Survey of the Ilhinors 
Fur Resource’ 
HE fur trade played an important 
part during the era of exploration 
and settlement in Illinois. Kaskas- 
kia, the site of which is near Chester, IIl., 
and Cahokia, now a part of the St. Louis, 
Mo., metropolitan area, were important 
posts during the Revolutionary War pe- 
riod, when considerable quantities of I]li- 
nois fur were transported down the Mis- 
sissippi River to New Orleans. Because 
of its strategic central location and prox- 
imity to the more important water routes, 
Fort Dearborn, located where part of 
Chicago now stands, early in the nine- 
teenth century became a leading fur center 
of the vast Great Lakes—Mississippi valley 
region. ‘The Illinois River became and 
long remained the principal avenue of the 
fur trade in the state, and most of the 
trafic was consigned to Chicago, Detroit 
and other Great Lakes centers. By the 
close of the Civil War, St. Louis dom- 
inated the fur trade in the Central States, 
and from that time until the present this 
city has received a large portion of Illinois 
furs. Many Illinois cities, including Pe- 
oria, La Salle, Kankakee, Danville and 
Cairo, had their beginnings as local posts 
in the fur trade. 
The state’s remarkably fertile soil and 
diversity in its prairie and forest types 
made for quality and variety in Illinois 
furs. Although the pelts of only a few 
fur species were important in the early 
trade, the Illinois fur animal fauna ranged 
from the lowly southern opossum to the 
valuable wilderness-inhabiting marten and 
fisher. “The beaver, so important as to 
serve as a basis of exchange during the era 
of exploration in North America, did not 
occur in the same great abundance in the 
prairie state of Illinois as in the heavily 
forested regions farther north. 
*Illinois Federal Aid Publication No. 3. 
Oy Woe Gree bak On N 
1 ee eb ey ens Ga alk, 
As settlement progressed in Illinois, 
most of the species intolerant of the 
changes effected by increasing human ac- 
tivities either retreated northward into 
the forests or were otherwise extirpated 
from the state; a few persisted in such 
small numbers that they are now of no 
commercial consideration. ‘The long list 
of intolerant species includes the marten, 
fisher, timber wolf, panther, black bear, 
lynx, otter, beaver and bobcat. Of these, 
the marten and fisher were the first to go; 
the beaver has been reintroduced; and the 
otter and the bobcat may still occur in 
extremely limited numbers. 
Common or farmland furbearers, such 
as muskrat, mink, raccoon, skunk, foxes, 
weasel and opossum, still persist through- 
out all or most of the state, though some 
in greatly reduced populations. The badg- 
er now has a very restricted range in IIli- 
nois, and the coyote, said to have been 
common during the buffalo or bison era, 
was later nearly exterminated, but is now 
reappearing in greater numbers. It is 
from the farmland species that the annual 
fur harvest has continued without inter- 
ruption through the full duration of [h- 
nois history. Despite all decimating fac- 
tors, necessary and otherwise, affecting fur 
animals and their habitats, and despite 
the almost total lack of management, the 
Illinois fur resource returns an annual in- 
come of over $1,000,000 to the people of 
the state. 
Officials charged with the administra- 
tion of Illinois wildlife have come to ap- 
preciate the actual and potential values of 
the state’s wild fur animals. “Through 
this interest, they proposed the project 
on which this report is based. Formally 
designated as Project 1-R, “Illinois Fur 
Animal Resources Survey,” this project 
was the first Illinois unit of the Federal 
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