>>By the way....I read a lot about deer, elk and buffalo but have found
precious little about moose. Is that because they smell so bad when trying
to tan their hides or was moose hide not very popular for some other reason?
I find it pretty tough (long wearing)but very expensive (I usually pick one
hide up per year when a friend makes meat out of one of those big bulls).<<
In the Canadian fur trade (1774-1821), moose leather was very popular for
moccasins, along with bison and elk. Perhaps you haven't found much about
moose below the 49th parallel because, according to my field guide, moose
are found only in the American Rockies and just south of the Great Lakes. In
Canada, you can find moose just about everywhere but southeastern Alberta,
which is a semi-desert. In fact, there was a young moose running loose in
the Calgary suburbs just this morning...he'd taken a wrong turn, I guess.
Your humble & obedient servant,
Angela Gottfred
agottfre@telusplanet.net
------------------------------
Date: 15 Jun 1999 15:18:09 -0700
From: <buck.conner@uswestmail.net>
Subject: Re: MtMan-List: Moose leather
As far as moose and their roaming grounds, Wyoming has always had moose and Colorado has brought moose back in the northern counties within the last 15-20 years. I lived west of Loveland Colorado 25 years ago and found a shed moose horn, called the local college CSU and they came out to the farm and searched the area and found the other side. At that time this was the furtherest southern known moose sighting recorded in this century for Colorado. The last time I checked it was still true and marked as Masonville, CO being the lowest reported sighting of Wyoming type of moose.
As you have mentioned it is very expensive, but very long lasting for foot wear and heavy for clothing, had a long hunter coat that flat wore you out packing it around. When availble, moose hide seems to always be from Canada, brained tanned and darkly smoked, not much choice for color. Probably the trader that was dealing had gotten all of it from one source. I have several items made from moose and really like the weight in smaller items.
Later
Buck Conner
Colorado Territory
> On Tue, 15 June 1999, Angela Gottfred wrote:
> In the Canadian fur trade (1774-1821), moose leather was very popular for
> moccasins, along with bison and elk. Perhaps you haven't found much about
> moose below the 49th parallel because, according to my field guide, moose
> are found only in the American Rockies and just south of the Great Lakes. In
> Canada, you can find moose just about everywhere but southeastern Alberta,
> which is a semi-desert. In fact, there was a young moose running loose in
> the Calgary suburbs just this morning...he'd taken a wrong turn, I guess.
>
> Your humble & obedient servant,
> Angela Gottfred
> agottfre@telusplanet.net
Signup for your free USWEST.mail Email account http://www.uswestmail.net
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 17:15:59 -0600
From: jbrandl@wyoming.com (Joe Brandl)
Subject: Re: MtMan-List: Moose leather
I do not believe there were many moose below Northern Montana prior to
1870's. There are few recording of seeing moose in any journals. Most moose
leather came from Canada or the Minn area. Wyoming did not always have
Like many on the list I have long used leather items made of ole
Bullwinkles hide. My winter pacs though patched many times have kept my
tootsies tolerable through many days of below zero weather. Read
tolerable as not warm and toastie or dry, but tolerable.<<<ggg>>> My wife
has carried a moose hide shooting pouch going on 20 years now, she loves
it. For her Birthday a few years back I had Tom Conde finger weave a
new strap, for the old bag (shooting pouch I mean, not my wife) like all
of Toms work the strap is some punkins. I also use several moose hide
ball bags with color coded beading for storage of different caliber round
balls, since I fool around with everything from .31 to .80. Without the
coding it would be very easy to show up to a shoot with .45's when I
really needed .54s. I have used moose hide for hammer stalls, mockersons,
(my spelling) knife sheaths, slings, straps, cordage, pacs and leggings.
Fact is on some things like canvas reenforcing I have used
Buffler and Moose interchangeably, both have been good materials for my
own personal use. I would recommend everyone try a bit of moose hide for
a project or two then make your own decision. I find that good moose is
not always available so when I find it I try to buy as much as my limited
supply of frog plews will allow. And yes, I save the scraps for rolled
buttons and such.
Respectfully,
C Webb
------------------------------
Date: 15 Jun 1999 17:07:00 -0700
From: <buck.conner@uswestmail.net>
Subject: Re: MtMan-List: Moose leather
As Joe has stated moose weren't native to Wyoming, I read some where that Teddy Roosvelt and his different programs helped many of the animals, like the moose in relocations. Will have to check that for the dates.
Buck Conner
> On Tue, 15 June 1999, Joe Brandl wrote:
>
> I do not believe there were many moose below Northern Montana prior to
> 1870's. There are few recording of seeing moose in any journals. Most moose
> leather came from Canada or the Minn area. Wyoming did not always have
