A book I grew up with

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

The Book of Woodcraft by Ernest Thomas Seton.



The book was given to my Dad and his brother at Christmas of 1939 just two years before my grandfather, at 41, would join the Army (again) and spend four years building airfields on islands in the Pacific while his 11 year old son was essentially the man of the family. My dad, hunted, trapped and fished in addition to going to school to provide food and money for his mom and brothers. He had a little Winchester Model 42 (which I still have) that he killed rabbit, squirrels, ducks and geese for the table. I know he turned every page in this book multiple times, as did I. I know that reading this book, and being my father's son, lead to my love of the outdoors.

I don't dare turn the pages any more but with the link below I can relive my childhood and those memories that I love.

https://archive.org/details/bookofwoodcraft00seto_0

The website is a great website and has a multitude of books archived.

Alan

[hunter63]

Thanks for posting...guess it's not available in hard copy.....
I hate reading a book on a computer

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

https://www.google.com/search?client...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Alan

[hunter63]

Cool...Thanks....

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Ernest Thomas Seton was one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America. There was a time when the BSA enjoyed a much higher status than they do now. I have known some guys who made Eagle Scout that I would not trust in my yard much less in my house. Even when I was a kid they still had some class. I was a Cub Scout Den Leader for one year. I quickly found out that most of the activities were geared toward the adults and the kids were along for the ride. My boys wanted to do it again the next year so I asked them if they wanted to be in Scouts or if they wanted to spend weekends at that ranch actually doing the things we talked about doing in the scout meetings. The choice was easy of them.

As is with anything else, I think the value of the program depends largely on the people running it.

But, when E.T. Seton was writing his books Boy Scouts were the real deal. The Book of Woodcraft has a lot of stuff in it that certainly does not hold true today, but you can glean from it what you can use and the rest can be entertainment.

Alan

[hunter63]

I have gone thru, and reread D.C. Beard Shelters, Shacks and Shanties.....as a young man....
Another founder of BSA
Just pick up a new copy.....still as valid now as back then.