EPISODE 866 REAL TRAPPER’S CABIN as found in 1957

alan skeoch

august 4, 2023

 The Trapper’s cabin was a surprise discovery by our crew in 1957.  There were no trails

to the cabin.  No tree blazes.  Seemed to be used for winter access although the cabin was on the banks of a small stream

that ultinatey flowed into the mighty Groundhog River which emptied into James Bay en route to the Arctic.

The cabin was primitive …. one door and one window.  Door closed but window smashed wide open perhaps by a

ber smelling a carcass.   Inside was room to sleep and a place to sit beside a hand made table although the signs of 

life were hard to decipher since the sod roof had leaked for some time.

I wish I had taken the time to photograph the interior but my try Brownie camera would not have

captured much and most can be deduced by rotting remains in the cabin exterior.  I seem to remember spikes on the wall

of the cabin where the trapper stopped skins from bodies.  There were some skeletal remains on the ground

  But little else.

Some disaster may have happened because we came across places where the trapper had set his traps and 

just loft them.   Some had the carcasses of small animals such as beaver or muskrat.  Left to suffer death

in  leg hold trap.   Leg hold traps  are now illegal.  Quick death traps are better.  Better for whom?

What were we doing in the wilderness in the first place?

Briefly put we were searching for magnetic ore bodies located in the bed rock deep

bellow the overburden of spruce, birch, poplar and cedar that clothed a section of Canada’s boreal foesrt in the 

untracked (except for the trapper)  wilderness east and west of the Groundhog River of Northern Ontario.

Floyd Faulkner, Bob Hilkar, Walter Helstein and I were the ground team.  We had air photos that gave odd readings

by airborne magnetometer that had to be checked and perhaps staked.  Highly secret work.

Today this is all done by helicopters in a few days,  For us it would take all summer and a good part of September.

Lots of blood, sweat and tears.  Amend that no tears but lots of blood lost to bugs and axe cuts…and lots of sweat.

Noone would  ever believe how tough that job turned out to be.  Worst thing was when Walter sipped on a log and impaled his

hand on a sharpened tag alder picket.  Weather turned bad and it took several days before a plane could reach us.  His hand got

infected but we cold nothing for him.  We never saw

Walter again.

Over the years I gathered a good pile of trappers goods……traps, bear skin coat, moose skulls with antlers, assored skulls, 

stretching boards ,blazing axes, beaver skins, canoes etc. etc.   Lucky we did,  Murdoch Mysteries Film crew needed all

we had last month.

P.S.   My moosehead skull and antlers were brought home from the Groundhog River job.