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Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver
Discover deeper truths and quirky facts that cast new light on this keystone species
Beavers, those icons of industriousness, have been gnawing down trees, building dams, shaping the land, and creating critical habitat in North America for at least a million years. Once one of the continent’s most ubiquitous mammals, they ranged from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande to the edge of the northern tundra. Wherever there was wood and water, there were beavers — 60 million (or more) — and wherever there were beavers, there were intricate natural communities that depended on their activities. Then the European fur traders arrived.
In Once They Were Hats, Frances Backhouse examines humanity’s 15,000-year relationship with Castor canadensis, and the beaver’s even older relationship with North American landscapes and ecosystems. From the waterlogged environs of the Beaver Capital of Canada to the wilderness cabin that controversial conservationist Grey Owl shared with pet beavers; from a bustling workshop where craftsmen make beaver-felt cowboy hats using century-old tools to a tidal marsh where an almost-lost link between beavers and salmon was recently found, Backhouse goes on a journey of discovery to find out what happened after we nearly wiped this essential animal off the map, and how we can learn to live with beavers now that they’re returning.
Beavers, those icons of industriousness, have been gnawing down trees, building dams, shaping the land, and creating critical habitat in North America for at least a million years. Once one of the continent’s most ubiquitous mammals, they ranged from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande to the edge of the northern tundra. Wherever there was wood and water, there were beavers — 60 million (or more) — and wherever there were beavers, there were intricate natural communities that depended on their activities. Then the European fur traders arrived.
In Once They Were Hats, Frances Backhouse examines humanity’s 15,000-year relationship with Castor canadensis, and the beaver’s even older relationship with North American landscapes and ecosystems. From the waterlogged environs of the Beaver Capital of Canada to the wilderness cabin that controversial conservationist Grey Owl shared with pet beavers; from a bustling workshop where craftsmen make beaver-felt cowboy hats using century-old tools to a tidal marsh where an almost-lost link between beavers and salmon was recently found, Backhouse goes on a journey of discovery to find out what happened after we nearly wiped this essential animal off the map, and how we can learn to live with beavers now that they’re returning.
275 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2015
59 people are currently reading
783 people want to read
About the author
Frances Backhouse
16 books8 followersFrances Backhouse is a veteran freelance journalist who has written for Audubon, New Scientist, Canadian Geographic and numerous other magazines. Her training and experience as a biologist inform her environmental writing, including her books about owls and woodpeckers. Her other three books reflect her ongoing fascination with Klondike gold rush history.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
July 16, 2015
"Dear American Friends: Up here in Canada we're proud of our beavers. We study them. Write about them. And proudly talk about them.
It's not our fault you have dirty minds.
Love, Your Canadian neighbo u rs."
An interesting book full of beaverish anecdotes, facts, and stories. Their prehistoric ancestors, our relationship with them, how they get made into hats, and why they're important to the environment. And for the more adventurous, there's even a short story about parachuting beavers. I'm not kidding.
But there's no overarching narrative to the book. Every chapter could be read in isolation as a kind of "oh, that's interesting" factoid. So, it's good enough to finish, but the world still awaits that great beaver adventure.
It's not our fault you have dirty minds.
Love, Your Canadian neighbo u rs."
An interesting book full of beaverish anecdotes, facts, and stories. Their prehistoric ancestors, our relationship with them, how they get made into hats, and why they're important to the environment. And for the more adventurous, there's even a short story about parachuting beavers. I'm not kidding.
But there's no overarching narrative to the book. Every chapter could be read in isolation as a kind of "oh, that's interesting" factoid. So, it's good enough to finish, but the world still awaits that great beaver adventure.
July 10, 2016
More entertaining than you would expect. Extremely well-written, and loaded with funny anecdotes. I would describe it as more of a social history of beavers rather than pure biology, but definitely worth the read, regardless. The author has done her homework here, digging up obscure information about Grey Owl, an Englishman who adopted this moniker after giving up trapping beavers, and took up publicizing them instead. She also attends fur auctions, visits a hat manufacturer, and meets with hydrologists, biologists and First Nations tribal members.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys natural history.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys natural history.
