Subject Guide
Mountain West
Malachite’s Big Hole
Interesting Links to Other Sites:
This isn’t intended to be a comprehensive list of sites, just those that I’ve found useful and interesting. I've divided these links into the following broad categories.
Historical Information
Skills, Crafts, Designs and Plans
Forums
Organizations, Museums
and Sites
Traders and Sutlers
Miscellaneous Links of Interest
◊◊
Reader's Guide to The Mountain Men of the American West: A really great list of
Mountain Man related references split by catagory.
Denver Public Library Western
History Photo Collection: A searchable online collection of photographs dating back
to about the time of the Civil War.
American Journeys: This site contains approximately
18,000 pages of letters, journals, diaries and other documents regarding the exploration
of North America.
Museum of the Mountain Man Online museum.
Mountain Men and the
Fur Trade
Mountain Man-Indian-Canadian Fur Trade
Northwest Journal. An outstanding
site with information generally focused towards the voyageurs of Canada, the Hudson's
Bay Company and the Northwest Company.
Over Land Trail – More about the mountain
men and a plethora of information about posts forts and the 1800’s
Historical Maps
of North America and the U.S.
Turning Points in Wisconsin History - maps, documents
and articles about the fur trade in French and English Wisconsin.
◊◊
Skills, Crafts, Designs and Plans
Shaving with a Straight Razor and Classic Shaving. And also here. A skill every male should develop for starting the day around camp.
Crooked Tree Farm This site provides a series of sublinks to sites with how-to information and plans for shelters, clothing, sewing, accoutrements and tools, woods skills and others, generally oriented to the 18th Century. The quality of the sublinks is varies: most are excellent, however a few are rather indifferent. If you are interested in doing things yourself, you will find something of interest here.
◊◊
Frontier Folk
Historical Trekking
◊◊
Organizations, Museums and Historical Sites
The Museum of the Fur Trade
Museum of the Mountain Man
Fort Union Association
Bent's
Old Fort
Colonial Williamsburg
South Platte Valley Historical Society - Focused on
the South Platte Valley, primarily Fort Lupton, but including Fort St. Vrain, Fort
Jackson, and Fort Vasquez. The historic site of Fort Lupton now includes a visitor
center, The fort is in the process of being reconstructed, and three major rendezvous
are held on the site annually.
North America’s First Hospital The story of North
America’s and Montreal’s first hospital.
◊◊
Traders and Sutlers: There are hundreds of suppliers of period trade goods, guns, shoes, clothing, to meet all of your reenacting needs. This list is not meant as an endorsement of the suppliers shown, it is merely intended to be be a representative subset of the types of suppliers out there. Remember, in choosing your source of clothing or plunder, unless you’ve done your research, cheap isn’t necessarily going to be cheapest.
Dixie Gunworks - General Supplies
Pecatonica River Long Rifles- I built a NW Trade Gun from one of their kits, I was
pleased with the quality of the components and the fit of the parts.
Sitting Fox Custom
Muzzleloaders-I built a NW Trade Pistol from this outfit. Overall was quite pleased
with the quality of the kit, however, the steel trigger guard was so thin that by
the time I got the casting marks filed off, the guard was extremely thin. I wound
up replacing that part with an equivalent part from Track of the Wolf.
Crazy Crow - General Supplies, large collection of beads
Jas. Townsend and Sons - General Supplies, and clothing
Leather Unlimited - Hides, skins, furs, and leather, and leatherworking tools
Panther Primitives General Supplies, but specializing in Canvas Shelters
Shipman Guns - Collector quality, custom crafted flint locks
Swamp Fox Knives - Hand forged custom knives
Track of the Wolf - Black Powder Guns, Kits, Supplies and Acoutrements
Contemporary Long Rifle Association- An extensive inventory of antique and high quality reproduction goods. A fun site to look through even if the goods don't fit your budget.
Tremont Nail Company - Cut steel (square) nails for your period woodworking projects
J Adams Ltd. Newly Made Period Correct Knives manufactured by one of the Sheffield knife manufacturers.
Miscellaneous Links of Interest