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Show t'fl W SJbi ' it&Sli GERALD AND KAYE STEWART are professional buckskinners who have made their home in North Dry Fork Canyon. The Stewarts hand sew all of their leather work. They and their six children have been living in Dry Fork for two years. Buckskinners make home in Dry Fork Canyon Gerald Lewis Stewart and his wife Kaye Wilkey Stewart are active buckskinners who have recently moved their family and business into a new log home in North Dry Fork Canyon. Buckskinner is a nickname term applied ap-plied to a mountain man. Regardless of nationality, a woman mountain person is generally classified as a 'squaw'. A mountain man rendezvous is the recreation, through historic fact, of the dress and mode of life lived during the era of history that a certain person or family is representing. A redezvous to a mountain man family is the same as a pow-wow to an American Indian. There can be anywhere from 50 to thousands of mountain men and their families camping, trading products, and living, for the duration of the rendezvous, in the period of history they are representing. represen-ting. The Stewarts vocational trade of making buckskinners and squaw clothing apparel grew from their admiration ad-miration for participating in mountain man rendezvouses. The Stewart's also custom make from leather such items as are purchased as trade good products. pro-ducts. These are items not worn as clothing" but'are'es'se'ntial to the rrio'un-' tain men people such as knife sheaths, tee-pee's, and recently, authentic Indian In-dian saddles. Mr. Stewart states, "Mountain man rendezvouses started out as a hobby and an interest for my wife and 1. 1 was always a modern mountainman; fishing and hunting. Then I began to get into buckskinning full time because of its fascinating history." The Stewarts own and operate their own buckskinning buckskinn-ing business, Dry Fork Trade Company, Com-pany, located on their home property in Dry Fork Canyon. The Stewarts sell their wares on a local and national level. Mr. Stewart sews all of his leather products and wearing apparrel by hand. The tee-pees and lean-tos that he makes out of canvas are sewn on a heavy duty machine. Mr. Stewart began working on a professional level with his leather and canvas products four years ago. Prior to being a full time buckskinner, Mr. Stewart was a professional profes-sional carpenter. "I felt guilty for awhile when I first started doing the leather work full time. I was having so much fun and enjoying it so much," Mr. Stewart commented. "We put a lot of research into our work so that our items suit the period of time they are representing. There is more research in each item we make than it takes to make whatever it is we are making," Kaye Stewart reports. Mrs. Stewart is the secretary, business consultant, assistant in decorating items with beads and wool, and does the fringing on many items. Mrs. Stewart continued, "Jerry can make any costume from a photograph or by the individual telling him what he wants. Jerry has a special talent and he is very fast at what he does. We pride ourselves in doing leather work that is unique and that are originals." Mr. Stewart uses natural mineral dyes when an order calls for the leather to be dyed. Many of the dyes are not available in this area and must be ordered. The Stewarts brand there original works of art with the letter 'J' which has an 'L' merged into the 'J'. The Stewarts lived in West Jordan, Utah for seven years before their year search for a mountain spot to build a home ended in Dry Fork Canyon. Mr. Stewart stated, "My wife and I were raised in the country. We wanted to raise our children in the country." Mrs. Stewart added, "A friend of ours told us about Vernal. So we came to Vernal to check it out. We drove up Dry Fork Canyon Ca-nyon once and said, 'this is it'." The Stewarts purchased their land, pitched a tent and began construction on their home and business. The Stewarts have lived in Dry Fork for two years. Kaye Stewart was born in Payson, Utah, March 10, 1947. She was raised in Magna and Nephi. Gerald Stewart was born in Salt Lake City and was raised in Star Valley, Wyo. Gerald and Kaye have six children; Danny, 12; Cindy, 10; Carrie, 9; Jimmy, 6; Mark, 5; and Jacob, 3. Mr. Stewart is president of a Vernal mountain man club entitled, Ashley Valley Free Trappers. He also attends gun shows and rendezvous. Mr. Stewart is a Scout Master for the Maeser 2nd Ward Scout troop. Mr. Stewart dresses in full mountain man dress and gives demonstrations at schools and historic lectures on fur trading and pioneers. Aside from business concerns, Mr. Stewart is presently busy planning a muzzle loading shoot for mid-February and a mountain man rendezvous for Easter, both to take place in Vernal through the Ashley Valley Free Trappers Club. |