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Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those Who Travel in the Wilderness

Horace Kephart

In the Introduction to Camping and Woodcraft, Horace Kephart wrote: “My one aim in writing this little book is to make it of practical service to those who seek rest or sport in the wilderness, or whose business calls them thither.” The author further described the content of this book: “In the following chapters I offer some suggestions on outfitting, making camps, dressing and keeping game and fish, camp cookery, forest travel, how to avoid getting lost, and what to do if one does get lost, living off the country, what the different species of trees are good for (from a camper's viewpoint), backwoods handicrafts in wood, bark, skins and other raw materials, the treatment of wounds and other injuries, and some other branches of woodcraft that may be of service when one is far from shops and from hired help.” Camping and Woodcraft was his first book and is actually a collection of articles that had been published in Field and Stream magazine.

Horace Kephart, born in 1862, was raised in Pennsylvania and Iowa then trained as a librarian at Cornell University. He worked in St Louis near the Ozark mountains for a portion of his life (1890 – 1904) then moved to western North Carolina where he lived near Hazel Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains then near Bryson City. Kephart was a campaigner for the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, which was created in 1926. He was the author of a number of books and articles on the outdoors. (Summary by Gail Timmerman-Vaughan, based on Wikipedia - Horace Kephart)