Johnny Thorpe- An Outdoorsman For All Seasons
by Jessica Kane

Standing in his dirt driveway, Johnny Thorpe peered out from under his cowboy hat as he brushed paint onto a totem pole he recently carved. Nearby, two silver foxes with bushy tails were slumbering in a large cage in the afternoon sun. Johnny has been a professional fur trapper since he was 15 years old. Since Harry Truman was in the White House sipping whisky. He's considered one of the top ten fur trappers in the country – without a doubt one of the most experienced - and held the New York State bobcat bounty record for six years running. He'll be 75 on August 1st, but you wouldn’t know it. “I don’t have much wrong with me,” he said, a hint of a smile in his calm blue eyes. "You'd have a hard time keeping up with me in the woods.” Johnny lives largely independent of the prevailing consumerist culture, making his way through life off Good Mother Earth. In between trapping seasons, Johnny Thorpe has done everything from carving totem poles and designing leather belts (tanning the cowhides himself) to treasure hunting, ginseng hunting, mining gold, and horseshoeing. Read The Rest Of The Article On Flickr