Indholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2022 i American Frontiersman

IF YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO A MOUNTAIN MAN RENDEZVOUS, you’re missing out. I attended my first one more than 30 years ago, and the people I met and things I saw have brought me back several times since. If you could rendezvous at a trading post that was actually used by mountain men and fur trappers in the late 1700s, you’d be fortunate, indeed. That’s what members of the American Mountain Men Association are doing in the cover inset at a reconstructed log cabin in Kentucky named the Keeling Trading Post. The history is strong there, and that group is working hard to ensure that old way of life is not forgotten. Like the inset photo, our cover art “The Wagon Scout,” is a David Wright original. For more on…

A leather canteen, called a costrel in English since the 14th century, was a practical means for a person briefly away from home and hearth to carry liquid refreshment. A costrel’s defining characteristics were smallish size, a relatively flat profile and a design with integral attachment points for a carrying rope. No metalworking or coopering skills were required to make one, which put them within the capabilities of typical frontier families. You might say that they were the personal, reusable water bottles of the pre-industrial age. To keep the vessel durable, capacity had to be limited, since a smaller vessel was less susceptible to crushing than a larger one, and the formed leather sides needed to be 0.119 to 0.158 inches thick. The leather was waterproofed with beeswax inside…

IT took me a while, but I finally figured out that although both otter and mink are members of the weasel family, they’re actually quite different. One trait they do seem to share is their attraction to every hole, brush pile, nook and cranny. Like an old trapper once told me about a mink, if they can get their head in a hole, the rest is history. Otter seem to have the same characteristics; it even seems the smaller the hole, the more attractive it is to them. Another trait I’ve learned about otters is that no matter how wide a stream bed might be, the deeper, moving water is the path they most often take. I’ve also witnessed them going overland—they have the tendency to travel over dry land…

• Ball: Round lead projectile commonly used in the majority of muzzle-loading rifles and blackpowder pistols. • Ball screw: Threaded to the end of the ramrod and used for removing the ball from the bore. It digs into the soft lead of the ball so it can be removed from the barrel. • Blackpowder: A mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal combined to form the standard propellant for muzzle-loading guns. • Bore buildup: Buildup of blackpowder fouling in the barrel after firing the gun. • Breech: The rear end of the muzzleloader’s barrel. • Breech plug: Threaded plug that is screwed into the breech end of the barrel forming a gas-tight seal, becoming the rear of the chamber. • Caplock: Term describing a firearm that uses a percussion system to fire. • Charge: The exact amount of…

Since the dawn of man, cooking over an open flame has been among the most accessible and simplest methods of preparing food. Anthropologists believe that humanoid species have been able to control fire for about 1 million years, and the oldest cooking sites found date back possibly over 400,000 years. Cooking started by heating up stones in a fire and placing food on these hot stones. Over time, this translated into early grills and ovens. As we grew more intelligent as a species, we learned that cooked food was more easily digestible than raw food, and scientists say that without cooking, the Homo sapiens species would not exist. Cooking has long been the lifeblood of every civilization and culture. Today, with innovations in outdoor cooking from gas and charcoal grills…

“Frigid Trackers” By Andrew Knez, Jr. WHILE COMMON THREADS wove throughout ancient America, Native American life was different from tribe to tribe—including their methods for acquiring food. Hunting, fishing, gathering, farming and domestication were all part of regular life for Native Americans. Of course, hunting and fishing were the most common; every known tribe used these methods of providing food. Many tactics used today were also used then. Camouflaging with mud, leaves and other materials and using cover scents were common practices, and so were hunting from trees and waiting in bedding areas of a morning. And fanning turkeys certainly isn’t a modern invention. But most hunters have never used some of the tactics that date back to tribal times, and for good reason. While some are still legal, much…

When people think about traditional tanning, my suspicion is that most people imagine brain tanning. Many people know brain tanning was widely used in the past, and that each animal had enough brains to tan its hide. What might come as a surprise is that there are other methods of tanning that have also been used for thousands of years. One of those methods is alum tanning. Alum is a chemical compound that can be found naturally in various minerals. It comes in a few different forms, each with its own use. Some sources indicate that the Egyptians first used alum to tan skins before the year 2130 B.C. The Romans were also reported to have used alum to tan skins in ancient times. Since then, people around the world…

Scouting Companions: BOG game cameras feature best-in-class imagery with lightning-fast 0.2-second trigger speed, five capture modes (including 1080 FHD video with auto-adjust flash), one-year battery life, a 120-foot flash range and a large variety of image-tag information designed to help you track your deer herd. BOG game cameras take a lot of the guesswork out of the hunting equation. Multiple game-camera mounts are available from BOG. I used several methods to place the Blood Moon and the Clandestine afield: strapped to a tree, mounted to a free-standing tripod and an augur mount screwed into my chosen location. The BOG game cameras feature the patent-pending BOG Dominion removable menu system with a 3-inch full-color viewing screen and an easy-to-use, icon-based operating system. This allows for quick onsite assessment of what your…

“Cordage is a must-have in a survival situation, whether it’s para-cord, string, rope or made from a natural material. It can be used for fishing lines, snares, lashing for a shelter, trap triggers and bowstrings,” says Gibson. “If you’re in a survival situation without man-made cordage, here are some tips.” ➤ Most any relatively strong, flexible fiber can be used as cordage or to make it. Yucca, basswood, dogbane, ivy, swamp rose, milkweed, flax, blackberry vines, okra plants, poplar, elm and the inner bark of trees are some of the many plants from which you can make cordage. ➤ Rolling cordage fibers on your thigh in one direction is a quick method to create cordage. Use two small bunches of fibers. ➤ Animal sinew is really strong for its size…

