Alaska Film Archives

A Story of Fur
A Story of Fur
The original narrated DVD is labeled “John Baker - A Story of Fur.” The original silent film is labeled “No. 1 Winter Trapline.” The narrated version is played back at a different frame rate and is slower and longer than the silent version. This is the narrated version. The film contains footage of the B&K Trading Company building and the Roadhouse in Talkeetna; Carol and Verna Close baking bread; a dog named Queenie with John Baker checking a trapline during winter; Queenie wearing a dog pack; John Baker hiking in snowshoes and checking a beaver trap; John Baker and trapping partner Gene Lanzaro building a small log cabin from start to finish, including peeling logs, scribing and notching logs, and sawing boards from logs; setting a wolverine trap; a pilot and mailman Cliff Hudson delivering mail via small airplane; John Baker nailing a roof on a cabin, cutting out a window on a cabin, installing a chimney through a cabin roof, looking at Mount McKinley (Denali) through cabin windows, demonstrating window shutters, and showing bear protection around windows; Gene Lanzaro cutting fireweed and the dog Queenie pulling a sled with logs; cooking meat and pancakes inside cabin; John Baker with a lynx that he trapped; a captive marten kept as a pet; a moose; John Baker demonstrating hiking in snowshoes versus without snowshoes in deep snow; John Baker showing a marten he has trapped and field dressing a spruce grouse; a new snowmachine; Queenie barking at a trapped wolverine; scenes of setting and checking a beaver trap, including fresh beaver signs in spring, a beaver snare, a beaver lodge with steam emerging, skinning a beaver, and Queenie pulling a sled; John Baker starting up and flying a small airplane on skis, aerial views of snowy landscapes, and groups of moose; landing an airplane on skis; a moose walking through deep snow; John Baker butchering a moose and loading it onto an airplane; aerial views of mountains and moose; a ptarmigan in white plumage; a snowmachine pulling a sled; showing off a trapline catch at Summit log cabin; Queenie running behind a snowmachine and riding on a sled; an airplane in a windstorm and John Baker digging out the airplane after the storm passes; Lake Hood airplanes and a hangar damaged by a windstorm near Anchorage; John Baker with a roll of furs and a pickup truck at Lake Hood airstrip; Anchorage Fur Rendezvous scenes, including Fourth Avenue in Anchorage, brief glimpses of George Attla and Jimmy Malemute, Roland Lombard mushing along a trail, a helicopter flying over the trail, Jonas Brothers Taxidermy shop in Anchorage, and a fur auction; Myers Furs shop in Michigan, a furrier at work, and John Baker’s father posing in a beaver coat and hat.