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New Hampshire Trappers Association
Back in those days, much more than today, trapping
was a secretive thing. Few
trappers let on to how many furbearers they were catching.
Trappers didn’t talk much about their methods, lure
recipes were guarded like secret formulas for rocket fuel and
anyone you met on your trapline was considered a possible spy,
thief, claim jumper or other suspicious type.
Most trappers would prefer you didn’t know who they
were or what they were doing.
Malcolm on the other hand was outspoken and gregarious,
he felt confident that no other trapper had done what he had and
so he declared his catch to be a world record.
As time passed his record was accepted since no trapper
came forward to refute it.
Malcolm wrote his first of three trapping manuals
entitled, “The Details of Fox Trapping” in 1946.
Unlike most trappers Malcolm would publicly share his
knowledge, techniques and perceptions about fox trapping in his
manual which would allow him to further capitalize on his world
record catch and establish himself as a trapper of national
standing. That
first big catch with the manual it produced, a long trapping
career with other big catches and two additional manuals in
later years, have assured Malcolm a level of national fame and a
place in trapping history for as long as trappers can read.
Here in New Hampshire the trapping accomplishments of
Malcolm Locke are well known and the closer you get to Barnstead
the more his fame is legendary.
Local people knew Malcolm as more than the famous
trapper, he was a carpenter, a town cop, a serious hunter and
fisherman, a fine farmer who specialized in strawberries and
corn, a generally well known and liked character.
Malcolm’s son John says that for many years they kept
between forty and fifty hounds to run fox, bobcat, and raccoon.
John remembers one blue tick hound named Ole Blue, which
was their best ever, coonhound.
Problem with Ole Blue was that he wouldn’t leave the
skunks and porcupine alone so he was always sick or stinky. The most successful line of coon and cat hounds they ever
produced came by accident when the best Treeing Walker bitch got
loose and bred with the neighbors chow.
Those dogs would run silent on air scent until they
closed on the quarry then would open up just before the tree.
They were rugged fight dogs and a lot of hounds’ men
bought that line. Many
local and seasonal folks knew Malcolm as the farmer who along
with his grandson Nathan operated a large pick your own
strawberry business along with sweet corn sold at the stand.
Malcolm hunted deer with local people and had trapping
partners later in life, he crossed a lot of people’s path and
they all have their memories.
This author traps a small portion of what used to be
Malcolm’s territory and all the landowners that go back that
far remember him well. The
continuing presence of Malcolm on my trapline plays out in
different ways. Sometimes
the landowner will verify that my traps are in the right place,
cause that’s where Malcolm used to set his.
Other times it will be an endearing story from a
landowner that appreciated knowing Malcolm. Fred Goodrich of Barnstead remembers well when Malcolm first
came to ask permission of his father to trap on what was then
the family’s summer home and is now Fred’s residence.
Malcolm was the local one-man part time Police Chief.
Fred’s father was vacillating as to whether he would
give Malcolm permission to trap and Malcolm said, “well you
know if you give me permission to trap out here I guess I can
keep a pretty good eye on things while you’re gone for the
winter, but if you don’t then I guess I won’t have much
reason to be out this way.”
That was how Malcolm added the Goodrich property to what
was a very extensive trapline.
Malcolm’s trapline was one of his most prized and
protected possessions. Malcolm stated his personal attitude on this matter in his
first trapping manual when on page seven he writes; “In establishing your trap-line you may be getting
a little competition, for some of your sets are bound to be seen
and copied by others; this may not bother you too much, but
in the first few years of your trapping, build up a good
trap-line and hang on to it.” Malcolm would hang on to his trapline as best he
could even after his age and health would no longer allow him to
utilize it. In his
youth Malcolm would trap alone but in later years would take on
partners who could learn from him and do the heavy lifting, but
no one was ever allowed to trap his territory without him being
involved. Backing
down from his extensive trapline territory first a little and
then a lot must have been an awkward and difficult process for
Malcolm. Malcolms
trapping partner for the last ten years that he remained active
was John Abbott of Barnstead and Malcolm relinquished his
territory to John.
Malcolm expressed his good fortune that he lived where he
did, when he did, that he was able to have the life, which was
his. Without a
doubt, Malcolm was in the right place at the right time with the
right stuff. When
Malcolm started trapping at nine years old in 1913 the state of
New Hampshire was ninety percent cleared with forests being
mostly along the edges of fields or following a gully on river
bottom. The
environment for small game was fantastic.
