Daniel Boone challenge
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Looked like a nice little trip out, thanks for showing
This is all still very fascinating and even more so because I know I'm not even going to try. I've done enough like that already to last me. But here are some more notes and observations.
While Daniel Boone did appreciate his elbow room, he would not have been out for the fun of it. In other words, there has to be a purpose behind the outing, although I realize the original post did state a purpose of sorts. One sort of has to put one's self in the frame of mind of what one is doing. Personally, my outings are generally of a "point to point" sort of thing. The object is to get on down the trail. While that is the simple part, it's probably also the hard part. One can easily cover, oh, maybe as much as twenty miles in a day, provided the weather and the local savages cooperate and the river isn't too high. Basically, you're going from either one settlement or frontier homestead such as my own ancestors lived in less than ten miles from where I was born, to another place just like it. You might be going for any number of reasons.
Here is where the problems turn up. Some of these things will be next to impossible to do today for several reasons. The authorities in some places frown on open fires and a fire was very important to a frontier traveler on foot. He would also have been armed, not necessarily with a rifle but at least with a "firelock." That's also frowned upon, even in the wild west that is the United States. However, the savages are not as hostile as they once were.
But the fire is still most important. That's how we avoid the necessity of the second blanket. Sleep close to the fire. Everything will smell of smoke eventually but that's better than the smell of kerosene (paraffin). It follows that a fire-making kit is likewise essential. But that's been mentioned several times.
While they probably would not have passed up a chance to take game, hunting would have eaten into the travel time and was not the object (but you forgot to bring your trade musket anyway). In all probability, the food, such as there was of it, would have been that which they brought along and it would have been early forms of lightweight trail food, mostly from corn but also dried and processed (18th century style) meat, plus tea and tobacco. Springs and fresh water abound in the southern Applachians even today, except where mining has changed things, so not much water would have actually been carried, though a small flask or water bottle might have been taken.
While Boone may have used horses, they were still expensive and not yet essential for transportation. Without them, everything would have been carried on their own backs. Probably, they used canvas or leather packs similiar to what contemporary soldiers would have used, plus a haversack and a bullet pouch. Inside would have been a cup or mug, perhaps a bowl and almost certainly some form of pot or boiler (but not a pot boiler). Something to boil water in is a most difficult thing to improvise, so they would have had a small one. Also a candle and candle holder or perhaps a lantern. The blanket was in there and probably a treated canvas ground sheet. And not much else.
Upon finding a good spot to spend the night, they may have gone to the effort of making a shelter, freely cutting anything they needed from the forest. That's another thing that's frowned upon today but that is how they got by without a tent. For all the shelter and fire building, they would have used their tomahawk, Indian fashion but probably manufactured in England. No doubt the same people are still making them. A small hand ax, sometimes called a "pocket ax," was considered just the thing to have for the next hundred and fifty years. Clearly they are still popular, if posts on this forum are anything to go by. Boone and his party would have had knives galore but they would have used their tomahawks for more things.
We would feel uncomfortable wearing their clothes as much as we would any other contempory clothes. Leggings of leather, loincloth, and a hunting shirt would have been normal wear and probably a felt hat in lieu of a fur cap, although southeastern Indians did make fur caps. He also probably wore an ordinary shirt and perhaps a waistcoat with sleeves, which in French is termed a "veste." Ordinary clothing would have been worn as long as it lasted and it probably would have been home made. On his feet, probably Indian moccasins and another pair in his pack but he knew about shoes, of course. He grew up just outside of Phildelphia, which had a population of over 40,000 in 1800 (London was over a million).
He would have managed without a compass and probably maps, too. While he was a pioneer, the countryside was covered with trails and already isolated farmsteads and settlements covered the land, although the Indians were troublesome in that part of the country until the 1790s. He would have also managed without many of the things we consider essential for a short walk in the park on Sunday afternoon. However, in due respect to one of the greatest travelers and adventurers of all time, let us assume he never left home without a pocket handkerchief.
While Daniel Boone did appreciate his elbow room, he would not have been out for the fun of it. In other words, there has to be a purpose behind the outing, although I realize the original post did state a purpose of sorts. One sort of has to put one's self in the frame of mind of what one is doing. Personally, my outings are generally of a "point to point" sort of thing. The object is to get on down the trail. While that is the simple part, it's probably also the hard part. One can easily cover, oh, maybe as much as twenty miles in a day, provided the weather and the local savages cooperate and the river isn't too high. Basically, you're going from either one settlement or frontier homestead such as my own ancestors lived in less than ten miles from where I was born, to another place just like it. You might be going for any number of reasons.
