I. Trapping was started in the USA way back when to support the making of beaver pelt top hats. Those tall big hats like you see on Abraham Lincoln. It was a European driven market. Many large fur companies such as the Hudson Bay Company would contract woodsmen to trap beaver for their hattery orders. It was one of the largest and richest industries in the Americas' younger days.

II. Trappers such as Jim Bridger would spend most of the fall and winter in thier trapping grounds. They not only trapped beaver, but many other species. Many of the other species they trapped could be traded with Native Americans and furbuyers for staples such as pemmican, sugar, and coffee. It was a very rough life, and many trappers suffered a cold and painful death in the wilds of America. After many years the top hat craze in Europe stopped and the beaver markets fell away. Many trappers found work as guides for people looking to move westward across America. Some simply lived thier lives out in the wilds from wich they had lived for so long.

III. Trapping continued along on a much smaller scale for many years. There was still a need for fur and people used it for things: clothing, blankets, and many other items. Farming was a major part of local life. Trappers at this time were valued in the communities for being the ones who kept coons out of corncribs and predators from killing livestock.  During this time trappers and trap makers began creating better traps. They made them more "humane" and lighter. They removed teeth from traps and found ways to make traps more comfortable for restraining animals. Local and federal governments employed trappers across the country to help keep the furbearers populations in check.

IV.  In the modern day we had a "fur boom" From the 1960's through the early 1980's. Fur had definitely come back into fashion and prices for fur skins soared. This was a great time and a terrible time to be a trapper. It was great because furbearing animals were plentiful and prices were high. We hear stories of trappers buying farms and raising families on thier fur checks. Traps were relatively inexpensive, gas was cheap, things were really going well for the fur industry. One of the bad things that came out of this period, is the way sportsmen behaved. There was a term used when trappers would find they were missing a trap that obviously had a catch in it during the night, the term was;"Johnny Sneak'em". Many people who wanted to cash in on the high fur prices prefered to steal their critters from traps set by others. People who prefered to catch their fur by chasing them with hounds, would let thier hounds trespass on properties that they had no permission to be on. Some people even drove around "spotlighting" and shooting furbearers from the roads. All of this was shameful and illegal, and quickly lent itself to giving the fur trade a bad reputation. Many times trappers have been blamed for acts they had no hand in simply because they were a "fur taker." This sparked the rise of the modern animal rights movement. It was not all due to the fur industry, of course, but these things made it easier for this foolish Eroupean movement to gain a foothold here in th USA.

V. The animal rights movement has become an enormous money maker for those that run the show. They spend millions of dollars every year portraying traps and trappers in a very bad way. Many people believe that they are helping wildlife by giving money to the Humane Society and PETA. The truth is that traps and trapping have never been more neccessary than in todays "conservation" minded public.

VI.  Since the fur boom has ended, furbearer populations have exploded. There have never been more furbearers walking the woods of Oklahoma than there is right now. Trapping is needed to help control these high populations. Many species of animals have no other method of controlling their numbers beside trapping. Beaver, opposum, skunks, muskrats and other animals are controlled by no other method than trapping. Oklahomans' spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on beaver damage control alone. Thousands of dollars are lost to predators. If trapping were to be outlawed today, the cost of repairing and keeping up with diseased and sick animals and the damage created by wildlife would skyrocket. 

VII. The OFBA promotes the ethical and effective method of trapping our most renewable resource, furbearers. We have 2 conventions per year. We host at least two, and sometimes three fur auctions annually. The OFBA sponsors a youth trappers camp, which will be held the first weekend of Dec., and a youth predator calling contest ewch year at the Wildlife Expo.  We have beaver conibear safety courses to certify those who wish to use these traps in OK. We want to educate, teach and inform any who wish to become wise users of furbearing species. We teach how to properly use traps and to manage species numbers on the areas that we trap - to maintain healthy, habitat friendly populations of furbears here in OK. We work to inform the public of the need for traps and trapping to help all our wonderful species of wildlife. We need to support one another as sportsmen. You can help support the OFBA by joining today.