Copyright July 23, 1998 The Morning Call, Inc., Allentown, PA. Reprinted with permission of The Morning Call.

By Frank Whelan

Trading-post clerk Matthew Hill is standing behind his counter. A potential trader walks in. Hill points out his wares of bright beads and blankets. Swiftly, the trader thrusts forward his beaver pelt and a deal is struck. As another happy customer leaves the small wooden building, Hill is pleased that he has made another trade.

But there is a little twist to this scene. This trading post is not somewhere north of the Yukon but in the center of the National Canal Museum at Easton's Two Rivers Landing. Hill, despite his colorful garb, is not an employee of the fur-trading Hudson's Bay Company. He's a 17-year-old Easton High School student, and his customers are usually bright-eyed children with symbolic paper "buckskins" to trade, not French Canadian or Native American trappers.

It is all a part of "A Trip Back in Time to 1791: The Fur Trade," an exhibit at the canal museum. Major contributors to the exhibit were Explorer Post 1776, Bethlehem historian Robert P.L. Frick, the Jacobsburg Historical Society and museum volunteer Vivian Fishbone.

"It was in many ways a community effort," says Lance Metz, historian at the canal museum.

The exhibit, which continues through Oct. 31, is designed to help youngsters and adults understand an industry that, according to Metz, was instrumental in settling North America. "Cities as diverse as Chicago, St. Louis, Albany and Detroit all grew from fur-trading posts," says Metz.

Metz points out that the impact of the trade was far-flung. For example, the beads produced for the fur trade were largely made in Morano, Italy, an island near the city of Venice. "The fur trade was one of the first international businesses," Metz adds.

When the English, French and Dutch began to explore North America in the 17th century, it was clear that there were no cities of gold like the fabled treasures of the Aztecs and the Incas discovered by Spanish explorers in Central and South America.

The deep forests yielded treasure in the form of fur-bearing animals. Unfortunately for beavers, it was their fur that was highly prized by fashionable hat makers. The little animal became the object of desire among the wealthy and royalty of the Old World.

By the 16th century, fur traders in Europe were being forced to go deeper and deeper into Russia in search of the little animals on which their businesses depended. For them the discovery of North America was equivalent to Cortez's conquest of Mexico.

The early fur trade may have had a foothold in the Delaware River Valley. "There are some very early unsubstantiated rumors that in the 17th century there was a Dutch trading post at what became Phillipsburg," says Metz. A building said to fit the description of a 17th-century Dutch structure was located on the New Jersey side of the Delaware. "But it was torn down long ago and there is no written record," says Metz.

At first, the trading consisted of native Americans bringing furs to European traders. By the 18th century, the Europeans had learned how to trap the fur-bearing animals. With England's victory at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the French were forced out of North America. It left the island nation with control over the continent's fur trade.

By the late 18th century, two major fur-trading businesses, the Northwest Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, dominated the industry.

In the early 19th century, John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant turned fur trader, created what became the giant American Fur Company. Using methods that were regarded as unscrupulous even in a business that had few scruples to begin with, he was able to force the Northwest Co. out of business.

In 1834, Astor left the fur business and invested his profits in New York City real estate, much of it slum property. When he died in 1848, leaving behind a fortune of $ 20 million, Astor was the richest man in the United States. His great-grandson, John Jacob Astor IV, died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

Although the French government was gone from North America after 1763, French Canadians were not. It was the skills that these voyageurs (French for traveler) learned from Native Americans that became essential in the successful fur trade.

"Fur-trading expeditions proved most lucrative when carried out by men from Sorel, Three Rivers, L'Orignal and other Quebec hamlets," writes Grace Lee Nute in her 1955 book, "The Voyageur."

In these towns, "babes grew into manhood with the almost certain knowledge that they would someday paddle canoes for the Northwest Co., the Hudson's Bay Co., the American Fur Co., or a rival firm or trader." Astor once said it would take three American trappers to equal one French-Canadian voyageur.

