Walter Arnold, Maine Trapper: Stories from one of the Last Mountain Men

by Jeremiah R Wood

Walter Arnold (1894-1980) was one of the last in a long line of independent fur trappers from the mountain man era. Living most of his life in the woods of Maine, Arnold spent his early decades guiding sportsmen in the summer and trapping furbearers in winter, on foot out of remote cabins deep in the Maine woods.Arnold built a reputation in the trapping industry through the dozens of articles he wrote in national outdoor magazines, particularly his writings in Fur-Fish-Game magazine from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. He also manufactured trapping lures and sold scents and ingredients to trappers throughout North America. In his later years, Walter Arnold sold his business and most of his possessions, and retreated to a full time life in the Maine woods, in a trapping cabin only accessible by airplane. It was these years that Arnold gained nationwide popularity as the last woods hermit from a bygone era. In this book, I revisit many of the stories Walter Arnold published in the old days and provide a modern perspective for those of us still fascinated by a traditional lifestyle that’s all but gone today.

415 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 20, 2022

Reviews

[JoAnn Plante · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing in many ways. First, it is about a real-life trapper and his experiences and tips, and techniques. It is unusual to find an author so meticulous in the way he recounts the life of another person - a person he has never met. The trapper Walter Arnold lived at the beginning of the 20th century and is not only a good trapper, but a great story teller. The author, Jeremiah Wood, uses much of Arnold's own writings to tell his tales and recount some interesting times in the deep Maine woods. Not only is it a good read, it is interesting, informative, and realistic. It describes actual events and near misses.
I enjoyed it because it was a fun read and made me laugh in many parts of the book. I'm not a wanna-be-trapper, but it certainly was a great introduction into the life of a trapper and the demands it imposes on the trapper to be successful.
As I look back on the book, I realize that a lot of it is factual information. There are recipes for many different kinds of baits as well as what bait to use for which furbearing animal. Mr. Arnold points out little things that can alert an animal that a human has been around. For example, the human breath. I would never have guessed that that was a huge part of the animals avoiding the traps.
This book was about a subject I knew nothing about, but now feel confident to at least be able to talk to another trapper. Nature is amazing and so are its animals. After reading this book, I've come away with a new respect for trappers and all woodsmen. It really is worth reading.

[Ted Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably the kind of book that is much more interesting to those who are really into and practice the subject. It is almost instructional. I like reading about trappers but not to the degree I want to read about the minutia of methods of setting traps for and attracting fur bearers. I enjoyed the first two thirds of the book that was more "stories from the trapline" and less enjoyed the instructional parts of the book. Still, I finished it.