November 22, 2022
3.5 rounded up
There is lots of beaverish information for us beaver-o-philes. Oh mighty castor canadensis, lynchpin of the riperian wilderness!
Most of the 250 p book concerns itself with the disastrous relationship between fur trappers and beavers in centuries past, where men nearly wiped beaver off the face of North America. The continent had been water shaped and terraformed by these amazing animals - and we lost them, and what they had done to fundamentally shape the land, provide for endless biodiversity, you name it, over centuries.
I almost stopped after the first 50% because there was just too much (for me) about making beavers into hats, with real exactitude. How to trap. How to kill. How to buy/sell fur.
Chapter 8 is the main information that I wanted. Real beaver studies, hydrology, beavers in tidal basins, biology. OK that's not the book she wrote, but that's what I wanted to read. It was very good. I'd like to read more of this, and less about hats.
There is lots of beaverish information for us beaver-o-philes. Oh mighty castor canadensis, lynchpin of the riperian wilderness!
Most of the 250 p book concerns itself with the disastrous relationship between fur trappers and beavers in centuries past, where men nearly wiped beaver off the face of North America. The continent had been water shaped and terraformed by these amazing animals - and we lost them, and what they had done to fundamentally shape the land, provide for endless biodiversity, you name it, over centuries.
I almost stopped after the first 50% because there was just too much (for me) about making beavers into hats, with real exactitude. How to trap. How to kill. How to buy/sell fur.
Chapter 8 is the main information that I wanted. Real beaver studies, hydrology, beavers in tidal basins, biology. OK that's not the book she wrote, but that's what I wanted to read. It was very good. I'd like to read more of this, and less about hats.
May 13, 2019
Visits to beaver-significant places (from remote locations that mimic the pre-European beaver landscape of Canada to a hat factory) and interviews with experts on history, the fur business, hat-making, and ecology.
Less padded than nonfiction normally is, and full of interesting facts: did you know that there was a period when large parts of North America had currency that was not on the gold standard but on the beaver pelt standard? Did you know that beavers are considered a "keystone species" in their ecologies because they change the geography and alter which species of plants will grow there, which in turn alters which species of animals choose to live there?
The self-consciously jokey tone bothered me in the introduction and then stopped bothering me; I don't know whether the author toned it down once the interviews started or whether I just got accustomed to it.
What I really wanted to know more about was the mosquitoes. I get that wetlands, in addition to mitigating both flood and drought, are vital for species diversity, but the species that they shelter definitely include mosquitoes. The author mentions them -- very vividly -- in the sections where she visits locations where beavers have changed the landscape, but she doesn't interview any public-health specialists, epidemiologists, or mosquito-net sellers. If it's important for humans to coexist with beavers, then it's going to be important for us to survive coexisting with mosquitoes.
Less padded than nonfiction normally is, and full of interesting facts: did you know that there was a period when large parts of North America had currency that was not on the gold standard but on the beaver pelt standard? Did you know that beavers are considered a "keystone species" in their ecologies because they change the geography and alter which species of plants will grow there, which in turn alters which species of animals choose to live there?
The self-consciously jokey tone bothered me in the introduction and then stopped bothering me; I don't know whether the author toned it down once the interviews started or whether I just got accustomed to it.
What I really wanted to know more about was the mosquitoes. I get that wetlands, in addition to mitigating both flood and drought, are vital for species diversity, but the species that they shelter definitely include mosquitoes. The author mentions them -- very vividly -- in the sections where she visits locations where beavers have changed the landscape, but she doesn't interview any public-health specialists, epidemiologists, or mosquito-net sellers. If it's important for humans to coexist with beavers, then it's going to be important for us to survive coexisting with mosquitoes.
