Beavers…The Legend and Myth?

At the end of the last ice age, 15,000 – 12,000 years ago, a large lake covered the Connecticut River Valley (Lake Hitchcock). Also during the last ice age, a giant beaver species, Castoroides ohioensis, lived in the lakes and waterways at the glacier’s margin. Based upon fossil evidence, this beaver was the size of a black bear (600 – 700 lbs). In contrast, the present-day North American beaver, Castor canadensis, occasionally attains a weight of 66 lbs. The giant beaver had enormous, convex incisor teeth, extending four inches (100 mm) beyond the gum line.

I think it’s possible that buried in the gene pool of our local beaver population there exists a remnant of dna coding that produces these giant beavers. I have no scientific evidence of this but for my observations when afield. They are certainly more prolific, building larger dams and houses than I’ve seen in decades past. The Paleo-Native Americans speak of a giant beaver that would on occasion rise up out of Lake Hitchcock and dine on the population that thrived near its banks.

There is usually truth as the foundation for a myth or legend. I may have seen evidence of same.