My First Years in the Fur Trade

My First years in the Fur Trade 1802 ~ 1804
by George Nelson

The story of a 15 yr old boy that signs on to work as a fur trader.. but really has not idea what he is getting into. The book is oddly written... In 1802 when this happened, he kept a journal of what was happening.. he later gave these journals to a friend.. the friend later burned the journals rather than letting them fall into the hands of a rival fur company. So in 1811 he re-wrote the journals.. this is the basis for most of the book. In 1836 he wrote is memiors.. so for each day/even there are 2 entries.. one written in 1811, and one in 1836.. the entries are very different.. time soften his view of most events.. things that seem terrifying in 1811 where everyday in 1836. So that was hard to follow.. worse was that there was no rythm or story being told.. it was a collection of events.. largly concerned with recording how much run they gave away to the Indians, and what they had to eat.. which was not much in the later year... They seems disorganized and clueless. I have read other books of this sort Sandy MacDonald's man was an excellent book that detailed what it was like to be in the fur trade. This book was not!