Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

WOODCRAFTCHAPTER IWOODCRAFTFrom the autumn of 1904 to the winter of 1906I lived, most of the time, alone in a little cabin onthe Carolina side of the Great Smoky Mountains,surrounded by one of the finest primeval forests inthe world. My few neighbors were born backwoodsmen.Most of them dwelt in log cabins ofone or two rooms, roofed with clapboards rivenwith a froe, and heated by hardwood logs in widestone fireplaces. Many had no cooking-stoves, butbaked on the hearth and fried their meat over theembers.Nearly every man in the settlement was a skilledaxeman and a crack shot. Some of them still usedhome-made muzzle-loading rifles with barrels overfour feet long. Some of the women still workedat home-made spinning-wheels and looms. Coonskinsand ginseng passed as currency at the littlewayside stores. Our manner of life was not essentiallychanged from that of the old colonial frontier.To complete this historic setting, we had for neighborsthe Eastern Band of Cherokees, who still holda bit of their ancient patrimony, on the OkonaLufty. These Indians, while classed as civilized,have by no means forgotten all their aboriginal arts.You may find them, even now, betimes, slipping13