Lost in Late 18th and Early 19th centuries...Lessons Learned, What He did Wrong©

 

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!

 

Imagine it is in the middle of winter of some year between 1794 and 1814, the exact year doesn’t really matter.  You’ve walked all day, become turned around, bewildered even, in a giant frozen swamp, on the edge of the American Old Northwest Frontier.  It’s bitterly cold, and the Sun is going down.  It will be dark soon, and it’s going to get colder, much colder.    Can you do better than the Lost Traveller did?  He survived to tell the tale, would you?

 

 

In 1820, the Great Tonawanda Swamp covered about 25,000 to 40,000 acres (roughly 40 to 60 square miles).  It was the remains of the mostly dried up corpse of Glacial Lake Tonawanda, which was filled by Lake Erie and emptied into Glacial Lake Iroquois. 

 

A massive, impassable wetland stretching across the northern parts of Genesee and Orleans counties, in New York state, which included within it today, the towns of Alabama, Oakfield, Elba, Barre, and Clarendon.  It measured roughly 15 to 20 miles long and several miles wide.  The swamp was a major geographic barrier during the early 1800s and was covered with thick, wet woods, deep mud, and dense vegetation, making it nearly impossible to cross or farm.  Early pioneer records note the swamp was home to dangerous wildlife, including large populations of wolves.  Being lost here, especially in the winter, was no joke.  So what did the ‘Lost Traveller’ do wrong; and what did he do right...let’s find out.

 

What he did wrong...

 

Our ‘Lost Traveller’ and his companion entered the wilderness without a compass, means of creating fire, food or any spare clothing, because they assumed they couldn’t possibly get lost.  If they had remembered to bring a compass and knew that their path would generally be to the west to north-west, then perhaps they wouldn’t have lost their way. 

 

Even without a compass, if they had only known that in the winter, near the solstice, on December 21, six days after they set out, the sun rises in the southeast (30° to 32° south of due east, actually), before crossing through the southern hemisphere, and then setting in the southwest (30° to 32° south of due west), perhaps they would have been able to find their way from the twin villages of Hartford and Canawagus, New York, which today are known as Avon, New York, to the Niagara Falls area without a problem. 

 

Instead they walked for some 15 miles, over an apparently unbroken track through the forest, following blazes, trusting to luck and hoping for the best.  December 15^th is one of the shortest days of the year, with the sun rising at about 7:30 am and setting again about 4:30 pm at this latitude; that means there is only a total of about nine hours of daylight.  Since the snow depth was low, at about six inches (15 cm) deep, and they had no baggage, they must have been walking at 2 miles per hour (3.2 kph).  This means that they walked for some seven and half hours before they lost the trail.

 

When they realized that they had left the trail, they should have S.T.O.P.ped, and built a camp for the night, or returned by following their tracks to the correct trail.  But they didn’t, instead they spent the next hour and half or so wandering the frozen swamp, before the setting sun forced them to stop, set up camp and go no farther.

 

As it was, they were bewildered, not yet lost, but without any food, or extra dry clothes which was their baggage; as the temperatures plummeted, becoming bewildered was truly becoming an emergency.

 

So, now we know what the ‘Lost Traveller’ did wrong.  To recap, here is what he should have done.

Before heading into the wilderness always carry a compass.  Even if you or your guide know how to get from point A to point B, carry a compass for emergencies.  Constantly check your compass to make sure you are still on track.

Learn to tell basic directions from the position of the Sun, just in case.

Always have the means to start a fire with you, on your person, at all times.  This includes tinder as well as the means to light it.

Bring extra dry clothes, water and food, just in case.

S.T.O.P when you first become ‘bewildered’, don’t keep moving.

If you manage to go off trail, follow your foot-steps and back track to where you know where you are, DON’T wander and try a shortcut.  Like a free lunch, there is no such thing as a shortcut.

Plan on setting up camp at least two hours before local sunset (when the sun goes down behind the trees, the nearest hill, ridge, etc.).

  

But not thinking that it could happen to them was their biggest mistake.

But what did he do right?  To find out, tune in next week and read “Lost in Late 18th and Early 19th centuries...Lessons Learned, What he did right©

 

For more on the ‘Lost Travellers’ tale of survival read “Lost in the Great Tonewanta Swamp, 1796! Part One©, HERE.

 

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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Department of the Army, Basic Cold Weather Manual, FM 31-70, April 12, 1968, [Paladin Press, Boulder, CO, 1974], page 61

 

Mackenzie, Eneas; An Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive View of the United States of America, [Mackenzie and Dent, London, 1819], page 508, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qace32RK0rSk2jqxttZuRyh11-RXIcfKDUiiKI2LqpGDtENvzLmzCCnEHG_Ev8nqEVAcPJyp6APwbtdoTd0QhajdZzGAE-3hJKED9cWKNaBzt0wWnJfE80g4l-VQ6o46l1Sm1L9ZVjX7lZOeTTYPR42JEQXYLiWNzRTG-qafk12l5BpfurWXv4XYcwwoY4bcwF1loxkLYwYF8IJeFKS9FJy8JZNpop9CVwTynkDnYf5iEp4r4L8MgcBpeL6BFU4cbGfm7YaWVeL2upttQe2jNeXvAJCtHnn6YrwU1sPccngWgj9rYqI, accessed July 11, 2026

 

Moses, Thomas; “The Lost Traveller”, The Analectic Magazine, Volume 4, [published by Moses Thomas, Philadelphia, PA; 1814], page 158, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Analectic_Magazine/pu84AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22the+lost+Traveller%22+analectic+magazine+1814&pg=PP13&printsec=frontcover, accessed June 27, 2026

 

Russell, J.; “A Map Of The Middle States, Of America”, 1794 http://www.mapsofpa.com/18thcentury/1794russell.jpg, accessed June 27, 2026

 

Sharp, Hal; “Sportsman’s Digest: Start a Fire with Flint and Steel”, The News-Dispatch, September 18, 1972, page 5, https://books.google.com/books?id=02BVAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA5&dq=%22start+a+fire+with+flint+and+steel%22+1972&article_id=3452,5991692&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvnvTg7qeVAxUvpIkEHfdCPU8Q6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=%22start%20a%20fire%20with%20flint%20and%20steel%22%201972&f=false, accessed June 27, 2026

 

The American Mountain Men; “Flint and Steel Steel Char Flint”,  https://americanmountainmen.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/TLR-FIRE-2019-APRIL-28.pdf, accessed June 27, 2026

 

Wikimedia, “1821 A new map and profile of the proposed canal from Lake Erie to Hudson River in the State of New York”, from the New York Public Library, 1821, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1821_A_new_map_and_profile_of_the_proposed_canal_from_Lake_Erie_to_Hudson_River_in_the_State_of_New_York,_from_the_New_York_Public_Library_-_510d47da-f059-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.jpg, accessed July 11, 2026

 

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