Got a beaver or other pelt back

from the tanners and don’t know

how to display it?

The photos shown on this page

are custom hooping for customers

and are not available for sale.

(Our Golden model, Ruby Tuesday
is not for sale either!)

One option is to lace it up on a willow hoop,
similar to how the mountain men dried
their plews (/plo͞o/, a beaver skin,
used as a standard unit of value in the fur trade.)
prior to rendezvous.

Good information on how to do this
can be found on the internet.

Another option is to mail your tanned pelt
to us, and we’ll take it from there.
What you’ll have returned to you will
look beautiful on a wall at home
or in that cabin up north.

Susan and I have been hooping furs for rendezvous sales and online sales,
for a dozen or so years now.

Our hooped furs are now decorating new
Cabela’s stores and are for sale in
the Chadron Fur Museum in Nebraska.

We’re also wholesaling hooped furs
to various retail outlets.
We’ve been accepting trappers’ pelts and
hooping them on the side. In the last couple of years the interest has grown substantially.

With the fur market depressed these
last two years, many trappers are having
some of their better pelts tanned.

What better way to display your fur!

The willow used in the hoops is
sandbar willow (Salix exigua), and is cut
with permission on private property
on the Wisconsin River.

The bark is peeled or scraped to promote
rapid drying, then given a diluted coat
of linseed oil to preserve the wood
and bring out its natural, beautiful colors.

The narrower end of the willow easily fits
into a carved notch in the wider end, which
is then tied into place with artificial sinew.

To finish the hoop, the ends of the willow
are carved to look as if a beaver had
chewed them off. The continuous rawhide
lacing is tanned steer hide of the same
dimension throughout. Your pelt will have
leather “grommets” hide-glued to the
backside through which the lacing passes
so the possibility of a pelt tearing
at a stress point is greatly reduced.

INTERESTED?
Call for more info: 608/356-3621,
or email at riverine_traders@yahoo.com.

FEES:
Lay your tanned beaver or other pelt out flat,
do not stretch it. Measure from nose to base
and add width. (length plus width)
Under 40”--$40, 40-50”--$50,
50-60”--$60, 60-75”--$70,
over 75”--$75.

SHIPPING:
WI, MN, IA, IL, and most of ND, SD, & NE residents pay $15.00 maximum for
an order of 1-10 hooped pelts.

SpeeDee Delivery services these states
at a very low cost. Outside those service
areas shipping is via UPS or USPS and
size restrictions exist. Best call to find out
if shipping will cost too much for outside
of the SpeeDee delivery area.

TURN AROUND TIME:
Depends on what time of the year I
receive your pelt. By winter’s end I’ve used
up most of the willow I’ve got prepared
from last summer. The old saying is
willow is “hoopable” only in months
without an “R”. I’ve tried year-round,
and the saying is fairly accurate.

WE DO HOOP OTHER PELTS:
Check out the gallery page on our website.
We’ve hooped fox, badger, coyote, muskrat, mink, ‘possum, skunk, raccoon, otter,
wolverine and deer.Prices vary by size.
Again, call 608-356-3621.

Personal check, money order or
major credit card accepted using PayPal.
Thank-you!
Mike Widner & Susan Mueller
of Riverine Traders