The exhibit includes a fanciful but accurate model of a French-Canadian voyageur. Short, stocky fellows with broad backs fit the desired physical standard. Anyone more than 5 foot 5 was deemed unsuitable. "It was simply a matter of not being able to fit in a canoe," says Metz. "Being six feet tall was a drawback."

The birch-bark canoe used by the voyageur was a wonder. They came in several sizes. The largest, the Montreal canoe, was 35- to 40-feet-long and was used on the Great Lakes and large rivers. The North canoe, another popular style used by fur traders, was 25-feet-long and was used on smaller streams and lakes. Fourteen men were required to crew a Montreal canoe; eight propelled a North canoe.

The canal museum's exhibit includes a birch-bark canoe created by Henry Vaillancort of Greenville, N.H. At 14-feet-long, it is a smaller model. According to Metz, Vaillancort is one of the last makers of these vessels. They were strong and flexible in rapids, but easy to lift when it was necessary to carry or portage them overland.

Their construction materials made the canoes prone to accidents. A particularly difficult passage over the rapids could destroy a canoe and send the voyageurs, most of whom could not swim, and their cargo to the bottom. Every night before camping the voyageurs, using a torch, would apply melted gum from a pine tree as a type of caulking. Having his canoe split open while in the middle of Lake Superior was a must to avoid.

Focal point of the canal museum's exhibit is the small-scale trading post. The museum staff, assisted by Explorer Post 1776, created the rough-hewn little structure. "At least 100 man hours went into its construction," Metz says.

According to "clerk" Hill, the post has been a fairly busy place since it opened. The children are given little green pieces of paper called buckskins. They can trade these for plastic beads or wooden nickels with the canal museum's logo. "Some of the kids don't really seem to know what's going on," says Hill. "But others catch on quick and love to make deals with me. They can be pretty sharp traders."

On the wall of the post is a beaver pelt, on loan from historian Frick. The feet and head are missing. "The truth is that beaver feet were considered a delicacy by the voyageurs," says Hill. "When I tell the kids this, they always make faces and go 'Yuk!' "

Perhaps the Lehigh Valley's strongest link with the fur trade was the gun-making Henry family of Jacobsburg. The fur-trading companies were among the largest buyers of weapons in North America. Between 1826 and 1858, the Henrys were a major supplier of guns to these companies. They, in turn, traded them to their largely Native-American trappers. The biggest buyer of the Henry weapons was Astor's American Fur Co. Several of these guns are on display in the exhibit.

The guns produced by the Henrys were based on a model that had been used by the English for many years. The Native-American trappers liked what they were used to and would not accept anything different.

Gun-making in the early 1800s was problematic. Most of the weapons produced by the Henrys were praised by the fur traders. But using craft-industry techniques for mass production was bound to result in problems.

Letters from fur traders to the Henrys complain of bursting guns. A shipment of nine out of 10 of a certain type of rifle apparently exploded. "The Indians will not touch them," one fur company wrote to the Henrys. "The 10th and last one they returned and would not risk to shoot it off."

By the time the Henrys entered the fur-trading business, its glory days were over. By the 1840s the traditional fur trade in North America had run its course. It could no longer compete with factory-produced fabrics. Greed led to the near extinction of the fur-bearing animals on which the industry was based. Although the fur industry survived, the era of the voyageur had come to an end.

"Our hope is that the exhibit will give visitors an idea of the important role played by the fur trade in the development of North America," says Metz.

"A Trip Back In Time to 1791: The Fur Trade," continues through Oct. 31 at the National Canal Museum, Two Rivers Landing, Centre Square, Easton.

Directions: The National Canal Museum is located on the second floor of Two Rivers Landing in the southwest quadrant of Centre Square (off South Third St.). It is two blocks south of U.S. 22 or 1.5 north of I-78's Easton exit.

Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday, except Martin Luther King Jr., President's, Memorial, Labor and Columbus days. Closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day. Summer Hours (May 26-Sept. 6): 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.

Admission: Adults and children, $ 7; seniors, $ 6.50; children under 2, free. Admission includes both the National Canal Museum and the Crayola Factory. Occasionally, admission is limited based on the building's capacity. (610) 515-8000.