Lewis Wetzel flits through the forests of Frontier Partisans history like a dark shadow. ONe of the most capable frontier warriors on the Ohio Valley frontier in the late 18th Century, he was also a straight-up killer, whose consuming passion in life was the hunting of Indians. He was an avatar of the famous Ernest Hemingway quote:
Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it,
never really care for anything else thereafter.— Ernest Hemingway, “On the Blue Water,” Esquire, April, 1936
I delved deep into Wetzel lore for this post:
I have taken some fire from Wetzel partisans, who admire his prowess to a degree that they excuse his murderousness. They don’t accept any point of view that treats Wetzel as anything less than the legendary defender of the Upper Ohio River frontier — by any means necessary. I stand my ground on the case.
Regardless of where you come down on Wetzel’s actions and psychology, he remains an endlessly fascinating figure. This is a well-done video that explores the life of this most dangerous of Frontier Partisans:
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This is WAY off the course of my current Frontier Partisan trekking, and so will probably have to wait to be acquired and read. Still, I sense that destiny will stack it upon the TBR pile. And I aim to fire up a podcast with the author tonight…
In the summer of 1579 Francis Drake and all those aboard the Golden Hind were in peril. The ship was leaking and they were in search of a protected beach to careen the ship to make repairs. They searched the coast and made landfall in what they called a ‘Fair and Good Bay’, generally thought to be in California. They stacked the treasure they had recently captured from the Spanish onto on this sandy shore, repaired the ship, explored the country, and after a number of weeks they set sail for home. When they returned to England, they became the second expedition to circumnavigate the earth, after Magellan’s voyage in 1522, and the first to return with its commander.
Thunder Go North unravels the mysteries surrounding Drake’s famous voyage and summer sojourn in this bay. Comparing Drake’s observations of the Natives’ houses, dress, foods, language, and lifeways with ethnographic material collected by early anthropologists, Melissa Darby makes a compelling case that Drake and his crew landed not in California but on the Oregon coast. She also uncovers the details of how an early twentieth-century hoax succeeded in maintaining the California landing theory and silencing contrary evidence. Presented here in an engaging narrative, Darby’s research beckons for history to be rewritten.
For the record, Oregonians have long asserted that this is the correct thesis.
Drake was a hard man himself, and another endlessly fascinating Frontier Partisan — of the maritime frontier.
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I recently discovered the frontier art of Dave Hasler. Holy smokes! I really like his stuff — and prints are affordable. You listening Badass Santa?
Hasler posted The Goose Hunter on Facebook and indicates that it’s one of his favorite. I really dig it…
Fred Blosser says
Should we credit Zane Grey, in great if not full measure, for Wetzel’s fame as West Virginia’s version of Hawkeye and Daniel Boone? (Not forgetting that Dan’l himself lived in WVa for a time after the Revolution; in fact, he and Paddy Huddleston trapped beaver near the site where my home town grew up many years later.). In Grey’s Zane Family trilogy, Lew is the restless, untameable friend of the tough but more settled Jonathan Zane, a forerunner of hardboiled duos like Robert Crais’ Pike and Cole, and James Lee Burke’s Clete and Robicheaux. Who can forget the scene in SPIRIT OF THE BORDER, where Wetzel nails the renegade, murderer, and rapist Jim Girty to a tree with his knife for the vultures to eat?
JimC says
We should indeed. I ate Spirit of the Border up as a youngster. And that scene is indelible — Jim Girty as the Monster and Wetzel as the Monster Slayer.
John Bella says
Lewis Wetzel: Hero or Homicidal Maniac??…..You decide.
J.F. Bell says
It would appear, based on what records I can collect, that one of my great distant forebears was a Devon sea-dog who served under Drake as captain in one of his smaller ships. He spent a fair bit of time scouting for the larger fleet and at one point took home a Spanish flagship as a prize. Some afterwards he was dispatched by Sir Walter Raleigh on an exploration of the Orinoco River, but was somewhat waylaid by the governor or Trinidad, where he later died.
It’s a strange family tree.
JimC says
That’s some serious heritage there.
J.F. Bell says
That it is, and I’d have traded my eyeteeth to have known it earlier.
Regrettably, as is probably the case with most families, the blood-memory goes back two or three generations and stops cold.
Quixotic Mainer says
I was surprised to learn that penguin was a staple for Drake and company in their watery wandering. He and Morgan definitely swung the tide of world history with their adventures.
I am going to end up doing my duty as armorer tommorow, cleaning up the outfits musketry. That Wetzel production will be great in the background.
JimC says
You’ll enjoy it.
lane batot says
Perhaps a BIT off-subject, but regarding “the hunting of man” being a desired activity that has had it’s appeal throughout history, I JUST finished reading(sink-wren-awe-city?) THE BEST book I’ve yet read about either police or military dogs(and I’ve read a few!), titled “Werewolf”(OF COURSE that title caught my eye!), about a former cop in Santa Barbara, CA. and his amazing German Shepherd police dog named “Brag”, but nicknamed by his fellow officers the “Werewolf”! And–small world indeed–your great friend and compatriot, none other than Craig Rullman, is mentioned throughout! Wonderfully written book about the life and relationship of the author with his dog, but back on point–he readily admits actually enjoying the elements of “the hunt” in searching for and apprehending criminals, which his dog also LIVED for! But who better to fulfill this role for society(even with many in society that would consider such eagerness rather politically incorrect!), than someone who gets STOKED doing this otherwise often thankless job? Maybe not Wetzel-like, perzackly, but I find it very understandable…..A highly recommended book, very possibly a MUST potential future Blog Tithe?
JimC says
Ain’t that grand?
lane batot says
I’ll take that as a “yes”!