The Hunters of Kentucky: A Narrative History of America's First Far West, 1750-1792

By Ted Franklin Belue

Covers a range of frontier existence, from daily life and survival to wars, exploits, and even flora and fauna. The pioneers and their lives are profiled in biographical sketches, giving a sampling of the personalities involved in the United States' westward expansion.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811708837
• ISBN13: 9780811708838
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

From Smoke and Fire News Sept 3, 2003 by Bob Holden

Ted Franklin Belue knows well the colorful history of the Trans-Appalachian region, a fact that is fully evident in his recently published The Hunters of Kentucky, (Stackpole Books, 315 pages, $29.95). This excellent book will be of interest to a wide spectrum of readers. Those not familiar with the Kentucky backcountry will learn a lot. Those already knowledgeable about the facts will come away with a heightened appreciation for the unique character of the Kentucky frontier. Belue's approach differs from the usual form of narrative employed by most historians. Rather than include all the players and events in the drama, the author has selected certain personalities and subjects to emphasize, weaving an intriguing tapestry of the Kentucky frontier-in effect a backwoods mood piece. By employing this technique, Belue exhibits a much more distinctive style of writing than was evident in his equally valuable earlier book, The Long Hunt. Following a prologue, The Hunters of Kentucky is divided into ten chapters. Each chapter is followed by a shorter exposition, termed an interlude. Among the major figures featured are Dr. Thomas Walker, Christopher Gist, Thomas Bullitt, Daniel Boone, Nicholas Cresswell, Daniel Trabue, James Estill, Pompey, George Michael Bedinger, and Spencer Records. Subjects covered include exploration, surveying, warfare, buffalo, clothing, long hunters, and weapons. A helpful chronology appears in an appendix. The maps and illustrations are first-rate . One of the most interesting sections of The Hunters of Kentucky describes how the long rifle came to be identified specifically with Kentucky. When readers finish this segment, they will feel as if they were actually in the New Orleans audience as Noah Ludlow first sang the newly written ballad, "The Hunters of Kentucky" one night in May 1822. Only seven years earlier, Kentuckians had joined Andrew Jackson's other backwoodsmen to devastatingly defeat the British forces attempting to invade New Orleans. Many of the half-drunken frontier rivermen in the audience that May evening had been with Jackson at that incredible triumph, which became instant hallowed history. Dressed in a hastily acquired backwoodsman's outfit, with a long rifle by his side, Ludlow launched into the first verse ending with "O Kentucky, the Hunters of Kentucky; O Kentucky, the hunters of Kentucky!" The crowd showed great excitement. As he finished the second verse that referred to Kentuckians as a "hardy freeborn race" and "alligator horses," the audience was losing control. Ludlow sang the third verse, "But Jackson he was wide-awake, And wasn't scared at trifles, For well he knew what aim we'd take With our Kentucky rifles; So he marched us down to Cypress Swamp, The ground was low and mucky, There stood John Bull in martial pomp, But here was old Kentucky." Ludlow immediately dropped to one knee, leveled his rifle, and took imaginary aim. Then it happened. Pandemonium reigned. T

A Rich History Of Kentucky!

Get ready to head down the trail towards to cane breaks!Ted Belue's 4th offering "The Hunters Of Kentucky" willset you directly in the middle of the wilds of that unexploredhunters paradise called KANTA-KE! Belue's "Hunters" is a fantasticread, chronicling the early exploration of Kentucky, includingthe original native inhabitants, gentlemen explorers, itinerant hunters,and the early settlers who dared to make this wooded eden their home.Belue neatly and expertly seperates mythic fact and romance from meaty fact,delivering up the rich and detailed history of the Kanta-Ke territory. From themigration of the "Shawanoe" peoplesto the impact of the beaver wars betweenthe French & English as they grapple control of a continent away fromthe Spanish and Dutch. Included are narratives and biographic sketchesof some of the early explorers, traders and hunters. Follow Dr, Thomas Walkersfour month, 1750 exploration of the Kentucky country, as well as ChristopherGist's and Nicholas Cresswell's tour of the of the Kentucky lands.Belue details the incurssion of the of the buckskin clad "shirtmen" whocame following the red deer, foreshadowing the first tendrils of anunstoppable tide of settlers, and the resultant decades of war and strife between the anglo invaders and the native peoples, including the brutalaftermath of frontier warfare and an end to a way of life for the native peoples.Belue weaves a rich colorful tapestry of mostly forgotten frontier personalitiesincluding Andrew Montour, Monk Estill and pompey the black Shawnee, aswell as the more well known personalities of Boone, Kenton, Girty and others."Hunters Of Kentucky" is lavishly illustrated with photos and art, and is setoff by an extensive appendix and chronology of events.In the end, "Hunters of Kentucky" will definately leave you wanting more.A must have book!<

A curious, novel approach...but one that works!

