Playing pioneers
Re-enactor
Curry to participate in
NMLRA's Friendship Fall Shoot
Annual event returns Sept. 9-17
By
Konnie McCollum
Contributing Writer
(September 2006) – The National Muzzle Loader
Rifle Association (NMLRA) is a world-wide organization dedicated to
the historical sport of muzzleloading. There are more than 18,000 members
of the NMLRA, and with more than 1,200 registered competitors.
 |
|
Photo
provided John
Curry travels the |
The association’s national shoots are an opportunity
to see an important part of our national heritage. Competitors from
as far away as Germany and Australia travel to the little town of Friendship,
Ind., to compete in various competitions at the NMLRA’s Walter
Cline Range.
This year, the NMLRA Fall Championship Shoot will be held during the
week of Sept. 9-17. The opening ceremony will take place at noon on
Saturday, Sept. 9. It will include a parade, horses, a fife and drum
corp and fiddlers. Terri Trowbridge, Director of Publications, said
there will be something for every member of the family to see during
the weeklong event. The gates open at 8 a.m. Children 16-under are admitted
free, while non-member adults will pay $4.
One man who will definitely be ready for action at the Fall Shoot is
longtime NMLRA member John Curry, of Martinsville, Ind. Curry, 59, has
a regular column in Muzzleblast, a publication for muzzle loaders.
He said he has always been fascinated with history, even as a kid. “I
was interested and fascinated with the old days for as long as I can
remember.” Curry’s interest has evolved over the past 35 years
into an expertise on the southeastern long hunters of the 1760s.
He explained that many people are interested in the 1780s settlement
era during the American Revolution, but he finds that he enjoys the
period right before that, when things were still “wild and wooly.”
According to Curry, the long hunters of the Virginia and Carolina areas
were poor men. They would travel for up to 350 miles throughout forests
in Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina with no roads or modern conveniences
and hunt for several years before going home. They took nothing but
their rifles and lived off of the land. That is why they were called
“long hunters.” Of course, they would go home rich men from
all of the hunting.
 |
|
Photo
provided John
Curry researches |
Curry now travels throughout the southeast region emulating
those brave and daring men. He dresses in period clothes and relives
the past. He carries nothing but what a long hunter of the 1760s would
carry when he is out in the wilds.
“We try to be totally authentic and live exactly as the long hunters
would have,” he said.
He believes that if a man actually lives the lifestyle, he learns things
he wouldn’t normally learn by simply reading about it in history
books.
He researches the lifestyle of the long hunter through first-hand documentation,
such as journals and diaries of the men who actually were long hunters.
“I go looking in 2006 for the perfect 18th century experience.”
He then comes back and writes about those experiences. He also takes
what he has learned and shares it with other history buffs.
Curry is a favorite speaker at many prominent history conventions and
gatherings. He has been the keynote speaker and lead presenter at the
Harrodsburg, Ky.’s annual conference and at Boonesboro, Ky. Both
of these sites are central to early American history.
At the Eastern Rendezvous for long hunters, Curry will give a presentation
and then lead a group of women and children into the woods for an 1860s
camping experience they will never forget. He has arranged for them
to be “attacked” by Indians, much like the situation that
happened in 1856 to survivors of an attack on Canada’s Fort William.
Curry calls the scenario a “grand scout.”
Of course, there will be hostile safety rules so no one will get hurt.
This will actually be the first time he has participated in a grand
scout where women and children are present. “It will be interesting
to discover how possible hostages could play into the situation,”
he said.
Curry will be attending the NMLRA Fall Shoot and participating in the
various activities that are ongoing throughout the week. “I am
looking forward to getting out to Friendship and seeing old friends
and meeting new ones.”
The weeklong competition at Friendship will have a variety of family
activities to go along with the competitions, including beadstringing
and period games for children, a watermelon seed contest, a bow making
class and a children’s embroidery seminar.
A frontier artist, period musicians, and a variety of period demonstrations,
including butter churning, candle dipping, spinning and weaving and
silversmithing, will be ongoing throughout the first weekend of the
competition.
The NMLRA’s museum and Gun Maker’s Hall will be open. There
will also be numerous prominent gun makers on sight working, and a variety
of period vendors will be set up throughout the area.
• For more information and directions to Friendship, call the NMLRA at (812) 667-5131 or visit: www.nmlra.org.