Mark A. Baker is a leader among those who have made a deep study of the 18th Century Long Hunter through the medium of historical trekking.
When I was in my teens a man named Walter J. McCurdy opened a small shop and gallery in Montrose, California, a pleasant little burg nestled amid the suburbs north of Los Angeles.
Mac, as he was known, was an artist and a founding member of The American Mountain Men. AMM was considered an elite organization among mountain man reenactors — the hard-core dudes who took seriously the effort to recreate the lives of the 1820-1840 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade. These weren’t tubby guys wearing tan jeans and a pullover shirt and a fur hat, drinking Budweiser in a tin cup, shooting a Thompson-Center “Hawken” and calling themselves Mountain Men. These were the real deal.
I was enraptured.
Ever since I was a little kid I had felt a powerful sense of nostalgia for a frontier world that was gone long before my birth. And here were guys who were bringing it to life. I didn’t know what kind of “real world” career I wanted to pursue, but by god I knew I wanted to be a mountain man. Mac appreciated my enthusiasm and he facilitated my introduction to what was then called “buckskinning.” As soon as I could, I got me a muzzleloading rifle and started putting together an outfit.
But for a variety of reasons, I ended up taking a different path. I’ll get to the whys and wherefores of that in a minute, but first, I want to acknowledge the tremendous debt we students of the frontier owe to the hardcore living historians, the experimental archaeologists. Thanks to guys like Mark A. Baker, who for years wrote a column in Muzzleloader Magazine, we know in great detail and with great accuracy the material culture and day-to-day life ways of the Long Hunters. Le Loup (Keith H. Burgess), who visits here now and then, has done a great deal of educational work based on his life in the woods authentically recreating the early 18th Century Colonial American hunter. Same goes for the AMM guys and people immersed in a whole range of time periods. Hell, there are people doing the same work with Viking culture, Dark Age Britain and who knows what-all and where.
Their obsessive quest to get it right in creating and living a historical persona drives them to plumb primary sources for information, to document every item of equipment and the result is that we have an authentic picture of how the people who lived the frontier experience truly looked, how their gear worked in practice, how they ate.
It’s a magnificent thing.
Hard-core, full-immersion reenactors have made any number of movies better and more authentic, creating verisimilitude in films from “Last of the Mohicans” to “Gettysburg.”
It came as something of a surprise to me to discover that I did not want to follow that path. When we moved to Oregon, I went to some rendezvous and shoots (and that flintlock I mentioned in a previous post served me well). I thought I would find a niche, a tribe in that world — but I didn’t. There was a disconnect.
Took me a bit to figure out what it was, but it’s a fairly simple thing. I just couldn’t fully immerse myself in a single time period. Of course I still loved the stories of Simon Kenton that thrilled me at 13, and the glorious tales of John Colter and Killbuck and LeBonte that I read in “Give Your Heart To The Hawks” and Ruxton’s “Life in the Far West.” But I also wanted to stalk the African jungle and veld with P.J. Pretorius and Frederick Courteney Selous and ride with the Australian Light Horse in the Great War or with Pancho Villa’s Division del Norte in the Mexican Revolution.
I wanted bolt-actions, lever guns, side-by-side shotguns, Stetson hats, trench coats and safari jackets. I needed for my gear to work for me in my workaday world.
There was no way I could commit my resources and attention to specializing in one time and place. Already the concept that underpins Frontier Partisans was dictating my path: the sense that the frontier and frontier irregular warfare was an international phenomenon spanning several hundred years.
So I chose my own path for making the past present. My gear and my approach to venturing out into forest, desert and mountains is contemporary, even as my mindset is always oriented toward the historical. My study and my writing — well, the evidence of that is before you.
But I freely and gratefully acknowledge that my efforts are easier and my work better thanks to those who did choose the path of full immersion and dedication to every detail of a specific historical persona from a specific historical time period. You have enriched me and every other student of this subject.
Hats off to you!
Here’s a few links concerning experimental archaeology.
Keith H. Burgess says
Many thanks for the mention Jim, very much appreciated.
Sincere regards, Keith.
Lane Batot says
Gotta HURRY! This rude system cuts me off if my reply takes too long to peck out! As it always does for me!….. First–great tree! Looks like a giant old sycamore–I’m ready to move in!…. Also, specialists of any kind learn things and have a perspective like no other, and are very valuable, for sure. But “generalists” are very valuable, too, and in their broader range of knowledge and comparisons, can give us perspectives no specialist could hope to do! We need BOTH very much in this world!
JimC says
Great point Lane. Hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but that describes it well.
Maria Kern says
Do you know where Walt “Mac” McCurdy is now. I knew him through The American Mountain Men and my late husband, in the early 1980’s.
JimC says
Lost track of Mac years ago. He wasn’t in the best of health last time I saw him and I’d frankly be surprised if he’s still among us. Hope so though.
Jerry Zaslow says
I am a member of the AMM and was lucky to have been very good friends with Mac through the last few years of his life. He passed in October of 1994 as a result of his triple bypass heart repair coming apart. It was very sad and tragic as he was only 51 years old.
For the last few years of his life he owned a custom saddle shop in Moorpark, California. I used to drop by the shop every other Saturday and shortly before he passed, he promised to teach me to ride a horse. After he passed, his apprentice in the shop taught me to ride and I’ve been riding for the past 22 years. He always said he wanted to come back as a horse so when I adopted a baby mustang in 2002, I named him Mac. Mac is 15 years old today and the best horse I have ever had. A fitting memorial to a wonderful person.
JimC says
Thank you so much for that news, sad as it is. I love it that you named your mustang after him.
Phillip L. Wheeler says
I have been trying to find anybody who knew Mac. I spent time with him in Lake Arrowhead in the 1980’s.At that time he was living in Crestline Ca.We were in the Lake Arrowhead Art Ass. togeather. I have a great drawing of his and some bronze work that we worked on togeather. Please contact me to talk about our time we spent and the Mountain Man things we did also the Single Action Shooting we were in volved in.
Regards Phillip L. Wheeler aka Broknwheel
JimC says
Will do.
Stephen Wagner says
I was fortunate enough to make friends with Mac when he lived here in central Pa.I would stop by his house and admire his latest incredible art work.At the time,I didn’t have the money to buy any.What was so cool about Mac was not only his ability,but that he embodied the art that he put on his canvas.I lost touch with him when he moved out west.Over the years,I keep meaning to try and find him and hopefully,finally get a piece of his work.
I am truly saddened to learn of his passing.I would love to find a piece of his art some day.
JimC says
Thanks for that Stephen. He was an important man in my early world.
Nona McAllister says
When my father passed away 3 years ago.
He had several of Walters drawings/ art.
I probably have at least 8 of them that has mountain men. I have a awesome one of pencil
Trees and a Indian on a horse hidden in the picture.
I also have a picture of Custom Saddlemaker
with saddle and horse is behind( gorgeous)
I live in AZ
JimC says
I’m so glad that Mac’s art lives on and continues to inspire. Thanks for stopping by the campfire.
Nona McAllister says
When my Father passed away, he had
Several of Walt pictures, I now have them.
Also print sign of saddle making
Nona McAllister says
I am very interested in selling several of the paintings
Steve Wagner says
Nona,
I would be very interested in getting one
Of macs prints or paintings. My email is
Glockshot1@yahoo.com. Thx, Steve
Nona MCAllister says
Steve,
You can email me at
71 VAILNDJ@gmail .com
I have several pictures.
Martin Doran says
Walter J. McCurdy, sounds he was a very interesting man who passed to soon. I currently have 2 numbered prints of his art, each 1 of 60, that I would be interested in selling.