Guess I’ll be ordering up a couple of magazines this month. The Museum of the Mountain Man reeled me in with a pitch on a story about Jed Smith’s twice-stolen pistol:
Jedediah Smith was killed in the summer of 1831 while on the Santa Fe trail looking for desperately needed water. Six weeks later, Jed’s younger brothers Austin and Peter discovered his gun and pistols in Santa Fe, confirming their worst fears. His possessions were probably traded to Mexican merchants who brought them to Santa Fe.
This was just the first chapter in the long history of Jed’s pistol including being stolen again from the Junipero Serra Museum in 1961 and the subsequent six decade search to find one of the most important artifacts of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade. Historian James C. Auld details the history in “Jedediah Smith’s Twice-Stolen Pistol,” an article in the new 2022 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal. Auld will also be giving a presentation in Pinedale at Green River Rendezvous on July 8, 2022.
Find information about other articles in the new 2022 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal and details how to pre-order at MMMuseum.com.
To think that $250 was a stout reward back in 1961 — and it’ll about fill your tank or buy a little over a half-ton of hay in 2022.
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Muzzleloader Magazine July/August features an article by our friend Ted Franklin Belue on Last of the Mohicans — from Cooper to Michael Mann. Lookin’ at you Rick Schwertfeger.
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Apparently Baz Luhrmann is indulging in a director’s cut of Australia as big as a steak from the Cowboy Dinner Tree. Mileage may vary on whether the world needs a six-episode version of Australia, retitled Faraway Downs, but I’m in. Here’s the caper, from Variety:
The 2008 epic love letter to his native country was a box office dud when it hit theaters over a decade ago and critics were mostly “meh” on the whole thing. But its reputation has grown over the years, helped by frequent showings on cable, streaming and the like, and it sounds as though the director wasn’t done tinkering with a movie that, charitably, was a whole lot better than people gave it credit for at the time.
Now, word comes from down under that “Australia” will be reimagined as a six-part limited series titled “Faraway Downs” to be released exclusively as a Hulu Original in the U.S. and a Star Original on Disney+ and Star+ in international markets. That means every sweeping shot of Australia’s rugged outback, every penetrating look of barely suppressed romantic longing between Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman will be allowed to breath. Nothing, it seems, will have to be left on the cutting room floor.
The six-episode director’s cut is scheduled to debut this winter and will be comprised of footage that was captured for the film, while offering an expanded, serialized version of the story. Luhrmann and company are also promising a new ending and an updated soundtrack.
“I originally set out to take the notion of the sweeping ‘Gone With the Wind’ style epic and turn it on its head,” Luhrmann, fresh off his box office hit “Elvis,” explained. “A way of using romance and epic drama to shine a light on the roles of First Nations people and the painful scar in Australian history of the ‘Stolen Generations.’”
Luhrmann went on to explain that “while ‘Australia’ the film has its own life, there was another telling of this story.” It’s one that includes “alternative plot twists that an episodic format has allowed us to explore.”
I quite liked Australia — saw it in the theater back in 2008 — and it is better than people gave it credit for. Buncha cynics.
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While we’re in the South Pacific…
In New Zealand in the mid-19th century, settlers hungry for land and gold clashed with the Maori people, sparking some of the most intense frontier partisan conflict in history between that great warrior people and the British military. I just discovered a documentary series that explores that conflict.
Have just started on these, and won’t have much time for a few days. Daughter Ceili’s wedding is on Saturday. I just laid down a rendezvous-worth of plews on booze and ammunition. Booze for the reception, ammo for a Clan Gathering & Shoot on Friday morning. (No, we’re not doing the Yemeni wedding thing…)
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Reese Crawford scouted up the new episode of the Bear Grease Podcast: The Deathwind — Lewis Wetzel. It’s well done, and avoids glorifying this natural born killer, while acknowledging his undeniable skill as a frontier partisan warrior.
Lewis Wetzel by Timothy Truman
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American Outlaw Sonny Barger has died at 83. The Hells Angels founder was a larger-than-life, charismatic figure that would have been at home from Nassau c. 1715 to Tombstone c. 1881.
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Once Upon a Time in Los Angeles will get underway in earnest once the wedding is done. The first episode will recount the manhunt for the legendary bandit Tiburcio Vasquez. Subsequent episodes will touch on the lynching of Glanton Gang member Davy Brown; a bloody and legally consequential battle involving one of the great Californio families; the first on-duty death of an LA cop, and more…
The Lugo Family.
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The Terminal List premiers on East India Co. Amazon Prime on July 1.
