How we all got here...

[Leifer]

Just to spark things up a bit, I thought it'd be interesting to see how we all became interested in the Fur Trade, whether it's just enjoyment of the history to whether it's living history/reenactment. So, how'd we all get here?

Leifer

[Rod]

I was always interested in guns and history---I read A.B. Guthrie's 'The big Sky' and Mitchner's 'Centennial' in 7th grade. My father brought home a copy of Osborne Russel's 'Journal of a Trapper' at about the same time. When I was a highschool freshman, I bought my first muzzleloader----a used CVA pistol for $20. A CVA Frontier rifle soon followed. The year I graduated from highschool, Ft. Union held its first rendezvous. I went, walked around, and thought "I've GOT to do this...". I cobbled together an outfit, and went out to the fort the next year, just during the day. The year after that, I had a tent and stayed. Been downhill ever since ;D

Say what you want about the historical correctness of those old CVA guns (and they were pretty poor in that regard), but they did shoot well, and I killed innumerable rabbits with mine. Looking back, my outfit and gear were laughable, but I slowly improved (I hope!), and had alot of fun doing so. It's a journey, and the end of the trail is nowhere in sight yet.

Rod

[Duane]

my interest started with the Davy Crocket, on Disney,used to fight with my sisters just watch that show,I usualy won too.Of course being from Canada my first long rifle was a hockey stick.In 1960 my dad re married to a great woman from northern Ontario,and her two brother were trappers,she told me many storys about there trapping escapades.then came Jeramiah Johnson,then I got a GPR in 1980,read a bood by Sam Fadala,he mention ed Osborn Russel book and here i am.sorry this was so lond...D

[reconscout]

Hard to say as I can't come up with an an actual time or event.
I suppose that I have always been interested in the RMFT era. The more I learn the more I desire to live it as close as a 21st man/family can.

And as far as how I got here, well... as my friend Lopear G'. Loot advised I turned right at Albuquerque ;D

[Leifer]

As a kid I'd always liked playing "cowboys and indians". I know, pretty inappropriate today. In grade school I'd had come across a series of 12 or so books on the civil war and successfully checked them all out. Truthfully, I was looking mostly at the pictures. (Today I now teach at the same country school and now get to peruse them again....but reading this time ).

In 6th grade we had Montana History. My teacher did an excellent job of blending projects with the teaching, making it very enjoyable. We learned about Lewis and Clark, John Colter, Jim Bridger, fur trapping and the like. We got to go on two field trips. One was to the Little Bighorn National Monument (quickly swinging by Pompeii's pillar on the way) and to Fort Union. I'd been there once before when I was much smaller and just the bourgeois house was there, but this time the walls to the fort were up as well. Then we hopped over and caught Fort Buford. A few years later while in the Scouts, we canoed down the river and put in at Fort Union for the Rendezvous. That same year I also got to see part of the encampment at Fort Buford.

In Jr. High I'd have Montana History again. In it we'd have a pretty comprehensive study on the Corps of Discovery. Once again we'd also learn more about Fort Union. Far from being the only thing I learned, one of the things that stuck out was learning about that crazy Deschamp family.... Like with my 6th grade teacher, my Jr. High teacher made learning fun and provided an opportunity for me and a friend who go with her to Fort Benton and help with some excavation that was going on. For a week I got to run a screen, sifting dirt to find beads and other pieces of artifacts, and then sorting them all. This was right before they rebuilt the fort. In high school she'd call me up again and ask if I'd want to help out with the site of a possible buffalo jump. When I graduated from high school she gave me a copy of Undaunted Courage.

Meanwhile, back at the fort (Fort Union), I took my wife and kids out during a Labor Day weekend to catch a living history event. Turned out a friend of ours from college was involved in the event and we got invited to join the local "group". I recognized one of the guys and as we talked it turned out that he was at one of our Boy Scout events when I was in high school. The rest....is History...

Leifer