CHAPTER XIII 



GRAPE ISLAND 



TRAGEDY ON GRAPE ISLAND. 



A TYPE OF TRAPS THAT WERE USED 



BY THE PIONEER HUNTERS FOR CATCHING 



WILD GAME BEFORE STEEL TRAPS 



WERE INVENTED. 



The history of Grape Island is a history with a 

 dark page in it. Grape Island, as well as many 

 other swamp islands, never made any perma- 

 nent settlement but it was inhabited by hunters 

 and trappers during the hunting season. The . 

 island was first inhabited by white men as early 

 as 1844 by a man named Allen Dutcher; who 

 built a shanty and hunted wild game and caught 

 the fur bearing animals in rude traps. A few 

 years later he used steel traps, f^any other old 

 time hunters have made this island their tem- 

 porary home during the trapping season. The 



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