Knapsacks and no flour | Read more at Buffalo Trace 1765

This article has been making the rounds in the living history community online, through sharing this first 2 paragraphs we hope to direct you to the original author’s writing as it is quite interesting!

By Nathaniel Killbuck

I figured I check in to see what everyone’s favorite Mike Burke impersonator Nicholas Cresswell was doing on his journey. Cresswell is one of my favorite Journals of the 18th century. It has everything observations on local color, clothing, and he goes thru all of the 3 stages of the 18th century journal.

Photo by Killbuck

Photo by Killbuck

What I’m referring to is the basic stage process you find in most 18th century narratives. Stage 1: is the start Tons of food, see a lot of game, world is great. Stage 2: flour starts to run out, someone gets sick/injured maybe it starts to rain Stage 3: no bread for days, you might die, you have no shoes and all paths are covered with legos.


I set up this Page to help organize the information I use to document the gear/clothing I use to portray a Market Hunter (aka “Long hunter”) operating out of Fort Pitt And Kaskaskia in the 1760’s. It’s morphed into a catch all for anything that interests me on researching the 18th century backcountry and then trying to put into practice the information I find. This is the Buffalo Trace Part 2.
— Killbuck