Guest,jin asks, "Was Albert Jonson... just a man whose's way
of life was lost to technology?"

No. The trapper's way of life was going strong before and after Johnson's time. It's both a living and a calling for some people today.

Technology can lure us away from the wilds, and can rape or destroy ecosystems, but it has little power to affect the hunter's (or trapper's) intimate relationship with the prey. Baits and traps' efficiency may change, but to use them a man - or woman - must put himself inside the animal's skin, must understand its mind. (It's scarcely possible to do this without learning respect and love for the wild creatures you must depend on, who give their lives for yours. We - humanity, I mean - cannot afford to forget the hunter's lifestyle and its skills. But I don't think vacation hunting/fishing/etc teaches this awareness.)

When you are a non-migratory predator, you cannot survive without your territory. Meddling with a neighbour's traps is a violation on the same scale as salting a farmer's field or adulterating a marriage.