Bushcraft Heros

B

BenHarris

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Apr 30, 2014
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I was think about people who influence us in this realm of skills that we practice. As a Christian, and training to be a minister none the less, one person sticks out more than any other.
One of my bushcraft (and other wise) heroes is John the Baptist. He lived his life in the desert, preaching the Word of God, and preparing for the coming of Messiah. Not a bad way to go if you ask me! :D He did not use use a huge knife with 20 features, he didn't have 5.11 pants, or super shelters, or freeze dried food. He lived clothed in hides, eating bugs, honey, and whatever he could find in the wilderness, probably living in caves and bush shelters made with sticks and stones. But he was happy to do it because he had a purpose. I often use him as an example for what is really needed for wilderness living.
For me, John the Baptist is the perfect example of a hero of both faith and bushcraft. So, who would you look to for inspiration?
 
I respect the ones who don't feel the need to preach their religious ideas. Whether it be Christianity or the Earth Mother.
 
Great thread, Ben! John the Baptist is one of my heroes as well. Having spent some time in big deserts in my life, that is not an easy place to live! He must have had some great "bushcraft" skills!

Ron
 
Any of the old mountain men in the fur trade days must have been very savvy in bushcraft. How do you survive a winter in the Rockies not having great skills? Going where you are not the highest thing on the food chain, with both hostile animals and Indians, with a rifle that holds just one single shot and then it's down to the Green River Skinning knife and tomahawk. They had to be bushcraft hero's.
 
jackknife said:
Any of the old mountain men in the fur trade days must have been very savvy in bushcraft. How do you survive a winter in the Rockies not having great skills? Going where you are not the highest thing on the food chain, with both hostile animals and Indians, with a rifle that holds just one single shot and then it's down to the Green River Skinning knife and tomahawk. They had to be bushcraft hero's.
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The fur trade was built off the expertise of Aboriginal women. The men were dependant on them for virtually everything including trading relations and survival. The men of the fur trade are often romanticized and have been since the early stages of the fur trade; they were used to entice young men from Europe to come over as fur traders or missionaries. The men knew nothing about survival in North America and it was common practice to marry (in the custom of the country) an Aboriginal women because you gained access to her families trading relations and she knew how to do everything you needed including building shelter, finding food, making clothing etc. They were the real experts and the fur traders depended on them in a mutually beneficial relationship for a couple hundred years before they were no longer needed and seen as an inconvenience.

I enjoy learning from Mors Kochanski, he is brilliant and shares his knowledge willingly without the flash. He lives and teaches in similar woods that I spend most of time in so all his teachings are relevant and beneficial to me.
 
BenHarris said:
I was think about people who influence us in this realm of skills that we practice. As a Christian, and training to be a minister none the less, one person sticks out more than any other.
One of my bushcraft (and other wise) heroes is John the Baptist. He lived his life in the desert, preaching the Word of God, and preparing for the coming of Messiah. Not a bad way to go if you ask me! :D He did not use use a huge knife with 20 features, he didn't have 5.11 pants, or super shelters, or freeze dried food. He lived clothed in hides, eating bugs, honey, and whatever he could find in the wilderness, probably living in caves and bush shelters made with sticks and stones. But he was happy to do it because he had a purpose. I often use him as an example for what is really needed for wilderness living.
For me, John the Baptist is the perfect example of a hero of both faith and bushcraft. So, who would you look to for inspiration?
Click to expand...

One of my Hero's as well. Great post.
 
The book that got me into it.. Robinson Crusoe It cant get any better then this.
 
BenHarris said:
So, who would you look to for inspiration?
Click to expand...

I mean... I kinda look toward those cats for pointers on how to like, tie knots around branches to hold up my tarp. I suppose for inspiration I might look to this dude maybe?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill

(edit for relevance in sub- Jack is credited with the last bow/arrow kill in battle [bows and arrows are relevant to Wilderness and Survival skills right?])

Or Road Runner actually, thanks baldtaco-II
 
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Hate to rain on your parade but........

John the Baptist was more than likely an Essene, living in one of the built up stone settlements in the Juedean desert with a highly sophisticated rain collection system that fed into cisterns
 
neeman said:
Hate to rain on your parade but........

John the Baptist was more than likely an Essene, living in one of the built up stone settlements in the Juedean desert with a highly sophisticated rain collection system that fed into cisterns
Click to expand...

Do you guys hunt chukars out there?
 
I'll try not to drift to far from the main theme of the post, and to far into theology/history, but the message John preached was different from the Essene. If John was an Essene, he would have likely been kicked out. The idea of Essene theology was to separate oneself from all outside influences to serve God better and to await the political Messiah for the Hebrew people. John was a public open air preacher. He spoke to crowds of Pharisees, Roman soldiers, tax collectors and urged them to prepare themselves for the coming of the Messiah. His Messiah (Yeshua, Jesus) was coming to bring religious revolution, to bring man back to YHWH and to be the final sacrifice for sins. Finally, the Essenes as a whole rejected Yeshua of Nazareth as the Messiah, John an the other hand proclaimed that Yeshua (his cousin of all things) was the Promised one of YHWH. So, if John was an Essene, he wasn't one for long.
 
FOur of them for me actually. Together they saw to it that more young men grew up with essential outdoor skills than any other men I can remember.
1. Robert Baden-Powell
2. Daniel Carter Beard
3. Ernest Thompson Seton
4. William D. Boyce

Founders of Boy Scouts. The oldest manuals still are rich in bushcraft skills and simplified instruction.
 
Sullie said:
The fur trade was built off the expertise of Aboriginal women. The men were dependant on them for virtually everything including trading relations and survival. The men of the fur trade are often romanticized and have been since the early stages of the fur trade; they were used to entice young men from Europe to come over as fur traders or missionaries. The men knew nothing about survival in North America and it was common practice to marry (in the custom of the country) an Aboriginal women because you gained access to her families trading relations and she knew how to do everything you needed including building shelter, finding food, making clothing etc. They were the real experts and the fur traders depended on them in a mutually beneficial relationship for a couple hundred years before they were no longer needed and seen as an inconvenience.

I enjoy learning from Mors Kochanski, he is brilliant and shares his knowledge willingly without the flash. He lives and teaches in similar woods that I spend most of time in so all his teachings are relevant and beneficial to me.
Click to expand...

Yes, the British class system which they imposed throughout their empire, India etc. was a primary factor in native North American exploitation. But consider that the fur trade evolved over hundreds of years and it had many power players. Even the Metis were a factor in displacing the euro need for traditional native knowledge and skills................... Yes, Mors is the man. Of course he will be semi ignored in his lifetime. Then after death risen to a higher place of prominence in the outdoor skills world. Such is the nature of man.
 
Well, if we're looking to the Bible for bushcraft inspiration, what about Noah? The dude like, built an ark and survived a flood and practiced animal husbandry, and stuff.

But seriously, my heros are the people that neither you, nor I, have ever heard of. The ones who simply lived as comfortably and competently in the woods as possible, maybe shared that experience and wisdom with those close to them who lived similarly, and probably just walked farther into the woods one day and never came back. No attention-seeking or limelight whatsoever.
 
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