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Longbeard's Luck

Stepping out of the winter woods, a long-bearded hunter with his long-bearded prey pauses for a moment's rest, secure in the knowledge that tonight he and his companions waiting at their campsite by the river will feast.

This frontiersman may have traveled from the far north, his knit cap and Hudson's Bay Company blanket capote showing French-Canadian influence. The coat has four short indigo marks or points underneath the front flap indicating the value in prime beaver pelts of the blanket from which it was made. Worn over clothing and footwear made from buckskin, it has proven its worth in this harsh winter of hunting and trapping down the narrow valley of the icy Ohio River.

Shown recreating the hunter in this painting is a native of the Ohio Valley, a steelworker today who would have fared quite well had he been born two centuries ago. He makes his historically accurate clothing and tells of its superiority to its modern equivalent in warmth and durability, camps in the style common to the eighteenth century, and hunts with the muzzleloader, relishing the challenge of its limited firepower forcing the pursuer to match wits and woodcraft with his prey.