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Made contact with the artist Hawken Horse. Will have a full post on his music soon. Check this out.
Matthew says
Congratulations on Ceili’s wedding!
I look forward to Once Upon a Time in Los Angeles.
I’ll probably send you a review of the comic the Rush, a surreal horror story set in the 1890s Gold Rush. It might be a while since I’m going out of town for 4th of July and have a lot of things going on right now.
JimC says
Look forward to it. No rush (I know… sorry…)
Mike says
Best wishes to you and yours!
David Wrolson says
If you haven’t bought all the booze yet-you could probably save some money by using some frontier rotgut trade whisky recipe.
The funny part is (being who you are ) you could probably get by with it.
Ceili would just shake her head and laugh and say-“Yep, that is my dad.”
Now, Mrs Frontier Partisans-on the other hand-it might be a little tougher to pull that one over on her.
JimC says
Oh hell yes!
Upper Platte recipe:
1 gal. alcohol
1 lb. plug or black twist tobacco
1 lb. black sugar or molasses
1 handful red Spanish peppers
10 gal. river water (in flood)
2 rattlesnake heads per barrel
Quixotic Mainer says
The mighty currents of the algorithms brought me Hawken Horse a few weeks ago, I’ve really enjoyed their music since!
Good luck with the upcoming festivities!
JimC says
Thank you. So far, so good…
lane batot says
I loved “Australia” when it came out–I have a DVD copy of my own, too. I think a lot of folks just didn’t get the satire in parts of the movie. For me, the “creamy” kid MADE that movie! He was wonderful! I’d happily see a full TV series on the subject–I’ll keep my eyes open(for a cheap, used DVD copy, because that’s just how I gotta roll…..). And ditto for the Maori/New Zealand stuff!
Ugly Hombre says
Congratulations to your family on the happy event! “Booze and Ammo” sounds like a good title for a song or story. Long life and prosperity to the young couple!
Easier to travel through life with a good spouse and a family thats harmonious, best of luck to them.
Great post -I did not know that about Jeb’s pistol, a snake that would steal a gun like that is a low down creature. The cow thief treatment would be the best RX*. Will follow the story.
California still is real western in some places, I have a friend who has a ranch in the north county. Rustlers and the whole deal. Sheriff had a meeting and told all the ranchers he wanted them to carry. “If will take my people maybe a hour to get to where the trouble is- need your help.” California was the west in the past. Like New York state Constitutional Yankees today- many Bear Flag Californians get a undeserved bad rep.
“To think that $250 was a stout reward back in 1961 — and it’ll about fill your tank or buy a little over a half-ton of hay in 2022.”
About four boxes of .45 Colt- some of my stash will go up in smoke on Independence day- the best kind of fire works!
* Be the best medicine for them imo. lol
Thomas A McIntyre says
The Maori item reminded me of a great (I thought) NZ movie about a Maori revenge uprising in 1870 titled Utu–think a Kiwi Tell Them Valdez is Coming. From the 1980s by a late NZ director, Geoff Murphy, who in the same decade made a very fine sci-fi film, The Quiet Earth. Unfortunately, or perhaps not, he went on to make movies with B-minus listers like Mickey Rourke and Steven “Shinola” Segal. Wonderful scene where a Maori is sent in a wagon as a sorta Trojan horse into a British frontier stockade. To disguise him, he has his face shoved into a barrel of flour. Perfect line from the wagon driver, “I’ve been a white man for two minutes, and already I hate you Maori!”
I am delivering a paper to the 2022 International Hemingway Conference this month in Sheridan, WY, about Hemingway and sharks and hyena. Here’s a quote from it about the Maori:
Geneticists have identified a variant of a gene encoding an enzyme that regulates the functioning of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, contributing to aggressive, violent behavior, and have called it the “warrior gene.”*
Researchers at New Zealand’s Victoria University reported that thirty-six percent of Caucasian males carry this gene, while up to fifty-six percent of Māori are said to posses it–a historian of the British Army called the Māori “the grandest native enemy that [the British soldier] ever encountered,” warriors who lived by the proverb, “Die like a hammerhead, not like an octopus,” famed for their fearsome haka, at one time performed in the nude with visible erections. Needless to say, it’s a theory awash in controversy.
*MAOA-L and CHD13 are thought to be the “warrior” genes, while there is the “wanderlust” gene, DRD4-7R, which seems to be present in groups who have traveled to the farthest reaches. One example–the Amerindians of Patagonia, the most southerly inhabited land on the face of the earth, appear to have high levels of this gene.
JimC says
This is fascinating.
JimC says
And UTU absolutely rocked my world.