That's how I got here. My Ruger 22 caliber has been gathering dust for maybe 40 years. It might need a good cleaning. Is that something I should attempt meself, or take it to a gun shop?
As for history, I love colonial U.S. history. I've read books about Dan Boone, Dave Crockett, Simon Kenton, Lewis Wexler etc., and I've come to the maybe not-so-obvious conclusion that except for Crockett, who was already famous before the Alamo (and that was a unique ending in itself), the other men are famous as much for the fact that they were not killed, as for what they did in their lives. People don't write books about a helluva frontiersman who was killed at the age of 25. Lewis Wexler's oldest brother is one example of that.
My second conclusion is that Boone, in particular, who was known to complain about the fact that his favorite - and always advancing - hunting grounds were being gradually depleted of game and settled by people, somehow and incredibly, did not realize that he was a huge cause of it! His surveys and road building west of the Alleghenies paved the way for hordes of settlers that were desperate and stupid enough to settle in the middle of Indian territory or their hunting grounds. Most of those settlers got themselves and family killed before long. But they just kept coming after Boone had been there. As great a frontiersman as Boone was - he reportedly remembered wherever he had been in the woods - it's positively weird that he did not to realize that he was the cause of his own moving-on behavior. I counted 18 such moves - all the way to Indiana and beyond.
Simon Kenton was, I think, a little smarter than Boone. He mostly saw his job as protecting settlers. But the story of his third and final capture and escape from an Indian village where he was about to be burned at the stake is the stuff of legend. And, by the way, he lived to an advanced age to talk about it.
As for history, I love colonial U.S. history. I've read books about Dan Boone, Dave Crockett, Simon Kenton, Lewis Wexler etc., and I've come to the maybe not-so-obvious conclusion that except for Crockett, who was already famous before the Alamo (and that was a unique ending in itself), the other men are famous as much for the fact that they were not killed, as for what they did in their lives. People don't write books about a helluva frontiersman who was killed at the age of 25. Lewis Wexler's oldest brother is one example of that.
My second conclusion is that Boone, in particular, who was known to complain about the fact that his favorite - and always advancing - hunting grounds were being gradually depleted of game and settled by people, somehow and incredibly, did not realize that he was a huge cause of it! His surveys and road building west of the Alleghenies paved the way for hordes of settlers that were desperate and stupid enough to settle in the middle of Indian territory or their hunting grounds. Most of those settlers got themselves and family killed before long. But they just kept coming after Boone had been there. As great a frontiersman as Boone was - he reportedly remembered wherever he had been in the woods - it's positively weird that he did not to realize that he was the cause of his own moving-on behavior. I counted 18 such moves - all the way to Indiana and beyond.
Simon Kenton was, I think, a little smarter than Boone. He mostly saw his job as protecting settlers. But the story of his third and final capture and escape from an Indian village where he was about to be burned at the stake is the stuff of legend. And, by the way, he lived to an advanced age to talk about it.
