American Frontiersman

As we nudge this spring 2023 issue off to press, there’s still snow on the ground and in the forecast for the next month. But our juices are flowing, and our minds are wandering to the sights, sounds and smells of the spring turkey woods, trout streams, big bass hotspots and camping adventures with good friends and family members. Ready to blast into spring? You’re in luck, because there’s a heavy “guns and hunting” slant to this issue with two modern turkey shotgun reviews, a big-bore test on Marlin’s newest 1895 Trapper lever gun, a Jill Easton story on hound-dogging bears in the Appalachians, plus Frank Jardim pulled double-time at the annual Shooting, Hunting & Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Vegas to round up the newest muzzleloaders and gear. DIYers,…

FRONTAL ASSAULT WHAT became known as the first attack on the Kentucky settlement of Boonesborough began at sunrise on Thursday, April 24, 1777. A few days earlier, Daniel Boone, founder of the wilderness settlement, had received word from Simon Kenton that an attack on the fort by a large war party of Shawnee raiders, who had crossed the Ohio River, was imminent. Daniel Goodman and another man had gone about 400 yards from the fort to drive in some horses and noticed that cows at the head of the lane had become quite cautious. At this time, they were fired upon by four or five tribesmen and were pursued to within 60 or 70 yards of the fort. Kenton and two hunters who had been standing at the gate rushed…

LATE IN 1780, AMERICA’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AGAINST THE BRITISH WAS A STRUGGLE ON LIFE SUPPORT. The glory days of 1776 and the Declaration of Independence had evolved into a long war. George Washington’s Continental Army was holding on in the northeastern colonies. But in Georgia and South Carolina, the critical ports of Savannah and Charleston had both fallen. Redcoat forces were pouring into the area to complete a grand plan of attacking to the north and trapping the Continental Army between northern and southern jaws. This was the moment that a Georgetown, South Carolina, farmer named Francis Marion was destined to write a new chapter in the American Revolution. In doing so, he would become the most-feared fighter of his time. After Charleston and Savannah were lost to the…

IT HAPPENED TO ME It was a fall weekday. I had all my work finished by 9 a.m. and was itching to do something outdoors. The wind was swirling and not ideal for deer hunting, so I resisted the temptation to spoil my bow setup. I considered going squirrel hunting or to the shooting range but came up with reasons why it wasn’t the day for that, either. After pacing the house for 20 minutes, I finally arrived at the decision to hitch up my 14-foot Alumacraft and head to the lake for some solo bass fishing. After a stop at the gas station for ice, Reese’s cups and a hot dog, I pulled into the boat launch. To my surprise, the local fire department had one of…

Today, many confuse the French terms coureur de bois and voyageur. In fact, the two are separate classes of people who were involved in the fur trade during different time periods. Coureur de bois was a French slang term that meant “woods runner.” It was applied with the same disdain that prohibition-era alcohol smugglers were called “bootleggers” and people who lived in the country were called “hillbillies.” This was not a term of endearment, and the men engaged in the fur trade at the time would not have called themselves by that derogatory name. These men would have called themselves commerçants de fourrures (“fur traders”). They were unlicensed, unregulated and penetrated the frontier during the period of about 1649 through 1681, with some accounts recording their presence into the early…

WATER RIDES Kenneth Grahame wrote in The Wind in the Willows, “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much fun as simply messing about in boats.” One of our ancient ancestors undoubtedly pulled themselves atop a floating log and invented one of the earliest watercraft. It still works. While on a raft trip in Costa Rica, I watched local kids with short balsa logs that they had modified by leveling the top side and inserting a stout peg in a hole drilled in the top of the front end. They were bravely going through Class III rapids by lying on the log and holding on to the peg for stability. Boats have long been the mode of travel for adventurers since they greatly multiply the weight that can be carried…