British traders in the 1700s bargaining with the Indians. (Photo courtesy historicfortsnelling.com) NOT LUMBER, FUR & FISH: Primary Industries Quickly Died Due to Over-Use
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first of a three part series on Vanished Industries of Bay County, mainly based on a pamphlet by Catherine Baker published in 1875.)
Object lessons in the need for animal and fish conservation were learned quickly by pioneers of Bay City and Bay County.
Furs that could be obtained from the Indians first brought pioneer settlers to the Saginaw River in the early 1800s.
Beaver, otter, fisher, marten, mink and muskrat were bargained for by French traders who peddled blankets, trinkets and ammunition for the much desired peltry.
Other salable pelts traders obtained here included deer, bear, elk, moose, raccoon and the rare silver gray fox.
Mark R. Putnam, of Caro, has written a poetic description of the fur trade in the Thumb (Indian word Conchradum): "Along the Northwest Thumb of Michigan, On the Thread, Du Fil River, or Sebewaing River, Trading at an early date had begun. Another good place for trapping and trading was the river, Quanicassee.
"At the mouth of the Wiscogan Creek on Saginaw Bay, was a good place for trapping. It was just below Fish Point.
"The Old Indian sacred ground called White Point, On Lake Huron's east shore, also, had many a small, fur trapping creek. Trade, also, took place at the mouth of the Pigeon River . . .And, Pinnebog, River."
Mackinac Island was the center of fur trading operations, first by the French, then the British, and finally Americans. Trade from Mackinac spread southward on Lake Michigan, westward to the end of Lake Superior and down the Mississippi River to much of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Peter Swarh came to "Saginah" while James V.S. Riley, Louis Thibault and Leon Tromble made their headquarters in Lower Saginaw, later known as Bay City.
In the Saginaw Valley a bitter contest was waged between independent traders and the American Fur Company. The latter had established a post in 1824 near the present site of Saginaw, a spot which for years had been the camping ground of Indians.
Leon Tromble also was government agricultural agent who taught Indians to farm as well as representative of the American Fur Company of New York tycoon John Jacob Astor.
The fur trading station only lasted until 1836 when the stocks of fur-bearing animals had declined so much the trade here was no longer viable.
Upper Midwest Media reported the demise of the fur trade: "The business of fur trading left long-lasting effects on the animal life of the Great Lakes today. In many cases, the traders took too many furs. Some animal species were wiped out and will never return. Others like the pine marten are endangered. The timber wolf killed for its hide, for bounty or out of foolish fairy tale fears, was almost wiped out. In just one season the North West Company reported killing 690 at eight of their posts."
Fur trader Thibault, grandfather of Mader Tromble, built a log cabin here in 1788 and constructed two sailing vessels that were the start of nearly 200 years of shipbuilding here.
Fishing was an economic bonanza here in pioneer days -- but it too only lasted a few decades.
Historian Catherine Baker, who also ran a boatyard next to the Saginaw Bay Yacht Club along with her husband, Paul, documented the history of fur trading and fishing here in a pamphlet "Vanished Industries of Bay County." Both Bakers were veterans of the U.S. Navy.
A wide variety of fish teemed in the Saginaw River and bay, including lake trout pickerel, pike, black bass, calico bass and perch, herring and white fish, she wrote.
Pickerel, pike and black bass brought 6-7.5 cents per pound while calico bass and perch were 3 cents a pound. Margins were small as fishermen paid four cents a pound to the Indians for the more desirable species.
Muscalonge also was among the larger fish reportedly harvested by spearing through the ice in winter, according to Mrs. Baker's 1975 publication, sponsored by the Museum of the Great Lakes.
Fish worth $50,000 were caught in 1860 when the industry employed 400-500 men operating 500 nets using about 100 small sailboats.
Patrick J. Perrott, a cooper, in 1845 began furnishing barrels for shipment of fish and then entered the fishing business himself in 1860.
Fish were packed in barrels with layers of ice and shipped by rail to Detroit, New York, Toledo, Cincinnati and Cleveland. Eight firms were operating here in 1884.
"All fish shipped same day as caught," advertised W.A. Beebe & Co., dealers in fresh and salt fish in the Astor House Block, South Bay City. Robert Buetel was a wholesale dealer in fresh and salt fish in West Bay City.
How extensive were supplies of fish in local waters that extended from the river 20 miles into the bay?
Andrew Metevia, who worked on a fishing sail boat from age 10 with Harvey Smith, recalled one day's catch: "In only 16 hauls with a big seine they took enough fish from the bay and mouth of the river to fill 1,400 barrels with dressed and salted white fish, trout, pickerel and sturgeon."
Ice houses, called freezers, were located in Banks, the first ward of West Bay City. The Crystal Ice Company was more than a century ahead of its time, distilling water for drinking beginning in 1892.
W.F. Benson & Sons, wholesale dealers in fish, were established in West Bay City in 1860. The firm had warehouses, ice house and shipping docks on the river. Some 70 men operated from AuSable, Tawas Point, Alabaster, Harmon City (on the AuSable River, later named Ryno), Oak Point and Sand Point.
By the 1920s only four fish companies were listed in the city directory. "River and bay pollution and the lack of conservation greatly diminished the supply of fish and so another industry faded away," wrote Mrs. Baker.
John Baptiste Trudell and Benjamin Cushway, along with Joseph and Mader Tromble, were fur traders and first to obtain government land patents.
Lumber came to the fore after 1848, although the first sawmill had been constructed in 1836-1837.
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