calls calla but waa was never clawed or bitten by by bya a wildcat I always alway Iwa w wore ore re good flood heavy chaps he explains explain i Lynx A lot of ot people says Bert Derl think that we had lynx cats here herein herein herein in Utah I say nay we wa d Ive I've caught cats that t I thought bought were lynx but they always turned turne l lout out to be bobcats bobcat Besides bavin havin longer hair longer legs and a longer face lr lynx x have 1 black tails taUs all the way around Now a bobcat shed she'd got a ra tU Ott r hh t tift W ift tiff tiff- d tb bt black n on cn top Last Latt of elf the J 1 took ft wok ok moat most of In my f bears eaV lJ le and nd Over Yet in th the Snow Basin country Caught one ono big 7 though up Park City way We ad a he heck k pI pIa of t ta a time bau haulta tho the big cuss out of ot othe i ithe the he hills T That lat about Aboul about the me last ope ppe I 1 ever was saw saw mounted and put In the Stale Slate Capitol Building 1 I dont don't know if tt its it's still aim there or not Bert used to bring live cubs i home too hl his hie wife added bawl all the tho way out out of the hills hill but In a Short hort time Would become fine pets Yeah Seah 1 I brought in hl some little tellers fellers Once 1 t had one chained up by the ho house and it got loose it climbed up a big tig Ig pine tree in front of ot Joe Joo Welchs Welch's place 1 had to go up and and fetch letch it down with the chain Tips To lure animals into traps youve you've got goi to l learn rn to follow their ways waya You ean can trap for tor years and still pick up lip new every everyday everyday day You dont don't have to worry about hl A 1 s smell nell when w e You s set for tor torl l ts put lays lays' sets for lor coyotes you fOU dont don't move inove move a rock off the trail Even kick a astick astick stick slick but out of ot place old mister coyote knows knows' It it To set a trap for him the first thing you do Is II dig diga hole with a coyote foot Then you carefully cover up the trap and bait It with a bit of scent Lions and bobcats dont don't go so no much on smell They'll step right Into into any trap that's covered up good When I set for cats Id I'd just lay sticks sUcks around the trap BO so BOad ad as to guide guHle their feet into its panI pan I baited my traps with homemade homemade home home- made wade scent scent a a mixture of fish Ilsk i cat nip and glycerin n. n A little can cnn of this stuff would last a Week If It I had to Use a lamb or a chicken chicken chic chic- ken or I 1 could only get one set A batch of scent was good for tor all winter Skill It takes me a minute to a minute minute and and a half to to skin a amu mu muskrat krat Son Gall Gail doesn't doest even stop op when he e catch catches one ono and by the tinge time h hes he's s 's walked tiny fifty f Jest t hes he's got Its hide In his hll pocket Beaver are different though It If i takes takes it s about two hours houra to skin cut L one one ot of of them And then another another anther an an- other ther hour to flesh tb the pelt and andt t finish It up up If it a a fellers feller's got 20 or 25 26 go good d be beaver ver sets hes he's busy Big Cougar Take TakeI I Bert rt C caught Ms Fie first i cougar ug r in Norwood Canyon On one occasion occa occa- slon sion up in East Canyon h he got eleven of these canny creatures In 1 t two o days That was over in Sawtooth Bert Beat says where the Bertagnoll noil noll boys run their sheep now now Paul Drub had just moved in with a herd of sheep that night and had big fat tat lambs in a corral curral all ready to dock The next morning not one of those thole lambs was waa alive Lions toad had killed ked em all all Their carcasses carcasses carcasses car car- casses were heaped up clear over the top of of the tho corral bars 1 I i When Bert brought those eleven mountain lions home home lome his wife concludes concludes' the tale all the school kids came over to t. see them laid out in our yard Still Likes WI Wide do Open Spaces year Seventy old Bert Allen Al len still camps up in the Uinta Mountains each spring and au lIe He caught about muskrats muskrats musk musk- rats along the upper Bear Dear River I thus this past pant Jail 1 30 80 leaver and eight or or bine skunks Caught the skunks while white to nab a aI bobcat he tie admits I I Ju Just lI like e to get o out t In the hills MIU and have a rut rest the trapper trap trap- per turned rancher turned mink rancher sums It up up the way with a damn trapper I never got Into company never went anywhere anywhere any any- where always out out ut on the Well now Im I'm set net In my ways and Just want to be beby beby beby by myself A lot of men would go crazy euch such a a. life ute Bert adds with a d chuckle chuckle- o. lck But Dut Ive I've Just the habit of ot stay In home or or b bein ln up in the canyons Sees Changes conditions sure used to to be bo a lot t different than they ar are now v. Throe Three e or four tour years ago I 1 hall bad ad a 8 a string of pt traps In some old sloughs down dawn there by Clear Clear- field Vent back there to Jo look loek lookaround k kato ato around and last Jast fall and fall and found those same sl swamps and ponds all all leveled leveled level level- ed eel off with homes bome on em I t The can canals we trapped trapped In North Ogden not long tong ago are all cemented over now now and hell hells hell's 1 fire they've got big new houses houles on em too look like it'll be long til tU those mU muskrats and beaver and ld stuff wilt will be a l thing of the past Ol 01 mister coyote hell he'll have to move out out Mr have to move out out The bears and wolves are already gone Wish I could come back in inI I another thirty years just to eco ece how things are out STAN pa |