Jace,
Although we're sort of drifting off the topic a bit, we had to save the
tails. You take the dead gopher lay it on a rock and with a second
rock, you smash the tail until you cut it loose from the body. If you
had you trusty pocket knife you didn't need the rocks. Other animals
get the remains as a tastee snack,& the farmer has fewer gophers eating
his crops. Normally the county establishes the bounty depending on the
quantity of the pests.
Perhaps because the gopher is the national animal/rodent of Minnesota,
they might be held to a different standard. Ducking for cover!
It might have been rabbit's foot (paws) that your thinking about as they
were commonly sold in the 5 & 10 Store.
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx.com
>
>
> The local festival goes well back into the nineteenth century, the
> Viola (MN) Gopher Count each June;
> the town clerk is a member of my congregation and they still pay for
> every set of paws (I believe it
> is now several dollars per).
>
> The WAG boxcars (mostly ex-B&M) were often labeled "For Hide Loading
> Only"; I'm not sure of the
> source for the hides--could well have been from the midwest--but a
> major industry in northwestern
> Pennsylvania was leather tanning, especially at Elkland PA, which got
> started with the abundant hemlock
> bark from the lumbering industry.
>
> Jace Kahn
>
> General Manager
> Ceres & Canisteo RR Co./Champlain County Traction Co.
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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