long hunters in virginia

[Hawken50]

  ok need to know more about longhunters in va.Anybody know where i can get more info as to rifles,manner of dress,etc.one thing im wondering about is the shooting bag,leather or canvas?

[old salt]

This will get you started,
Go to libary book called. Receating the American Longhunter by Joseph Ruckman

The book opens with a broad overview of the 18th century environment in which the longhunters lived, and then moves on to the clothing, weapons, and equipment that they relied on during their sojourns through the trackless forests of the 18th century. Joseph's use of either primary or well-researched secondary sources provides a firm foundation for his work. His personal experience recreating the life of a mid-1700's woodsman is evident throughout the book and adds much to its character for those who read between the lines. — Mike Alton

Will see what  I can find on the WWW.
This mat take some time, as I have a couple of other projects on the burner.

Old Salt

[Watauga]

Old salt is right that is a wonderful book to start with!
The Longhunters sketchbook is good to if you want to make your clothing and accouterments!

[Hawken50]

thanks im looking on the web now for ideas.looks like my area was where most of the documented long hunts started.

[Jim Aude]

You might try these books; The Frontier Rifleman by Richard LaCrosse, The Hunting Pioneers 1720-1840 by Robert Holden, Rockhouses and Rhododendron by John Curry, and Sons of A Trackless Forest by Mark Baker. All are good sources of information althought Mark Baker's book is out of print now. But you may be able to find it in a library or sometimes you can find them on ebay.

[VaScout]

If you're still looking for information, I found some cool stuff.

I live in Henry County which was home to some pretty notable longhunters.  In fact many of them lived in a small community together at what was known then as "horseshoe bend" on the Smith river, the original site of which is about a 5 minute drive from my house.

I found a bunch of details about those guys (Elisha Wallen, Joseph Martin, and some others) at the local historical society building.  Some of this stuff includes details of particular long hunts that this group did including what each man was equiped with and other cool stuff.  They have a folder there that has been compiled about this particular group.

If you would like, I could mail you copies of the documents that I got from them... there is other stuff there, but I didn't want to sit there all day and copy the whole folder LOL.

Ed

[Watauga]

I would love to see the information about the Long hunters!

[Red Badger]

Be sure to ask the library before you start making copies of their material!  Also if they approve I would like to se a copy posted on the site for all of us to see

[VaScout]

I made sure I got permission.

How would I go about posting what I have here?  Could somebody maybe coach me through it... It's almost 20 pages of stuff, and I don't type very fast... it would take me about a week. 

Is there a way to scan them into the computer, make a pdf file, and upload it?

Ed

[sherpa]

I can't wait to read it!

[VaScout]

well... I just scaned them, but I can't copy and paste from the scanned document for some reason.

It's basically just a picture of the document.  I hope I get it figured out, 'cause I think there's some good information in there, and I know some of you could use it.

Ed

[Rev]

I made sure I got permission.

How would I go about posting what I have here?  Could somebody maybe coach me through it... It's almost 20 pages of stuff, and I don't type very fast... it would take me about a week. 

Is there a way to scan them into the computer, make a pdf file, and upload it?

Ed

Your scanner should give you an option to save as a .pdf or .jpg. Either one will work...

[VaScout]

ok... I'm really bad with this whole scanning thing... I can't find any option that lets me save it as a pdf.

When my wife get's home from her mother's house tonight, I'll see if she can give me a hand.  She bought the scanner, and I guess she knows how to use it.

Ed

[VaScout]

I did it! I figured out how to scan to a pdf.

Here you go...

I broke it up into 4 files... one for each of the documents that I copied...

The first one is from a family geneology that was archived at the historical center.  It's information about the longhunter connection of their family, but has some really good information.

http://blueridgebushcraft.webs.com/longhunter%20stuff/The%20longhunter%20connection.pdf

The second one is about General Joseph Martin who was a longhunter at one time and ran with the "horseshoe bend bunch" as they are known around here.

http://blueridgebushcraft.webs.com/longhunter%20stuff/Gen.%20Martin.pdf

This one is a little information about a couple of notable local longhunters and comes from the Virginia Historical Magazine:

http://blueridgebushcraft.webs.com/longhunter%20stuff/Va%20Historical%20Magazine.pdf

Next is just some information about what became of the place where all of the local longhunters had a litltle "commune" of sorts.

http://blueridgebushcraft.webs.com/longhunter%20stuff/Horshoe%20bend.pdf

I hope some of you may find this useful.

Ed

[Red Badger]

Awesome job! lots of good information!