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

 

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?

 

We already discussed what he did wrong when he realized he had left the trail, but did he get anything right?

 

Why yes!  Yes, he did, he didn’t panic.  That’s HUGE!  When he realized it was almost dark and that he had become bewildered, he didn’t lose his heads, he didn’t let fear take over and become lost.  Instead, he found shelter and prepared to wait out the night.

 

What he did right...

 

He and the Little Dutchman found shelter next to an uprooted hemlock tree that was lying perpendicular to the wind¹.  The trunk and the root-ball would function as a windbreak, preventing wind chill, and keeping the leeward, generally snow free. 

 

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

 

But by the time they had finished clearing the ground and building their bed, it was growing dark and getting increasingly cold.  They needed more than a windbreak and a ground bed to keep from freezing to death during the night, with the temperatures continuing to drop; they needed a fire.  But, sadly, neither of them had remembered to slip a tinder box into their pockets.  They had almost given up hope, when fortunately, the ‘Lost Traveller’ remembered that he had accidentally charred his handkerchief the night before, rolling it up tight and stuffing it into one of his pockets to smother it, and that he had a large jack knife and a gun flint in another pocket.  This is another example of not panicking and of improvising, adapting, and overcoming in a survival situation, and of putting the ‘O’, for ‘organize’, in S.T.O.P. into practice.

 

Now that they had the means of making a spark, they turned to preparing for a fire, by clearing the snow, building a fire base and gathering tinder, kindling and fuel wood.  You always want to have plenty of tinder, kindling and fuel wood before you light your fire, because you don’t want your newborn fire to expire from a lack of fuel, while you a searching for more, but a pile as high as your head is a pretty good start. 

 

Now that they had a pile tinder, kindling and fuel; the ‘Lost Traveller’ had to get the charred handkerchief to catch a spark, so that he could light the kindling pile.  Luckily, he was able to spark a fire.

 

The tale of the ‘Lost Traveller’ doesn’t mention the type of fire that he built.  Because he lacked an ax or saw, he probably built a Long or Hunter’s Fire, which is fire lay of two parallel logs with a fire built between them.   In an emergency this fire is easily built by laying whole logs parallel to each other, but to keep it going overnight, you will need to place a third log on top of them.

 

You will always need more wood than you think you will, especially in the winter when temperatures are low, and a pile as high as your head will burn up fast.  I’ve always heard, and always taught, that you should get three times as much as you think you will need and then get a little bit more, just in case, to keep your fire burning all night long.  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.

 

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

 

Beard Adelia Belle; “Woodcraft for Outdoor Boys and Girls”, The Washington Reporter, February 11, 1920, page 5, https://books.google.com/books?id=SjFeAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA5&dq=%22without+maTCHES%22+1920&article_id=6504,6160930&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjo5feX6aeVAxXYDHkGHYfXELsQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22without%20maTCHES%22%201920&f=false, accessed June 27, 2026

 

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

 

Jessup, Elon; ‘Camping Hints, Ground Beds’, Field & Stream, July 1927, page 63 to 64, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Field_and_Stream/oJ-OgRGKwpYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=bough+bed&pg=RA2-PA64&printsec=frontcover, accessed July 17, 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

 

Wallace, A. F.; ‘Getting Lost’, Fur News and Outdoor World, May 1915, page 13, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fur_News_and_Outdoor_World/ukQAAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=log+windbreak&pg=RA7-PA13&printsec=frontcover, accessed July 17, 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

 

Wikimedia, “Glacial Lake Tonawanda, showing the movement of Niagara Falls”, By Matthew Trump, May 1, 2004, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wpdms_usgs_photo_lake_tonawanda.jpg, accessed July 11, 2026