Lost in the Great Tonewanta Swamp, 1796! Part Two©

 

 

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

Last week we read about two travelers who set out on foot through the Great Tonewanta Swamp in the depths of winter to reach a cabin fifteen miles away.  But they got lost, and now they must survive the cold winter night!

 

Unfortunately, our traveler and his companion, the little stout Dutchman, had ventured into the wilderness without a compass, food or any baggage, and because they assumed it couldn’t happen to them and that they wouldn’t possibly get lost, when they did get lost it was an emergency!

 

Not thinking that it could happen to them was a mistake, but did they get anything right?

 

Yes!  They didn’t panic.  When they realized it was almost dark and that they were lost, they didn’t lose their heads, they found shelter and prepared to wait out the night.

 

Surviving the night!

They found shelter next to an uprooted hemlock tree that was lying perpendicular to the wind.  The trunk and the root-ball acted as a windbreak, keeping the leeward side free of snow. 

 

Next, they built a bough bed of hemlock boughs to insulate themselves from cold, heat stealing ground, by piling branches on the ground, against the trunk.

 

But they needed a fire to keep from freezing to death during the night.  Sadly, neither of them had remembered to slip a tinder box into a pocket.  Luckily Our Traveler remembered that he had accidently charred his handkerchief the night before, and that he had a jack knife and a gun flint in his pocket, and he was able to spark a fire.  

I would have gathered firewood before I tried to light my fire, because you don’t want your newborn fire to expire from a lack of fuel, while you a searching for more.  Also, it becomes difficult to safely find wood once the Sun goes down.

 

In the morning the sun rose, and our traveler was able to determine north, south, east and west and navigate back to the banks of the Genesee river, the village of Hartford, and safety.

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

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Hough, Emerson; Out Of Doors, [D. Appleton and Company, New York, New York, 1915] pages 269 to 282, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qae7-jl_x3NQWPi-aZLNRoBHjj-YPGZc6U2pqG65yxFIdZ3WlwxSVScharPFjIYLra4g6_ybqwT1zHD9IL11mJD_bxTnF3F4hThwZngB5h9MWtRnvuSpKp09eBXPKX1Dsjb9BzY7Dj2QpApOjlMX2hbIiuuukqc3GICvUsQmW-H2TYQ5rm44mBV9hLbN1HiMNohnKlJr0e8CEdIOxALueJydtsR98kWQOEEZBRTlX7fjJfe5sASmfdoAHLjQxHwsFeAZBOc3, accessed October 15, 2024

 

Mather, Joseph H., and Brockett, Linus Pierpont; A Geographical History of the State of New York: Embracing Its History, [John W. Fuller & Co., Utica, 1853], page 400, https://books.google.com/books?id=ux6dTIOOxvkC&pg=PA400&dq=%22great+tonawanda+swamp%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijofadwoSJAxW1EFkFHa88BiE4ChDoAXoECAwQAg#v=onepage&q=%22great%20tonawanda%20swamp%22&f=false, accessed October 12, 2024

 

New York Secretary of State; Map and profile of the Erie Canal -- Originally published in: Laws of the State of New York, in relation to the Erie and Champlain canals [E. and E. Hosford, printers, Albany, 1825], https://www.eriecanal.org/maps.html, accessed October 12, 2024

 

Reid, John; The State of New York, [New York, Published by J. Reid, 1796] https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3800.ct005429/?r=-0.309,0.249,1.036,0.407,0, accessed October 12, 2024

 

Thomas, Arad; Pioneer History of Orleans County, New York, [H.A. Bruner, Orleans Steam Press, Albion, NY, 1871], pages 22 to 34 and pages 73 to 74, https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuYpAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Pioneer+History+of+Orleans+County%22+1871&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj78OC0koWJAxXXlYkEHS0IKgkQ6AF6BAgGEAI#v=onepage&q=%22Pioneer%20History%20of%20Orleans%20County%22%201871&f=false, accessed October 12, 2024