“Lashing Rafters”

A traditional black powder hunter, portraying a trading post hunter, lashed every third rafter to the shelter’s ridge using grape vine. The “brush shelter” served as a central camp for three falls. A heavy oak limb, ripped loose in a spring wind storm, landed square across the ridge and destroyed the camp. Old Northwest Territory, near the headwaters of the River Raisin, mid-1790s.