LOCALadk Magazine

THUNDERHAWK LOCALadk 27 In today's mechanical, Solo Stove world, a campfire burning deep in the North Country woods on a damp and chilly late- October day was scarcely recognizable as such. Nestled on ground scraped clear of the bronze leaves of autumn, it was fed not with the beefy logs of bonfires, but with twigs and shreds of yellow birch bark, known for combusting even when wet. And it was wet. "It rained in the 1700s," said Melanie Sawyer, explaining why the underhawk living history unit wouldn't think of calling off an event no matter how ominous the forecast. Indeed, it added to the realism that is underhawk's calling card, a meticulously researched portrayal of life on the frontier during the French and Indian War in the middle of the 18th century. When underhawk founder Brian McCormack, for example, went to demonstrate his period flintlock, the damp powder didn't catch. e cowboy and Indian movies seldom show the guns that didn't shoot. By contrast, McCormack did something that must have been done thousands of times on the frontier—he called for a backup gun, which produced the intended result. underhawk Living History and Nature School is a group of 10 reenactors, or guides, who explore the fault line of the frontier as it would have existed 270 years ago, bringing new appreciation and new accuracy to a largely forgotten way of life. At schools, historic sites and at its own camp, underhawk teaches kids and grownups alike how Native Americans would have started fires without matches, made clothes and weapons and foraged for food. A particularly popular venue is Fort William Henry, in Lake George, where Sawyer said Director Lindsay Doyle "has made a very big effort toward welcoming Native American history being taught at the Fort." Next year underhawk will be teaching and holding large historical reenactment encampments representing all aspects of the Adirondacks in the 1700s, including a historically correct mobile forge at the newly renovated Frontier Town Gateway, spearheaded by Muhammad Ahmad, with the aim to help bring more tourism into the eastern part of Essex County and the Adirondack Coast. e group has also been invited to teach at the Adirondack Experience museum in Blue Mountain Lake in the coming year, Sawyer said. Guides speak native tongues and set up camps where even the tiniest, almost imperceptible details matter. For many of the guides it's personal, having traced their own lineage to the time period, or having discovered that coexistence with nature in its purest state is a more satisfying way to live. Cody Van Buren, who traces his Anglo, Scottish and Mohawk bloodline back through to 1739, said when his life was not working out the way he wanted, he turned it around by walking into the woods on his family's land and not emerging for eight months. "I had always been drawn to Native American cultures—ever since I can remember I was running around half naked," Surviving by fishing and foraging, the longer he stayed, the more the divides between man and nature melted away. Aer two weeks, woodland creatures had largely lost their fear of him, and the time alone restored his balance. Story by Tim Rowland & Photography by James Giles

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