September 10, 2016
I enjoyed the book very much, save one chapter which I found a bit tedious to read (chapter 6), and some of the publisher's editorial decisions (E.g., why cheap out on the photos? Why wouldn't you caption them? They look terrible!). A very interesting discussion in the final chapter of how beavers are "keystone partners" in ecosystem restoration and water conservation initiatives in face of their frequent dismissal as troublesome pests. (I do love me an underdog!)
Maybe the BEST part of this book was learning about skydiving beavers (yes, really).
Maybe the BEST part of this book was learning about skydiving beavers (yes, really).
May 9, 2019
I wanted to like this more than I did. It seemed kind of formulaic to me with a writer going around visiting people & places and weaving in some history and science among the adventures. It's depressing to read of how North Americans tried to eradicate yet another species. One could read this as a description of capitalism's folly. My favorite parts were about the amazing things beavers do in their ecosystems. I wanted much more of that. Pleasant enough and informative.
January 7, 2023
Super fun book to read! I learned a ton.
May 6, 2016
This delightful non-fiction book takes us through the history of the beaver, mainly in North America, and the phenomenal impact it has on our environment and landscape. From near decimation during the height of the fur trade to a remarkable rebound, the beaver has played an important role in the shaping of our nation.
The book is really well written and takes what could be a dry subject and makes it engaging. It's written in a style similar to that of Mary Roach (although without the delightful footnotes) and the author's blurb describes her as a teacher of "creative non-fiction". I think that's the best description for this work. It's factual and well researched, but there's a story behind the facts. Following the author as she meets with various experts and travels to some off the beaten path (way off, like there is no path) locations pulls you in to understanding the history.
The book has nine chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of the beaver's history. The chapters can each be read as their own mini story and I found them fascinating. The books takes us to a remote area in Saskatchewan dubbed the Beaver Capital of Canada, to the Museum of Nature in Ottawa, to Riding National Park in Manitoba, and back to Ontario. The breadth of people that the author interviewed and researched is as wide as the Canadian landscape that she traversed. From the fur auction houses in Toronto, to research scientists studying the impacts of beaver activity on the landscape, to North American First Nations people who have their own stories of the beaver it was wonderful to meet all the people in this book.
There are so many interesting facts
- a program was designed to parachute (yup, parachute) beavers in boxes into remote areas to help with repopulation. A rather stoic beaver named Geronimo acted as the "test pilot" a number of times before finally being parachuted into his final new location.
- the beaver acts as a "keystone species", one who's presence (or absence) can have a profound impact on an ecological system. In the tidal marshes of the Skagit River Delta (in Washington State) beaver dams actually provide refuges for salmon during low tide.
- a good quality 19th century beaver hat took two-three pelts to make. The under-fur of the beaver is removed from the pelt and felted to make these hats. Beaver fur is still used today for hats.
While this book may not be your typical summer beach read, I found it was a both a fascinating and compelling read and it well worth checking out.
The book is really well written and takes what could be a dry subject and makes it engaging. It's written in a style similar to that of Mary Roach (although without the delightful footnotes) and the author's blurb describes her as a teacher of "creative non-fiction". I think that's the best description for this work. It's factual and well researched, but there's a story behind the facts. Following the author as she meets with various experts and travels to some off the beaten path (way off, like there is no path) locations pulls you in to understanding the history.
The book has nine chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of the beaver's history. The chapters can each be read as their own mini story and I found them fascinating. The books takes us to a remote area in Saskatchewan dubbed the Beaver Capital of Canada, to the Museum of Nature in Ottawa, to Riding National Park in Manitoba, and back to Ontario. The breadth of people that the author interviewed and researched is as wide as the Canadian landscape that she traversed. From the fur auction houses in Toronto, to research scientists studying the impacts of beaver activity on the landscape, to North American First Nations people who have their own stories of the beaver it was wonderful to meet all the people in this book.
There are so many interesting facts
- a program was designed to parachute (yup, parachute) beavers in boxes into remote areas to help with repopulation. A rather stoic beaver named Geronimo acted as the "test pilot" a number of times before finally being parachuted into his final new location.
