history

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Field Notes

The Black Beauty: A Short History of Cast Iron Cookware

There is something about a cast iron skillet that tugs at the heart of any outdoorsman. It’s almost as if its burley black surface has retained a hint of every fire it has hovered over and every dish it has cooked. Holding one, you can feel its history coursing through it, almost like it has a story it wants to tell over a couple of beverages by the bonfire.
Well, it does have a story, one that is almost as old as recorded history.

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3 Min
four people on snow machines in the early light of day driving across an ice sheet in Alaska
Field Notes

Filson in the Field: Searching for Muskox in the Alaskan Arctic

As a company founded on equipping folks headed into the frozen desolation of the Klondike goldfields in 1897, we knew that we needed to do something that was a bit off the beaten path. With this in mind, we decided to head to the western edge of Alaska, above the Arctic Circle to tell the tale of the remarkable rebirth of an animal that was hunted to extinction in North America over a century ago, the musk ox.

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4 Min
A wooden halibut hook, hand-crafted by Tlingit Master carver Jon Rowan of Klawock, Alaska.
Field Notes

Halibut Hooks of the Northwest Coast

Traditionally, a náxw, or “halibut hook” in the Lingít language, was carved out of two pieces of wood attached with cordage (natural fiber) to form a V-shaped hook. A piece of bone (later metal) would also be wrapped to the bottom piece of wood and angled towards the inside to create the barb. The upper piece of wood might be plain or carved, with a fishing line attached. The line would run to the surface, where it would be affixed to a wooden float or inflated buoy made of seal stomach, while the fishhook could be weighted at the bottom with a simple stone sinker. The finished assembly was designed to keep the hook near the ocean bottom, where large halibut feed.

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5 Min
Vintage photograph of a moonshine still.
Field Notes

Make Mine “To Go”

Moonshine (often corn liquor from a still) was a prime source of income for many in the southern Appalachian mountains. Its history partly derives from Scots/Irish immigrants to the United States who settled in the region, and brought with them the recipe for a popular drink called uisce beatha or uisge beatha – a phrase that literally means “water of life.” The practice of making moonshine was illegal during the Prohibition years of the 1920s, but continued to flourish in part thanks to distillers hiding their stills in underground caverns (for example, in the Great Smoky Mountains they used the Forbidden Caverns in Sevierville, Tennessee).

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3 Min
Airboat History_1200x628_V2
Field Notes

Airboats: Remote Access Watercraft

Airboats—known also colloquially as swamp boats or bayou boats—are a relatively straightforward design for a watercraft, yet have been employed for a wide variety of transportation uses on rivers, marshlands, and other shallow water areas worldwide. Said design is based on a flat-bottom hull, most commonly made of wood, aluminum, or fiberglass, and propelled by a propeller mounted on the stern of the vessel. Such a configuration avoids the need to have a submerged propeller on an outboard engine.

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3 Min
a large collection of old nautical
Profiles

Anacortes Junk Co.

Marine Supply? Hardware? Antiques? Museum and gift shop? It’s a bit of all of these. Wander over wood floors that creak like the deck of a ship to find less glamorous but just as useful galvanized cleats, cubbies of hard-to-find pipe fittings, and various sizes of chain and rope. That part for your vessel you were certain only existed in your imagination—it’s somewhere here—might be a bit dusty. Think some of the stuff lying around might be junk? Perhaps, but as Steve Demopoulos heard his grandfather “Mike,” say many times, “It’s only junk until someone needs it.”

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5 Min
old black and white photo of men standing in front of tent in snowy forest
Field Notes

Walter Harper: The First to Summit Denali

By the time they established their final high-altitude camp at 17,500 feet both Stuck, and Tatum were struggling. The archdeacon, in particular, was in trouble. A forty-nine-year-old lifelong smoker, each breath was a struggle, and he would periodically blackout. But the team decided to try for the summit. The decision to put Harper in the lead was a simple one. “Karstens recognized that any chance they had to succeed hinged on having their strongest climber lead, and that was Walter,”

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10 Min
group of men working on clearing a path with a bulldozer in a pine forest
Profiles

Black Regiments of the Alcan Highway

Seventy-eight years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers completed one of its most ambitious assignments of World War II—the Alaska-Canadian (Alcan) Highway. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Alcan Highway became a high priority. Eight engineer regiments were assigned: 18th, 35th, 340th, and 341st, and Black 93rd, 95th, 97th, and 388th reluctantly added. Race relations in American were very different in 1942, which was still in the era of Jim Crow and a segregated Army. Opportunities for Blacks were rare, and expectations low. They were unwanted for duty in the front lines and often treated with condescension or contempt by their White leaders and other White soldiers.

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5 Min
red ford bronco driving through deep water on a road spraying water out impressively on either side
Profiles

The Jackie Robinson of Car Design: McKinley Thompson Jr.

McKinley Thompson Jr., a Ford designer who helped pen the first-generation Bronco, was the first African American designer hired at Ford Motor Company after graduating from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California with a degree in transportation design in 1956. “McKinley was a man who followed his dreams and wound up making history. He not only broke through the color barrier in the world of automotive design, but he helped create some of the most iconic consumer products ever…designs that are not only timeless but have been studied by generations of designers.”

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5 Min
History of Denim in North America_1200x628
Field Notes

A Brief Look at the Origin of Denim in North America

The history of denim in America dates back to the 1840s, when the durability of the warp-faced, twill textile was a proven choice for workwear clothing, with pants and overalls much in demand. The blue threads of woven cotton were dyed with indigo through a process known as “rope dying” or “chain dying,” while the weft threads were left white and visible only on the reverse side. Over time, other weights of denim were made available, along with different colors: tan, black, and gray. For laborers in the fields, coal mines, forests, and mills, denim was an inexpensive clothing option that was widely available and came in all sizes. During the California Gold Rush of 1848 to 1855, the prospector dressed in his denim work clothing, field jacket, and hip waders was a common sight.

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3 Min