1. Receive proper training, study the manual and become familiar with all safety and operational procedures before using any power equipment. 2. Use proper personal protective equipment (PPE) for the job and the saw being used. 3. Make sure to maintain good balance and footing at all times and keep a tight grip on the saw. Do not use a chainsaw when standing on a ladder. 4. Never use a chainsaw one-handed or cut above shoulder height. 5. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. 6. Be aware of hidden sources of stored energy, such as a limb under tension, and plan accordingly. 7. Always run the throttle at full speed when cutting. 8. Learn about the causes of chainsaw kickback and how to avoid it and its accompanying…

This simple recipe is easy to enjoy while sitting around a campfire and can be made with virtually any fish found in either freshwater or saltwater. I’ve done it with saltwater fish like redfish and flounder and also with freshwater fish like crappie and rainbow trout. • Fish fillets • Seasoning • Tortillas • Shredded Cabbage • Thousand Island Dressing • Lemons or limes (optional) Get your grill or skillet heating up to roughly medium-high heat. Season your fish fillets with the fish-and-fowl-type seasoning of your choice. Recently, I’ve been loving Mulletman’s Critter Glitter. You can even use something as simple as salt and pepper, but the extra herbs of a seasoning give it a nice flavor. You can season lightly if you wish to have the flavor of…

FOR MORE INFORMATION  on this exciting chapter in the North American fur trade, read The Grand Portage Story by Erwin Thompson, a National Park Service historian, online at npshistory.com/ publications/grpo/history/index.htm. Descendants of those early Europeans and Native Americans still trade at the Grand Portage. The National Park Service, for example,  buys herring from Grand Portage Reservation Band members for park demonstrations. Many native people also work at the national monument. The National Park Service stages a rendezvous and the tribe holds a powwow in August at the national monument. It attracts some 320 period reenactors, 145 campers and 5,000 visitors over four days. In the 1700s, the rendezvous was attended by about 1,200 people over a four- to five-week period. The Grand Portage Indian Reservation of the Lake Superior Band…

Ever since hunters began killing big game to survive, they’ve needed a way to get this life-giving but heavy and awkward food back to camp. The earliest evidence of humans using backpacks is 5,300 years old. The so-called Ice Man’s freeze-dried body was found thawing out of a glacier in 1991 by a German hiker in the Alps on the Italian-Austrian border. The Ice Man’s pack was U-shaped and was made of bent hazelnut wood, a common North American shrub. Backpacks may have evolved quite a lot since then, but one traditional pack style remains both popular and immensely useful. A Seattle man named Lloyd F. Nelson filed a patent application for the first external frame pack in 1922. Nelson’s pack board, the first mass-produced external frame pack, met with…

Although most people have negative memories of 2020 due to obvious reasons, the year was positive for professional trapper Lesel Reuwsaat from Creighton, South Dakota. It was his best year ever for trapping bobcat: He trapped just shy of 100 that year. That’s one of the reasons that Reuwsaat was tapped to put on a demonstration about bobcat trapping at the 2021 Upper Peninsula of Michigan Trappers Convention in Escanaba during early July. Catching that many bobcats in one year is impossible in states like Michigan where trappers are only allowed to keep one or two bobcats per year, depending upon what part of the state they trap in. But Reuwsaat didn’t catch all of those bobcats in one state, of course. As a full-time trapper, Reuwsaat traps in at…

As a small boy in the 1930s, John Rice Irwin loved listening to his grandparents and their friends talk about the way it was. This history forged a strong love for his heritage, the folks and all that they were that came before him. Even at an early age, Irwin developed a passion for everything vintage Americana—not only the farming and home tools, the dwellings and musical instrumentation but also the music made by the early settlers in Appalachia, the early industrial and folk arts and also the unique peoples of times gone by. Irwin had and still has such a love for preserving “the way it was” that he created a true living history museum in 1969. At that time, he began charging admission, and almost immediately, the museum…

The conversation about me getting into muzzleloading was going fine until I asked an older muzzle-loading hunter in my hunting club how he cleaned his rifle barrel. Looking me straight in the eye, he said, “I do it like the mountain men and longhunters did: I pee down the barrel and swab it out.” He didn’t say another word as he waited for my response. I decided to check that story with Jim Parker of Calvary Longrifles who has been involved with shooting, hunting and building top-quality longrifles for more than 40 years. Jim has regularly attended rendezvous around the country and shared campfires and stories with modern frontiersmen, like himself, who are always eager to learn about the muzzleloaders of times past. When asked about peeing down the barrel…

BY STEVEN E. STILLWELL AS far as secret recipes go, this one is guaranteed to satisfy. Some of the pickiest eaters I know won’t turn their noses up at this venison stew. Even if you think that venison is gamey, you won’t be disappointed if you follow my simple instructions. I’ve been experimenting with this formula since 1985, and my wife, Maureen, and I perfected it in 2013. Technically speaking, this could be considered soup, but I can call it whatever I want because it’s my concoction. This recipe will also work with antelope, elk and ground or cubed beef, as they have similar characteristics, but personally, I think it tastes best with ground venison. This hearty meal will easily feed four adults and yield plenty of leftovers for the…