A Hawken rifle and Bowie knife of John ‘Liver-Eating’ Johnson
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11870670 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nathan E Bender (University of Idaho, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 159-170 |
| Publication date | 2006-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Arms & Armour (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1741-6124 • E-ISSN: 1749-6268 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1179/174962606x136874 |
| OpenAlex | W2081680178 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
An S Hawken marked muzzle-loading percussion half-stock mountain rifle and a massive Wade & Butcher marked Sheffield Bowie knife formerly belonging to the famous mountain man John ‘Liver-Eating’ Johnson of Red Lodge, Montana are examined in detail. The descriptions of ‘Liver-Eating’ Johnson’s legendary Hawken rifle and Bowie knife as described within the Crow Killer saga written by Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunker in 1958 are compared with Johnson’s actual rifle and knife. The conclusion is that Johnson’s arms do not conveniently match the descriptions of the Jacob Hawken rifle and the long-bladed, rosewood handled Bowie knife featured in the Crow Killer legends of the 1840s and 1850s. The Samuel Hawken rifle appears to be a late production Hawken mountain rifle that may even have been built by J P Gemmer in the 1860s or later, which easily falls within the known historically reliable dates for John ‘Liver-Eating’ Johnson in the northern Rocky Mountains from about 1862 to 1900. The heavily used Wade & Butcher Bowie knife may well date to the mid-19th century, but has antler handle scales instead of rosewood and a significantly shorter blade length than the knife described by Thorp and Bunker
Archaeology · Art · Art history · Bunker · Butcher · George (robot · Rifle · Archaeology and Natural History · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
| Highly cited | No |
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