My First Years in the Fur Trade

Captivated by the tales of adventure in the wild northwest told by the voyageurs, fifteen-year-old George Nelson left his family in southern Canada in 1802 and headed out to the Northwest Territory to begin a five-year contract with one of the major fur trade companies of the time. His growth from homesick lad to experienced fur trader over the next two years forms the heart of this unique and fascinating journal. Required to keep a daily journal of the post, Nelson quickly became a vital witness to all that went on around him, recording a vibrant, detailed chronicle that allows us today to glimpse something of this fascinating world. Long treasured by fur trade historians, the early journals of this extraordinary man are here published in their entirety for the first time. His journals offer both an unparalleled view of the fur trade and the story of one boy coming of age on the frontier.

Laura Peers is curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum and lecturer in the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford. She is the author of The Ojibwa of Western Canada, 1780 to 1870 Theresa Schenck is an Ojibwa scholar and author of The Voice of the Crane Echoes Afar: The Sociopolitical Organization of the Lake Superior Ojibwa, 1640-1855