Perry Smith’s break with his father at the Trapper’s Den

Perry Smith’s break with his father at the Trapper’s Den Lodge turned a failing family venture and a quarrel over a biscuit into a violent rupture. After his father expelled him, Perry walked away in deep snow, with no money and almost none of his possessions; the guitar he rescued became the only thing he carried onward.

The Lodge They Built Together

After recovering from a serious accident, Perry joined his father at the site of a proposed hunting lodge near Bellingham. Tex John Smith had already cleared the ground, cut timber, and hauled wagonloads of local rock, but waited for Perry before beginning construction. They did nearly all the work themselves, sometimes with help from an Indigenous laborer. The building could sleep twenty people and had a large dining-room fireplace and a cocktail lounge, where Perry was meant to entertain customers by singing. They opened for business at the end of 1953.

A Venture Without Customers

The lodge was designed around the expectation that hunters would come, but they did not. A few tourists stopped to photograph its striking rustic appearance, yet rarely stayed overnight. For a time, father and son continued to hope the business would take hold. Tex tried to attract visitors with a Garden of Memories, a wishing well, and painted signs along the highway, but these efforts brought no meaningful income. The failure consumed their savings and left them short of food. As the pressure mounted, Tex blamed Perry for not doing his share and treated him spitefully; Perry’s account also recognizes that their hardship had put both men on edge.

The Quarrel and the Gun

The immediate dispute concerned a biscuit. Tex snatched it from Perry and accused him of eating too much, then told him to leave. Perry described his hands closing around his father’s throat and said he could not control the impulse to choke him. Tex wrestled free, ran for his gun, and returned pointing it at Perry. He then realized the gun was not loaded. The threat collapsed into tears: Tex sat down and wept, and Perry’s anger gave way to pity for them both. The quarrel had moved in moments from hunger and accusation to attempted strangling and an apparently lethal threat, then into a silence neither could repair.

Departure in the Snow

Perry went out walking. Though it was April, deep snow remained in the woods, and he stayed out until almost night. When he returned, the lodge was dark and locked; his father had thrown all his belongings into the snow. Perry left them there, retrieved only his guitar, and set off down the highway without a dollar. Around midnight, a truck driver stopped and asked where he was going. Perry accepted the ride without naming a destination, saying he would go wherever the driver was headed. The failed lodge had first given father and son a shared project; its final locked doors turned that partnership into separation, sending Perry back onto the road with music as his one retained possession.