Here is where the problems turn up. Some of these things will be next to impossible to do today for several reasons. The authorities in some places frown on open fires and a fire was very important to a frontier traveler on foot. He would also have been armed, not necessarily with a rifle but at least with a "firelock." That's also frowned upon, even in the wild west that is the United States. However, the savages are not as hostile as they once were.
But the fire is still most important. That's how we avoid the necessity of the second blanket. Sleep close to the fire. Everything will smell of smoke eventually but that's better than the smell of kerosene (paraffin). It follows that a fire-making kit is likewise essential. But that's been mentioned several times.
While they probably would not have passed up a chance to take game, hunting would have eaten into the travel time and was not the object (but you forgot to bring your trade musket anyway). In all probability, the food, such as there was of it, would have been that which they brought along and it would have been early forms of lightweight trail food, mostly from corn but also dried and processed (18th century style) meat, plus tea and tobacco. Springs and fresh water abound in the southern Applachians even today, except where mining has changed things, so not much water would have actually been carried, though a small flask or water bottle might have been taken.
While Boone may have used horses, they were still expensive and not yet essential for transportation. Without them, everything would have been carried on their own backs. Probably, they used canvas or leather packs similiar to what contemporary soldiers would have used, plus a haversack and a bullet pouch. Inside would have been a cup or mug, perhaps a bowl and almost certainly some form of pot or boiler (but not a pot boiler). Something to boil water in is a most difficult thing to improvise, so they would have had a small one. Also a candle and candle holder or perhaps a lantern. The blanket was in there and probably a treated canvas ground sheet. And not much else.
Upon finding a good spot to spend the night, they may have gone to the effort of making a shelter, freely cutting anything they needed from the forest. That's another thing that's frowned upon today but that is how they got by without a tent. For all the shelter and fire building, they would have used their tomahawk, Indian fashion but probably manufactured in England. No doubt the same people are still making them. A small hand ax, sometimes called a "pocket ax," was considered just the thing to have for the next hundred and fifty years. Clearly they are still popular, if posts on this forum are anything to go by. Boone and his party would have had knives galore but they would have used their tomahawks for more things.
We would feel uncomfortable wearing their clothes as much as we would any other contempory clothes. Leggings of leather, loincloth, and a hunting shirt would have been normal wear and probably a felt hat in lieu of a fur cap, although southeastern Indians did make fur caps. He also probably wore an ordinary shirt and perhaps a waistcoat with sleeves, which in French is termed a "veste." Ordinary clothing would have been worn as long as it lasted and it probably would have been home made. On his feet, probably Indian moccasins and another pair in his pack but he knew about shoes, of course. He grew up just outside of Phildelphia, which had a population of over 40,000 in 1800 (London was over a million).
He would have managed without a compass and probably maps, too. While he was a pioneer, the countryside was covered with trails and already isolated farmsteads and settlements covered the land, although the Indians were troublesome in that part of the country until the 1790s. He would have also managed without many of the things we consider essential for a short walk in the park on Sunday afternoon. However, in due respect to one of the greatest travelers and adventurers of all time, let us assume he never left home without a pocket handkerchief.
I'm flogging a Vintage Swedish M39 in case anybody is looking for something vintage to go with kit.
Only selling as this is for the slimmer people as the metal frame seems to stick into my love handles , Othe then that its a great pack.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114476
Only selling as this is for the slimmer people as the metal frame seems to stick into my love handles
, Othe then that its a great pack.http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114476
Absolutely. Gather enough fuel, build a big enough fire, get some big bits of wood going and provided one has some shelter, topographic rather than constructed, one would be fine enough even with very limited kit and in relatively low temperatures.
I have to admit that I am finding the topic especially interested because that's the area where I was born and grew up. Most of my European ancestors, most of whom were British, had been here for a hundred years when Boone left home.
The biggest difference between then and now would probably be attitude in several ways. For one thing, while they saw the frontier as the wilderness, it really wasn't and they generally realized it. It was inhabited, just not by the European settlers. It was not an untracked wilderness at all. There were trails all over the place. Ironically, the places where my direct ancestors settled in the 1780s and 1790s have been bypassed and closed off to become hunting and fishing preserves and have started to revert to the condition they were in 230 years ago. That part of the country has become depopulated in the last 50 years, although I've not heard anyone say that is a problem.
Another difference is their attitude towards the forest. It was something to be conquered. Indians in some places practiced a kind of forest management in order to make hunting easier but the settler was there to impose European style farming on the land. The forest was an enemy of sorts or an obstacle just as much as the Indian. Both had to go and in time, both did. The land would have eventually been cleared for farming and grazing, even though much of the land isn't well suited to farming. When the land in the midwest was developed for farming and especially when machinery began to be used, serious farming in eastern mountains began to disappear. Even now farmland is being converted to housing developments.
