Post #1 another Bad idea...

Knives (English & French........cheap and made by the thousands)

Scissors (looks nothing like the chinese ones)

Page From the BW&M papers.....We know what they bought...and it wasn't always brown (sorry had to say it)

SO why did I do this? Well Honestly I need a reason to finally organize all my info on the hunters/traders that operated out of Fort Pitt In the 1760’s. I have in the past posted items I thought would be useful to folks on reenactor email lists/message boards but this usually breaks out into the usual flame wars full of “I think they would have “ or “that doesn’t make sense to me”. So here I can control the content and put out information that won’t get lost in 12 pages of bullshit. If nothing else I’ll finally have a document that shows why I do what I do. But…I won’t put it all on here I’ve already written books for other ppl LOL.

So what do I mean when I talk about market hunters (aka Long hunters). Well my idea of these men is anyone (French, English or Native) that was involved in the Deerskin Trade of the 1760’s. It’s not simply limited to the men who ended up going thru the Cumberland gap in the 1770’s as some Authors would have you believe. The Deerskin trade encompassed a huge amount of land/people during this period. My main focus is on the Men who operated out of Fort Pitt and many of these men were employed by the firm of Bayton, Wharton and Morgan.

While much has been written on this subject over the past two decades by Mark Baker in Muzzleloader Magazine and his book “Sons of a Trackless Forest” is THE source for info on these men the miles of microfilm of info on these men still has plenty of information to get out there. So I dont feel I'm stepping on anyones toes by putting this stuff out there and hopefully I’ll be able to knock out at least a post a week on some piece of gear (hats, knives, blankets, garters etc). And Hopefully this helps new folks get started and avoid some of the newbie blunders.