An uncertain Life
For the Sport of it
Dalton-Oulton Partnership
The Fox BOOM
Back to NB
Return to Industries
Robert T. Oulton and the Golden Pelt
Transcribed from 'The Island Magazine'. Fall/Winter 1977:3
By: Robert A. Rankin
Old men sometimes sadly spend their twilight years with unrealized dreams, or in
despair over recognition that was never bestowed. Robert Oulton had good reason to be
bitter in 1913, as he lived out his retirement in New Brunswick. More than anyone
else he had pioneered the developed the fox-farming, the unique marriage between the
North American fur trade and domesticated livestock farming which had made his adopted
homeland, Prince Edward Island, the centre of a lucrative international industry.
Oulton however was an unassuming man of "quiet disposition," and the silver fox era was
characterized by showmanship, speculation, and dubious claims. For these reasons
Island history has almost forgotten him.