Lee1959 wrote:

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I first saw this story on PBS and have since read the books and watched it several more times just to really soak it in. What a life he led there, truly inspirational.

There was a man who after he graduated with a masters degree in engineering went off to Idaho to live for a year in the wilderness. It was a long standing tradition for all the men in his family to do so. His name was Sylvan Ambrose Hart. A writer from Sports Illustrated (Harold Peterson) wrote a book about him that I have. I've had the book for 34 years.

Sylvan staked out his 4 acre place on the River of No Return south of Dixie Idaho. Between Little Fivemile Creek and Fivemile Creek and across from Fivemile Bar. Known to a few locals as 'Buckskin Bill' he built adobe covered buildings with hand-hewn timbers. He mined copper, smelted it, refined it and made his own utensils. He never spent less than a year building his own flintlock rifles which he bored out himself with an "ingenious handmade machine" to "save the bother of store bought ammunition". He panned gold to pay for powder, books and Darjeeling tea. Upon seeing one of his fine hand built rifles a well to do businessman once offered Bill a blank check. Bill had told him all along the rifle was not for sale. The businessman could not fathom that Bill had no need for money. He really had no need for it. Bill grew 23 varieties of veges in his 100'x200' garden. He made his own tools and clothes. He blasted his own fallout shelter from solid rock. He had something like one hundred tools he made in his blacksmith shop so he could make other things he might need. His handcrafted arsenal includes a flintlock in .45, an enormous .64, a Remington style .50, and a sawed off .54 with a British musket stock.

I bought this book in 1975. It was published in 1969. In the sixties Sylvan was 60 something himself. He made his life there. Not everyone could do what he did. He did it and did it well. This book should be in everyones collection.