Saturday, January 21, 2017

My Other Pursuits In History


One thing I have not really touched on in the blog much (in some cases not at all), are some of my other pursuits.

My hobbies and other interests, for example.

I tend to be interested in things that are related to my business in some way, on the fringes, or otherwise have some connection to the antiques biz.

My passion is history, after all.

Take, for example, my interest in the case of The Mad Trapper Of Rat River.

I have established a page of FaceBook that will assist you in following my progress on this case, here.

I am working on a book on the trail I believe to have discovered, which may lead to the man known as Albert Johnson being linked to 2 murders in Manitoba and at least one in near-by Saskatchewan.

But, that is not the best piece of treasure in this case I believe I have found....

You see, the identity of the Mad Trapper has not been determined. The posse sent to capture him ended up capturing him, which they did so, but had to shoot him dead to do it.

The body of Albert Johnson, mouth frozen in a death grimace.

And, the name Albert Johnson is ultra common, and was assumed to be a false name, anyway.

Also, at the time, no one claimed  him as one of their own, as one of their relatives, after the chase was over. Nor has anyone to date been able to do so, and today we have his DNA available to do familial DNA comparisons. All the 80 years of accumulated plausible potential leads to his family were eliminated when Myth Merchant pictures had "Albert Johnson's" body exhumed and DNA taken.

This DNA has also eliminated several plausible identities since.

However....

I may have found his family.

Yes, I am very close to having found a true treasure.....

Albert Johnson's true identity...

Well, this is a dual treasure, really....and the this portion of it may be worth the most...

A family could well find out what happened to a son, an uncle; missing for 90 some years.






Sunday, January 1, 2017

New Year Dubstep



So, you figured you'd catch me dancing to Dubstep this first day of the New Year?

No, not quite.

Sorry to disappoint..... or, rather, for those of you who have ever seen me dance, "You are welcome."





So, what is it all about?

Boots on the ground!

Confused?

Well,  I had a vintage tin I wanted to empty before I put it out for sale....

Not an expensive tin, but I also have been needing to condition my leather work boots...

If you haven't guessed what kind of tin already, it was a DUBBIN tin.

So, seeing as I had some Dubbin handy, I figured I might as well just use it up....and a magic-al transformation from dry leather to supple leather.



The main point of the post, really, is to bring some attention to a relatively cheap collectible that is often overlooked....and that item is the lowly Dubbin tin!

Here are a couple other examples I had handy:



They also take up relatively little space, so you could accumulate a cool collection for cheap, and not taking up[a ton of display space in your residence or "man cave"...or "woman shed" or where ever you display your collections.

Pick safe, folks!