- the beaver acts as a "keystone species", one who's presence (or absence) can have a profound impact on an ecological system. In the tidal marshes of the Skagit River Delta (in Washington State) beaver dams actually provide refuges for salmon during low tide.
- a good quality 19th century beaver hat took two-three pelts to make. The under-fur of the beaver is removed from the pelt and felted to make these hats. Beaver fur is still used today for hats.
While this book may not be your typical summer beach read, I found it was a both a fascinating and compelling read and it well worth checking out.
February 27, 2017
I thoroughly enjoyed this book - except one part - in which the author went here, there and everywhere connected with beavers past and present, from a British museum to Canadian network of dams and lodges visible from space. She investigated history - beavers lived at the headwater of just about every river on the North American continent and their ancestors spread across Beringia to Asia and to Europe.
We find out about four million year old gnaw marks on wood, and how beaver lakes created a good environment for early peoples. This changed with the 1700s influx of European fur traders; beavers were almost wiped out over 200 years.
Now the part I disliked; the author visited a fur auction warehouse and even learnt about skinning in person. But it's all research and she didn't enjoy it either. She also found out how hats are and were made from felted fur.
And of course the 20th century conservation movement which has led to today's return of beavers, amazingly even to New York city. We learn that the landscape engineering of beavers - as they forced rivers to spread and slow - changed the face of the continent and the loss of beaver dams may be a reason why aquifers are dropping, rivers are flooding and droughts are spreading. This is a fascinating read and will appeal to many people for different reasons.
We find out about four million year old gnaw marks on wood, and how beaver lakes created a good environment for early peoples. This changed with the 1700s influx of European fur traders; beavers were almost wiped out over 200 years.
Now the part I disliked; the author visited a fur auction warehouse and even learnt about skinning in person. But it's all research and she didn't enjoy it either. She also found out how hats are and were made from felted fur.
And of course the 20th century conservation movement which has led to today's return of beavers, amazingly even to New York city. We learn that the landscape engineering of beavers - as they forced rivers to spread and slow - changed the face of the continent and the loss of beaver dams may be a reason why aquifers are dropping, rivers are flooding and droughts are spreading. This is a fascinating read and will appeal to many people for different reasons.
September 16, 2015
A great read. Who would have thought that a beaver would have such an impact on the environment? before pesky Europeans showed up and very nearly wiped them out the humble beaver was an environmental engineer of the highest order.
June 19, 2024
Environmentally, beavers are very important animals. "For no less than a million years, and possibly as long as 24 million, beavers in one form or another have been sculpting the continental landscape by controlling the flow of water and the accumulation of sediments filling whole valleys and rerouting rivers, in places. For an equal length of time, they've also been nudging other species down distinctive evolutionary paths, from trees that have developed defenses against the woodcutters to a multitude of plants and animals that rely on beaver-built environments."
Remains of the early beaver Dipoides have been found on Ellesmere Island. Wood has been recovered showing that Dipoides was also a wood eater, although its teeth were less efficient than those of Castor. During the Pleistocene, the giant beaver Castoroides thrived, weighing in at 60 to 100 kilograms.
As far back as the Greeks, beavers were valued for the castoreum produced in the castor glands. Besides seeking castoreum, Britons and Europeans also hunted beavers for food. "This pressure intensified in the Middle Ages after church authorities classified the beaver's scaly tail as a fish, making it permissible Lenten fare. The body flesh, however, was still considered mammal meat and therefore forbidden."
Beavers were heavily hunted during the years of the fur trade, largely for hats, to the point where it was estimated that the population was down to 100,000. The Hudson Bay Company (HBC) governor, George Simpson, did some work to preserve beaver populations in the Canadian western interior, but he also tried to create a beaver "desert" in the lower Columbia to protect the more northern fur trade from American intrusion. In the early 1920's the Rupert House factor, James Watt, lead the establishment of the 18,600 acre Rupert House Beaver Preserve. Backhouse tells the story of Grey Owl who was instrumental in publicizing the beaver.
