Trumpeter Swans were once fairly common throughout most of the U.S. and Canada. Excessive hunting in the 19th century for skin and feathers brought the bird to the brink of extinction. Europeans used the feathers to make ladies' powder puffs and adorn fashionable hats. By 1933 Europeans, upon their arrival in North America, had hunted and harassed the swan to the point where there were only 77 breeding in Canada and 50 in the United States. Luckily, a small non-migratory population survived in the remote mountain valleys of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

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