TRAPPERS' CLAIMS 



devoted his time to the bee culture, having in 

 the meantime invented and patented a bee hive 

 which he manufactured and sold. It was a 

 great improvement over the old-fashioned bee 

 hive. In the winter of 1867 Samuel Irvin be- 

 gan trapping and built a shanty on Little Beach 

 Ridge, Eben Buck, an old pioneer river man, 

 was his skinner and fur dresser. It is said that 

 Buck could skin and dress more hides in an 

 hour than any two trappers on the river. In 

 stretching and dressing a rat hide he was an 

 expert. In the fall of '71 Irvin built a shanty on 

 Quinn's Island on the north side of the river and 

 a little below the north bend. This shanty he 

 used for two seasons then found that he had 

 been encroaching upon the rights of another 

 trapper. Then he sold his shanty to Bill Gran- 

 ger. Folsom moved it to Red Oak and placed 

 it on the site of the one that was burned in '73, 

 In the same year Irvin bought another claim or 

 rather two claims, the Indian Garden Claim and 

 the Crooked Creek Claim, This purchase ex- 



89 