The author visits Smithbilt Hats in Calgary and examines the entire process of using beaver skins to make felt and then hats. She also visits.
In the early years of the fur trade the "made beaver" was established as a unit of currency by the HBC, who issued coins representing the MB. In the trade, beavers are considered equivalent to currency with early trappers referring to them as "hairy banknotes". Backhouse relates her experiences attending the annual auction run by North American Fur Auctions (NAFA). Backhouse meets a trapper to learn the ins and outs of preparing beaver pelts.
A number of researchers study the effect of beavers on ecosystems. Dr. Greg Hood had discovered beavers working in the tidal flats of the Skagit Delta which build dams that are inundated by the tides but retain enough water to provide a low tide refuge for smaller fish. Cherie Westbrook has shown that beavers redistribute sediment "... as if the beavers had been driving around in bulldozers", expanding the area of river bottom that is colonized by willows and other plants.
In the final chapter, Backhouse examines the encroachment of beavers on human activities and how this can be managed so that humans and beavers can coexist happily. Pond levellers are pipes through beaver dams with a wire covered intake set at a level to limit the water height, and have been found to be quite effective.
Remains of the early beaver Dipoides have been found on Ellesmere Island. Wood has been recovered showing that Dipoides was also a wood eater, although its teeth were less efficient than those of Castor. During the Pleistocene, the giant beaver Castoroides thrived, weighing in at 60 to 100 kilograms.
As far back as the Greeks, beavers were valued for the castoreum produced in the castor glands. Besides seeking castoreum, Britons and Europeans also hunted beavers for food. "This pressure intensified in the Middle Ages after church authorities classified the beaver's scaly tail as a fish, making it permissible Lenten fare. The body flesh, however, was still considered mammal meat and therefore forbidden."
Beavers were heavily hunted during the years of the fur trade, largely for hats, to the point where it was estimated that the population was down to 100,000. The Hudson Bay Company (HBC) governor, George Simpson, did some work to preserve beaver populations in the Canadian western interior, but he also tried to create a beaver "desert" in the lower Columbia to protect the more northern fur trade from American intrusion. In the early 1920's the Rupert House factor, James Watt, lead the establishment of the 18,600 acre Rupert House Beaver Preserve. Backhouse tells the story of Grey Owl who was instrumental in publicizing the beaver.
The author visits Smithbilt Hats in Calgary and examines the entire process of using beaver skins to make felt and then hats. She also visits.
In the early years of the fur trade the "made beaver" was established as a unit of currency by the HBC, who issued coins representing the MB. In the trade, beavers are considered equivalent to currency with early trappers referring to them as "hairy banknotes". Backhouse relates her experiences attending the annual auction run by North American Fur Auctions (NAFA). Backhouse meets a trapper to learn the ins and outs of preparing beaver pelts.
A number of researchers study the effect of beavers on ecosystems. Dr. Greg Hood had discovered beavers working in the tidal flats of the Skagit Delta which build dams that are inundated by the tides but retain enough water to provide a low tide refuge for smaller fish. Cherie Westbrook has shown that beavers redistribute sediment "... as if the beavers had been driving around in bulldozers", expanding the area of river bottom that is colonized by willows and other plants.
In the final chapter, Backhouse examines the encroachment of beavers on human activities and how this can be managed so that humans and beavers can coexist happily. Pond levellers are pipes through beaver dams with a wire covered intake set at a level to limit the water height, and have been found to be quite effective.
December 18, 2020
A second fine book about beavers along side Eager, by Ben Goldfarb. The history and the folklore are skillfully woven with the exciting ecological implications of having beavers return to our wild lands. Beavers had a more profound influence on our past that we have understood and they may make contributions to preserving our water and our ecology in the future.