I am far more used to academic works and prefer them, rarely read fiction and have little use for "creative" esoteric historial approaches offered by trade presses, wanting the real thing, not its 2nd cousin, nor some romanticized faldoral. Well...on a hunch I bought this HUNTERS OF KY after seeing long-haired, bolo-tyed Belue the author on THE HISTORY CHANNEL, and bought HUNTERS not so much of his tv delivery, which was a little rambling though often jocular and witty--mostly due to his inexperience, one might think, giving him the benefit of the doubt--but because of the strength of such venerable subject matter. Well, I have no idea who TFB is, but he is, first, one hell of a writer (yet undiscovered, and will of course most likely remain that way); and, second, after twice reading HUNTERS concur with my fellow reviewers that his is a singular talent exhibiting scholarship blended with literary art, and, finally, his book a fine book that takes a reader out of the classroom and into the woods. Heartily commended and a signal contribution to the Kentucky frontier destined to stand the test of time. His research and interpretion thereof,incidentally, is impeccable, though some of the words he uses I can't find in the dictionary. If you are a student of pre-statehood Kentucky, buy this book, and his first three titles. Dr. Ed Clark

From MUZZLELOADER magazine, March/April 2003

These days, Kenta-Ke remains a symbol of the first "Far West," a New World Eden that sparked mass migrations through the Cumberland Gap and down the Ohio and, ultimately, creation of the Union's fifteenth state. In Twentieth Century Fox's 1991 version of The Last of the Mohicans, when Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Poe declares that he is "heading west, to Kenta-Ke," he's speaking for all Americans seeking elbow-room. In reality, Hawkeye, like Kenta-Ke, are metaphors for two centuries interpreted and reinterpreted in a literary glut tantamount to a cottage industry.It would be hard to write about all of this with a fresh eye, but Ted Franklin Belue, in this his fourth and newest release, The Hunters of Kentucky: A Narrative History of America's First Far West 1750-1792, manages to do just that. And artfully so.The Hunters of Kentucky is unlike any Kentucky book ever before written-a bold statement, considering the number of books out there on the Commonwealth, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Long Knives and longhunters. Belue's Hunters opens with a dark, brooding, Iliad-like prologue describing the Ohio Valley's first inhabitants and the land's despoliation during the brutal era of the Beaver Wars and ends with the Treaty of Lancaster (1744), setting the stage for exploration and settlement.Then, seeking to restore a balance lacking in most histories, mainly that Daniel Boone was far from being the only capable woodsman roaming Kentucky, The Hunters of Kentucky tells of the sweep of humantide infiltrating the Middle Ground via an anthology of sagas, narratives and themes with overlapping shifts in chronology and voice. Its focus rests upon the lives and deeds of mostly unheralded men-like George Bedinger, Nicholas Cresswell, James Nourse, Daniel Trance, Spencer and Laban Records, James Estill, James Smith-and a few famous ones, like Thomas Walker, Christopher Gist, Capt. Thomas Bullitt and his Fincastle surveyors, the infamous Girty and the legendary Boone.Dialogue appearing in The Hunters of Kentucky was ferreted out from the Draper Manuscripts and other primary sources. Frontier slang (like "jumed" for zoomed, "tuckeyho" for Virginian) abounds, as do insights into the day's political, social and religious fabric, all part of a common man's life. Appendix A presents perhaps the finest Kentucky chronology ever compiled. Appendix B details Fort Pitt trader George Croghan's inventories of goods, c. mid-1750s, in all, sixteen full pages set in reduced font.Allan W. Eckert, Emmy-award winning writer, seven-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of 39 books, including The Frontiersmen also received an advanced copy of the book's page proofs and comments, "In The Hunters of Kentucky, Ted Franklin Belue has produced what is probably one of the most remarkable and important works on Kentucky history that has ever been penned . . . It is a joy to read and I recommend it most highly."

Belue's "Hunters of Kentucky" Hits the Mark

Not since Alan Eckert's "The Frontiersmen" have I found a book about the American frontier so scholarly, well researched yet readable and thoroughly engaging. Belue's fresh eye and distinct voice tell the story of a vanished frontier with a remarkable clarity so lacking in the glut of Kenta-Ke lore. I wanted to rush through and read it all, but I found myself sipping it like fine wine, trying to make it last. The breath of Belue's understanding of the complex forces that shaped the people and land of that dark and tumultuous age is vast. His presentation of characters too long overlooked complete a rich, textured narrative of the westward expansion. Read it!