Join us at the annual Buckskin Bill Rendezvous in Cascade, Idaho on July 15, 2016. Fur trade dress required. Come enjoy the rendezvous named after “the last of the mountain men”.
CONTACT
Paul Bolin 208-631-8268
Charlie Swindell 208-559-7408
WHEN
Friday, July 15, 2016 03:00 pm
LOCATION: Kennedy Ranch, Cascade, ID
Cascade, Idaho 83611
About Buckskin Bill
Buckskin Bill, also known as “the last of the mountain men,” forged a seemingly primitive life for himself along the banks of Idaho’s Salmon River. Born Sylvan Ambrose Hart in 1906, he received his nickname from local Forest Service rangers for the tanned deer hides he wore as clothing. Raised in Oklahoma Territory, he eventually found his way to the Five Mile Bar along the Salmon River in 1932 and made it his home.
Mostly eschewing the dubious comforts of city life and strangling restrictions on personal freedoms there, Buckskin Bill chose a more solitary, utterly self-sufficient life by the Salmon. He fished, trapped, hunted, raised crops, made his own food and clothing and wine.
Sylvan Hart possessed even more skills than those demanded by living off the land. He also held an engineering degree from Oklahoma University; studied Latin, Greek, French, German, Russian, Swahili, Portuguese, Spanish, and Norwegian; took courses in petroleum engineering as a graduate student; and worked on the top-secret Norden Bombsight at Boeing’s Kansas factory during World War II. He may have lived what appeared to be a simple life, but clearly he was not remotely a simple man.
When it came to picking enemies, Buckskin Bill chose a fairly big one: the National Forest Service. After having lived quietly in his chosen riverside haven for years, Buckskin bristled when the Forest Service pushed to have the entire place designated as a Primitive Area, which meant no human habitation whatsoever allowed. Eventually, the government was convinced that one man who lived off the land in an authentic manner deserved to stay there.
Buckskin Bill died in 1980, a mountain man to the last. The Buckskin Bill Museum, located on the Salmon River’s Five Mile Bar, showcases the actual items he made and used in his lifetime.