August 14, 2023
Once They Were Hats was written first, but I read Eager first, and learned a ton there. It has some overlap with Backhouse's book, but I also learned some new things here, so I can't say one was better than the other.
April 25, 2019
It was both fascinating and a little depressing. Fashions may have changed but our attitudes have not. It does draw us into the cleverness of this little creature that we have treated so very poorly and have so misunderstood.
June 22, 2019
Very interesting. I would warn animal lovers who are squeamish that the hats in the title isn’t there due to a passing observation. While the overall theme is of interconnectedness and a paean to beavers, a good amount of time is spent with trappers, furriers and hat makers.
December 27, 2020
This would have made for a good long-form magazine article. As a book, it got bogged down with boring first-person anecdotes and tedious detail on things like the fine points of beaver hat production.
July 14, 2017
I thought this was a great book. It was well written. Fun to read and gave me quite a bit of information in a fun way! Great job!
October 4, 2017
a very entertaining and informative look at the beaver. from the beavers influence on its landscape, its use as hides and the fur trade and its reintroduction in Canada and the US.
October 1, 2019
Not quite as compelling as some other one-subject drill downs like Mark Kurlansky's Cod or Mary Roach's Stiff, Backhouse's book is still a fun read about an amazing (and under-appreciated) animal.
February 16, 2020
It is a lovely book about beavers. What's not to love?
January 9, 2022
Fun read, really good reference to find other books about beavers.
December 23, 2024
Just made me want to read more about beavers!
June 3, 2025
An excellent, if winding, book about beavers and their impact on watersheds as well as economics. I really enjoyed it, and may indeed read it again in the future.
July 27, 2025
3.5 stars
March 5, 2022
I love books like this that introduce me to nature. I now have a greater understanding of the beaver as a keystone species and how they change the topography and create habitat.
And days later I keep thinking about willow and willow’s relationship with beaver. apparently they thrive together. Beaver eats willow and uses it to construct lodges and replants willow by leaving branches to root.
And days later I keep thinking about willow and willow’s relationship with beaver. apparently they thrive together. Beaver eats willow and uses it to construct lodges and replants willow by leaving branches to root.
Want to read
January 14, 2019recommended by Canadian Reader
October 7, 2016
Francis Backhouse writes about beavers and their relationship with man. Valued for their waterproof fur, they were hunted and trapped to a fraction of their prior numbers, and entirely wiped out in some areas. The book is well-organized, beginning with how extensive beavers were and their ancient ancestors. She moves on to the trapping activities and early conservationists who sought to manage beavers in a sustainable manner. Interestingly, she covers how their fur was used to make hats, the current status of the fur trade, and even details her own experience skinning a beaver. But for me, the most interesting part (and what I was really interested in all along) was the ecology and the way in which beavers fit into the environment. As a parallel, my mother-in-law recently had beavers move into a stream on her property and was amazed at the changes in the birds and other wildlife that suddenly began appearing. Unfortunately, it wasn't as compatible with the horses they graze and the dam had to go, and Backhouse gives plenty of examples of the problems beavers can cause for people and in our communities. A very interesting book, but I wish it had included much more about the ecology. (I received an advance copy from the publisher.)
April 3, 2016
I won this in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway...thank you! This book was fascinating, and although it was filled with facts, detailed information, and history, it was never dull or boring. I learned so much about beavers, and how important they are to our environment. It's a really great little book and I highly recommend it to readers who are interested in environmental issues, wildlife, Canadian history, or to those who would like to learn a little about the fur industry. There is so much truly fascinating information packed into this book...and it is a surprisingly great read!!
March 6, 2016
Small and unassuming yet very important to the ecosystem and the exploration of Canada the mighty Beaver makes for an interesting read. The Author goes to a Hat maker in Calgary to see how they still make some very expensive Hats using Beaver fur and then to a Trapper to learn how to skin one with many historical stories about our national symbol. They are making a comeback although they can have annoying habits such as gnawing through fence posts in their spare time. Lastly, fried beavertail is an acquired taste.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews