The input of Patrons and readers of Frontier Partisans is profoundly valuable to me. In recent weeks, I’ve received a couple of queries that served as bracing shots of truth; raising issues I really need to address — and fix. These were not couched as criticisms, but they alerted me that I am putting the quality of my work at risk by diffusing … [Read more...] about Acquiring The Target

The recent post on the Bowie Knife neglected to mention that Jim and Rezin Bowie were gator hunters. They would have been proud to nail down this beast: A group of Mississippi hunters have broken the state record for the longest alligator ever captured in the state with a 14-foot-3-inch reptile weighing just over 800 pounds. Hunters Tanner … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — Spies, Big Gator & Dark Pennsylvania

  Brady Crytzer is one of our tribe. He’s a historian who specializes in frontier history, particularly backcountry Pennsylvania. He’s a fellow commentator on Into The Wild Frontier on INSP. He’s the host of the Journal of the American Revolution’s podcast, Dispatches. He first came to my attention with his book Guyasuta and the Fall … [Read more...] about Buffalo Plaid

Woke up to this sad piece of news this morning: Jimmy Buffett has died. Buffett was a balladeer of a fading maritime frontier, best exampled in the wistful A Pirate Looks At 40, which is one of my all-time favorite songs. Yes I am a pirate, 200 years too late The cannons don’t thunder There’s nothing to plunder I’m an over-40 victim of … [Read more...] about A Pirate Sails Into The West

There’s no instrument in the history of country music that has a more distinctive look or sound than Waylon Jennings’s leather-wrapped Fender Telecaster. Captain Paul McNamee scouted up this magnificent thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZKoSwf_IFk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ_3dciClrw Waylon wasn’t flashy in his guitar playing … [Read more...] about The Waylon Jennings Telecaster

Here’s a piece of outstanding news: The Outside Circle: A Movie of the Modern West will be available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime starting November 21. There will also be DVD availability. The film has been available through Horse TV for a while, but that’s a limited-access subscriber deal. Most folks have access to Prime. Mark it down and … [Read more...] about The Outside Circle

The Rigby Campfire blog features a piece from African PH John Sharp. The the incomparably picturesque and personable Sharp tells the tale of the tribulations of his .470 Rigby double rifle. He learned dangerously that a double rifle is no luxury item in his trade — it’s the tool for the job. During the early 80s I had a frighteningly close call … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — A Rigby, Light Infantry & A Song Of The Bandits

The season’s upon us. It seems that the run-up to Halloween has already gotten underway. There is a distinct taste of autumn in the air already — as in pumpkin spice. Yeah, well, if it’s wrong, I don’t want to be right. I am fully on board with turning a quarter of the year over to trekking into the perilous timbers of Fennario. In that … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — Marsh King’s Daughter, Witches & A Paranormal Circus

Oh friend, I’m gonna ride out of the rut I’m in A little elevation and an open-ended prayer Holdin’ out for more than breakin’ even I’ve come back to the mountains and they’re all still standin’ there   I think Lady Marilyn got the Turnpike Troubadours’ new album, A Cat In Rain, about 2.5 seconds after it was released on Friday … [Read more...] about A Open-Ended Prayer

Captain Schwertfeger asked me the other day if I have set aside or abandoned the Ranger Project (Spirited For That Work). No, by Crom! I allowed myself to run down a sidetrail into the Mexican Revolution this summer because of the 100-year-anniversary of the Villa hit. And, yes, I’m now casting for Apache sign in the Sierra Madre. But the Ranger … [Read more...] about The European Frontier Partisans