Rabbits and partridge were thick and mice and squirrels
were everywhere around crops, fields, and orchards.
Fox were thick in this environment.
When World War II came around our government decided that
farmers in the Northeast should raise the bulk of the chickens
and eggs for the war effort. Large-scale chicken farms were everywhere; the farmers
generally threw out the broken eggs and dead chickens with the
hen manure. Foxes
were attracted to this new food supply and multiplied as a
result of the year round supply of reliable feed.
Malcolm had already attained his trapping skill when in
1945 the fox population was peaking in New Hampshire, the price
for fox pelts was rising and he was available with sufficient
equipment, territory, stamina and knowledge to go after them
aggressively. Malcolm
saw a window of opportunity and he went through it during the
short period it was open. Malcolm made his record fox catch just before the fox
population began its decline.
In the early fifties the government no longer encouraged
the chicken industry exclusively to the Northeast and the
railroads were allowed to raise freight charges on grain shipped
in from the West. The
industry was in a long decline and disappeared completely by the
sixties along with the unnaturally abundant food supply for the
fox. Malcolm
mentions poultry farms several times in his fox-trapping manual,
and one of his highlighted sets was a hen manure pile set. Malcolm would continue trapping through the years and would be presented with another trapping window of opportunity in the mid-sixties. The movement away from farming had allowed the forest growth to come back in the less utilized native pastures so that the state was then about 70-80 percent forested. Small game such as partridge and rabbits were on rapid decline due to change in habitat and a renewed predator on the scene was ravaging what was left. The fisher had retreated north to the few remaining forests staying ahead of the land clearing for agricultural use started by the first European settlers. By the early 1900’s fisher where nearly eliminated from New Hampshire and much of the United States because of over harvesting and poor forestry practices. The New Hampshire fisher-trapping season was closed from 1934 until 1961 when it opened for one month in Rockingham and Strafford counties and twenty were taken. The fisher population was exploding and by 1966 there was a three-month season with no limit on catch. Malcolm had been catching quite a number of fisher each year in his fox sets, which he would let go. The first year he could legally trap fisher he took thirty but by 1966-67 he knew how to catch them and took 206 during the three-month season. The total catch for the state was 407 that year. Malcolm had knocked the population down in his area, which prevented a repeat performance for him in the following years. Malcolm authored his second trapping manual in 1970 titled, “Trapping Tree Climbing Animals” which was primarily a fisher trapping manual. By 1971 the state fisher take had maxed out at 1130 and by 1974 with a lot more trappers after fisher the take was down to 456. The season was closed in 1977 and reopened for two weeks in 1979. Since then Fish and Game has manipulated the season length and limit more closely to manage the population. Presently the season is the month of December, with a limit of ten fisher throughout most of Malcolm’s old territory.
Malcolm really did shine with record fox and fisher
catches but beyond that he was an all around trapper, he
especially enjoyed beaver and otter trapping and wrote his third
and final trapping manual in 1972 which he entitled, “The
Trapping of Beaver and Otter Talk.”
Malcolm never made much money from his trapping manuals
because he couldn’t merchandise them properly.
Eventually Malcolm sold the exclusive rights to his
trapping manuals for $10,000 to Pete Richard another famous
trapper, lure maker, and equipment supplier.
Malcolm’s wife Elva had passed away in 1966 and now he
would finish the last decade of his life in a nursing home
visited often by a large group of faithful friends and a family
which includes two children and seven grand children.
Malcolm’s memories would give him comfort until his
death in the spring of 2000.
Malcolm was a member and past president of the New
Hampshire Trappers Association, many of our older members were
his friends. Eighty-eight
year old Alex Troy of Ossippee use to supply Malcolm with
anthill dirt for his fox sets in exchange for strawberry
preserves. It would
be a rare trapper in New Hampshire who hasn’t read one or all
of Malcolm’s trapping manuals.
At the February directors meeting of the New Hampshire
Trappers Association, Malcolm was nominated for induction into
the Trappers Hall of Fame.
The presentation of award will be made posthumously on
September 16 at the fall meeting with the general membership
present.
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