A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger

Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident 

My cousin Brad snapped a rare photo of a muskrat in the open at Maumee Bay State Park, a few miles east of Toledo on the shore of Lake Erie, where Brad and I grew up. With fewer people visiting the park, the usually shy muskrats are free to roam. 

These rodents are not of the same genus as rats, being more closely related to voles, lemmings and mice. They are much larger than a rat and smaller than a beaver. They make lodges and are found in marshes and wetlands throughout the United States and Canada. Their presence is a sign of a healthy, diverse and balanced ecosystem. 

They were central to the lives of Native Americans and their fur, dyed and marketed as “Hudson Seal,” became popular in the nineteenth century. They are resistant to carbon dioxide buildup, thus have less to fear from the ecological future than most of us. Males are extremely competitive and sometimes fight to the death over mates or territory. 

The first Europeans to arrive in what was called The Great Black Swamp were French Catholics, trappers who survived by learning from Native Americans. Later German Protestant farmers like my family cleared and planted the land south of where the swamp flooded. The trappers were called “Muskrat French” by the Germans, as both a description and a pejorative. At one time Catholics in this area were given special dispensation to eat muskrat during Lent and other fast days. The Germans considered the French to be uncivilized and too close to the native peoples. 

Once German farmers started digging irrigation ditches, they began trapping and eating the muskrats they found in them, just like the French.  I grew up eating the large rodents, at home and at special suppers at the VFW, American legion or churches. These remain popular events. 

Eating muskrat is no longer an ethnic divider in the swamp, but a broader cultural marker. Those who partake are familiar with and affirming of local culture. Whether such affirmation enhances or lowers one’s status is hotly debated.