13 h 0 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Before you set a trap, can you see the woods through an animal’s habits?
In Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper, E. N. Woodcock shares a working life spent hunting game and trapping animals for their fur. His memoir takes you into the American backwoods, where a living depends on knowing the land, choosing the right tools and learning to wait.
Woodcock wants younger outdoorsmen to learn what the woods teach him. He explains how to watch where animals feed, drink, travel and rest before setting a trap. Alongside these practical lessons come accounts of bears and larger game, and a picture of a wilderness way of life under change.
What you’ll discover
- The art of watching Follow animal habits and see why careful observation comes before any successful trapping.
- Tools of the trade Explore traps, snares, deadfalls, baits and scents through the plain explanations of a working trapper.
- Bears demand a steady head Enter accounts where stronger traps, caution and nerve matter when dealing with larger animals.
- Patience as practical knowledge Discover how waiting and close attention belong beside gear in the trapper’s working life.
- A changing backwoods world Look beyond the lessons to a livelihood rooted in the land and the animals it holds.
Who will love it
For readers who love woodcraft, camp cooking, tracking, old trapping methods, and the voice of an outdoorsman telling stories by the fire, and for anyone curious about the Pennsylvania woods of the 1860s.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boy with traps grows up at the mill
- Guns, first kills, and a borrowed gun
- An old trapper teaches the Black Forest craft
- A wary bear teaches more than any man
- Camp life, partners, and the trail of a wounded bear
- Jokes, close calls, and the nerve of the woods
- Practical advice on traps, dogs, and getting lost
- A trapper argues for the animals he hunts
- Last seasons in the South and the West
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Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper
by E. N. Woodcock · 1905
A boy sneaks his father's flintlock to a salt lick, and a trapping life begins in the Pennsylvania woods.
Medium level10–20 hours to readEnglish
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In short
What does it take to follow a bear for six days through four counties, with a trap still clamped on its foot? E.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boy with traps grows up at the mill
Woodcock was born in 1844 in Lymansville, Potter County. His grandfather was Major Lyman, and Woodcock credits that side of the family for his hunger for traps and guns. The woods began at his father's door, and deer fed in the fields each morning.
He set his first traps around his father's gristmill and sawmill, for muskrats, mink, and raccoons. The first trap has a stiff spring, so he begs the blacksmith for weaker ones. He gets three traps he can set himself. When the blacksmith refuses to make any more, his older brother helps him burn charcoal to trade for five more. Later a neighbor named Washburn taught him the chaff bed set for foxes.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1905
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 25 min
- Level
- Medium level
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What is Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper about?
It is E. N. Woodcock's own account of a life spent hunting deer and trapping bears and fur-bearers, mostly in Pennsylvania. It mixes camp stories, trapping methods, humor, and opinions on game laws, with trips to Michigan, the West, and the South.
Who was E. N. Woodcock?
Woodcock was a Pennsylvania hunter and trapper born in 1844. He spends more than fifty years on the trap line and trail, sharing his experiences and advice.
Is Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper a true story?
Yes, it is a memoir written by Woodcock himself, drawn from real seasons in the woods. Many chapters give dates, places, and the names of his partners and neighbors.
The author
E. N. Woodcock
American hunter and writer
E. N. Woodcock was born in 1844 in Lymansville, Potter County, Pennsylvania. He hunted and trapped for more than fifty years in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and the western states. He shares practical lessons, camp memories, and arguments for protecting game and fur-bearing animals.
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