On a hiking trip in Alaska in 1920, Seattle resident Lloyd Nelson used a borrowed Indian pack to carry his gear. The pack was sealskin stretched over willow sticks, and proved to be uncomfortable to say the least. He thought he could design a better one, and thought there would be a market for one among boy scouts and outdoorsmen.
He designed a wooden frame that had a canvas panel stretched across it. The canvas rested the weight of the pack load on the user's back, keeping the wooden frame from gouging the user's back. He got a U.S. patent on the pack, which Eric Nicholson found out is U.S. Patent 1,505,661. Thanks, Eric!
He marketing the product by visiting every sporting goods store between San Diego and Seattle, and within a few years sales began to pick up. He sold his patent rights to Trager, the company making his canvas bags, and shortly after the sale, he got an order for 500 packs for the Forest Service, and another 500 unit order shortly followed.
By modern standards, the pack is cruel and unusual torture, but compared to the alternatives at the time, it was a big improvement.
My father-in-law carried a Trapper Nelson pack on a hike from the Hell's Canyon of the Snake River, to the town of Riggins, over the Seven Devils mountains. This was in the early forties, before WWII, and they carried canned food, an axe, a handgun, and other gear that made their pack weight extreme. I inherited his Trapper Nelson, which belongs in a museum now.
I found 3 or 4 pack boards in my dads house when we cleaned it out. One is a Chas. Trager with the pack. It is in nice shape. I will dig it out and get more info on the label. One is a plain board that has US pennies for washers. Not sure about the others. He bought them used in Seattle at St Vincent de Paul at the south end of Lake Union about 45 years ago. He used one to hike into Cape Scott 30 years ago.I also have a Dribak jacket by JT&A in dirty but serviceable condition.
Posted by: Fred Dallyn | November 26, 2011 at 11:15 PM
I worked for Jones Tent & Awning from 1965 to 1991 and for many years was the purchasing manager. We had the frame and ribs manufactured off site, we made the canvas items and assembled the board and bag. In those days prior to the first metal frames and nylon packs like Camptrails (that we were the first to import and sell in Canada) the trappers, outdoorsmen etc. liked the Trapper Nelson as if broke down they could repair it on the trail. If a metal frame broke a weld there was nothing they could do. It become to costly to make and production was stopped.
Posted by: David Grimble | February 23, 2012 at 01:07 PM