Uncle Don & the beaver

I was 12 when it happened.  I was raised by my aunt and uncle on a ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills approximately 40 miles north of North Platte.  The nearest water, other than what our windmills pumped out of the ground existed about 10 miles to the east of us.  This area is where the beginning of the South Loup River originates.  To the north of us, about 20 miles, was the Dismal River.  In between there wasn't even a lake or pond of any size that I was aware of.

It was early spring in 1960.  There was snow still on the ground but it was melting fast.  The days were warming up but it was still freezing during the night.  In our front yard, between the house and the barn, the melting snow had left a relatively small puddle of water.

We had an old 54 Ford pickup truck sitting by the barn.  This pickup truck, like most of that era, had a wooden bed.  This particular model also had a wooden tailgate that slipped into groves located at the back of the bed.  For the most part this was not a problem except for what happened one particular night.

It was rather late one night when we got back from a trip that we had taken somewhere.  When we pulled into the yard we saw some type of animal in the middle of the pool of water that was in our front yard.  To our astonishment, what was splashing around in the water was a beaver.  I have seen a lot of different types of animals on and around our ranch but never a beaver.  Where it came from or where it was going I have no idea but there it was.

We all stood around looking at this guy trying to figure out what to do with it.  After a while my uncle located a gunny sack and was able to grab the beaver and he threw it into the back of the pickup truck so that we could take him to water and release him.  The excitement being over we all went into the house and went to bed.

The next morning my uncle and I got up early, as we always do, to complete the morning chores before breakfast.  We walked over to look into the back of the pickup truck and was amazed by what we witnessed.

What do beavers do best?  They chew on wood.

Where did Uncle Don put the beaver?  Into the back of a pickup truck that had a wooded tailgate.

This beaver had chewed a big hole into the tailgate.  Actually, if the beaver had another hour or so to work he would have chewed his way out of the back of the truck.  My uncle was furious.  I was laughing so hard my gut hurt and it seemed that the more I laughed the angrier my uncle got.  The night before we had planned to drive the beaver to the nearest water to release him.  After the damage this animal did to the truck, Uncle Don decided that he needed to recoup the money that he would have to spend to replace the tailgate so instead of releasing the animal, he took it into North Platte and sold him.

He had a new tailgate made for the truck.  Thereafter the truck was called Theodore.