You make an excellent post about natural shelter. If shelter were actually needed, which it would be during the winter, they would have made an effort find a natural shelter before troubling themselves to build one, although the truth is, you'll have to look hard to find any and it wouldn't take long to construct a half-way decent lean-to just for a one night stand, so to speak.
There could also be said there were two periods in the frontier, the second being the establishment of homesteads, some of which took on the appearance of a small fort. In fact, there were many such places up and down the Alleghenies, and some developed into towns and cities but just as many have disappeared without a trace. However, before the settlers arrived, there would have been men who crossed the mountains as trappers and traders, same as the mountain men of the next generation. They were quite different from the settlers, at least at the time. You might call them fringe people and they sort of straddled the line between European (chiefly English and German) settler and the Indians, now called native Americans here and First Nations in Canada. They became half-Indian themselves.
The Indians are practically all gone now but Indian names dot the map. Everything else from that period carries a name from southern England.
The biggest difference between then and now would probably be attitude in several ways. For one thing, while they saw the frontier as the wilderness, it really wasn't and they generally realized it. It was inhabited, just not by the European settlers. It was not an untracked wilderness at all. There were trails all over the place. Ironically, the places where my direct ancestors settled in the 1780s and 1790s have been bypassed and closed off to become hunting and fishing preserves and have started to revert to the condition they were in 230 years ago. That part of the country has become depopulated in the last 50 years, although I've not heard anyone say that is a problem.
Another difference is their attitude towards the forest. It was something to be conquered. Indians in some places practiced a kind of forest management in order to make hunting easier but the settler was there to impose European style farming on the land. The forest was an enemy of sorts or an obstacle just as much as the Indian. Both had to go and in time, both did. The land would have eventually been cleared for farming and grazing, even though much of the land isn't well suited to farming. When the land in the midwest was developed for farming and especially when machinery began to be used, serious farming in eastern mountains began to disappear. Even now farmland is being converted to housing developments.
You make an excellent post about natural shelter. If shelter were actually needed, which it would be during the winter, they would have made an effort find a natural shelter before troubling themselves to build one, although the truth is, you'll have to look hard to find any and it wouldn't take long to construct a half-way decent lean-to just for a one night stand, so to speak.
There could also be said there were two periods in the frontier, the second being the establishment of homesteads, some of which took on the appearance of a small fort. In fact, there were many such places up and down the Alleghenies, and some developed into towns and cities but just as many have disappeared without a trace. However, before the settlers arrived, there would have been men who crossed the mountains as trappers and traders, same as the mountain men of the next generation. They were quite different from the settlers, at least at the time. You might call them fringe people and they sort of straddled the line between European (chiefly English and German) settler and the Indians, now called native Americans here and First Nations in Canada. They became half-Indian themselves.
The Indians are practically all gone now but Indian names dot the map. Everything else from that period carries a name from southern England.
Actually most of the Indian peoples east of the Mississippi River (and many west of it as well) were an agricultural culture. It was they who taught the European settlers how to farm native crops: corn, potatoes, tobacco, etc.
Hey anyone been doing some Boonying.. latley be good to see some more pic's of some trip reports..
Hey anyone been doing some Boonying.. latley be good to see some more pic's of some trip reports..
Going to be going a traditional style outing on 15-17th, Hopefully have more pics/longer report then my previous
Going to be going a traditional style outing on 15-17th, Hopefully have more pics/longer report then my previous
... I am out this weekend.. but it will not be very Booonie.. will Still be tarp and Bed Roll with Blankets tho , next weekend I am over the Feild archery club, on the Sunday.... may just do a Boonie type night out then as we can camp in teh woods there... not decided yet
I have just bought one of these, made by Sigg and is Swiss army surplus, made of aluminium with a nice cork stopper, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170939720364?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
Not as a Event but may do a Boonie one for one night at the Jan meet... as its a 3 nighter.... if its not too cold may be I might bed roll and blanket it for all three
Life has been crazy and I haven't stepped into this forum in a long-while. I hop back in here and find this, I am so in. I am not sure when I will be able to get out, but I am in. My kit need to be different as I am in an area that is a little dryer than where Boon traveled. I will need to get some kit together but I have almost everything I need.
Lovely stuff the more the merrier.
hoping to get a cold one this winter have to see what I can wangle
hoping to get a cold one this winter have to see what I can wangle
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