The Past Less Travelled: Recent Episodes
Brandon Delvo
Join us for an engaging conversation with Leif Halvorson, Summer Seasonal Ranger at Fort Union Trading Post, as we delve into the fascinating history of the American Fur Trade. In this video, Leif explains how the trade system worked, the significance of Fort Union, and what life was like during this pivotal era in American history. Don't miss out on the details about the upcoming Fort Union Rendezvous happening from June 13-16, a lively event that brings history to life with reenactments, demonstrations, and much more! 🔔 Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more historical insights and updates! 📅 Event: Fort Union Rendezvous 🗓 Dates: June 13-16 📍 Location: Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site 💻 www.nps.gov/fous 🎥 https://www.youtube.com/@fous 📞701-572-9083--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/brandon-delvo/support
In this episode I get to talk with Chris Hoffert, an Army combat veteran with over twenty years of personal study and research on the Little Bighorn battle and is an award-winning director with over fifteen years of film experience. He is also a Custer Battlefield Preservation Committee lifetime member and maintains membership with the Little Big Horn Associates. Chris frequently engages with other authors, historians, and battle students online to keep history relevant and alive while furthering more in-depth discussions into one of the most ambiguous battles of all time. Serving as the videographer for the U.S. Cavalry School for over seven years, Chris is heavily entangled in the Little Bighorn history. He spends several weeks each year at the battlefield with period reenactors conducting filming designed to bring history to life in a way that books simply cannot. Chris’s digital animations, 3D terrain analysis, and film work on the battle are designed to help usher historical research into the modern era by allowing students of the battle the ability to see things in a way that has never been done before. This interest in animation and 3D design began while working on the documentary Contested Ground where Chris created moving maps of the entire battle to accompany the narrative video. This has since progressed into timeline analysis videos and full 3D modeling of the battlefield. Chris graduated Cum Laude from the Academy of Art University, receiving a B.F.A. and an A.A. in motion pictures and television. David Worth, a Hollywood director, author, and professor, heralded Chris as “The Sergio Leone of Montana” for his ability to churn out quality gritty period films on micro-budgets. Want to know more? www.chrishoffertfilm.com Want to know more about Chris? Find out here: IMDB- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8373051/ Want to know more about The U.S. Cavalry School? http://www.uscavalryschool.com/ Watch "Contested Ground" or "Custer's Strategy of Defeat" on History Fix: https://www.historyfix.com/--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/brandon-delvo/support
Dive into the world of history with special guest, Will Eichler! In this episode, we sit down with Will, Director of Photography for the NBC series, "Chicago Fire," as we talk about everything from music, storytelling, Civil War Digital Digest, HistoryFix and more! As a co-founder of Civil War Digital Digest and Managing Partner of HistoryFix, Will brings a unique perspective to the table, blending historical storytelling with modern filmmaking techniques. Join us as we explore the creative process, technical challenges, and the importance of storytelling in both historical documentaries and prime-time television dramas. Want to know more about some of the great work Will and others do, check out the following we discussed in this episode: Civil War Digital Digest: Youtube- @CivilWarDigitalDigest Revolutionary Gazette: Youtube- @RevolutionaryGazette HistoryFix: https://www.historyfix.com/--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/brandon-delvo/support
In this episode we talk to Alec Stork, Vice President of the 5th Minnesota Infantry Co. D- Living History Group, based out of North Dakota and Minnesota, he is a 'Cultural Interpreter' at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park and is currently pursuing his Bachelor's Degree in History at the University of Mary. We talk about the logistics of doing event planning and a list of events that the 5th MN are hosting this summer. Fort Abercrombie Opening Day May 25, 2024 - Abercrombie, ND Company D, 5th Minnesota will be hosting a small Living History Day at Fort Abercrombie State Historic Site to start their interp season. We will be portraying the 10th US Infantry as they switched to the new Upton's Drill Manual and the citizens of the fort. For information about Ft. Abercrombie https://www.history.nd.gov/historicsites/abercrombie/ For Living Historians you can join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/862241054869386/ "From Prisoner To Prairie" Fort Abercrombie 1865 July 26-28, 2024 - Abercrombie, ND This weekend Living History will walk public, visitors, and reenactors through the wartime experience of the Company A, 1st US Volunteer Infantry Regiment also known as the “Galvanized Yankees”. Before being stationed at Fort Abercrombie, this unit was formed from Confederate soldiers who had been captured and sent to prisoner camps on the East Coast. This is an Authentic Campaigner-sponsored event. For Living Historians join this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/281193441011518 For more information about The Authentic Campaigner, visit: https://www.authentic-campaigner.com/ OR on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheAuthenticCampaigner "No Depredation- August 1874" - Fort Abraham Lincoln Living History August 2-4, 2024 - Mandan, ND Our group is pleased to bring correct Cavalry impressions and Living History back to Fort Abraham Lincoln. In conjunction with ND State Parks and Rec, will be recreating the lives of citizens and soldiers in July 1874 and their routine garrison life. Want to know more about Fort Abraham Lincoln: https://www.parkrec.nd.gov/fort-abraham-lincoln-state-park For Living Historians you can join this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2646249128927608--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/brandon-delvo/support
Austin Haney, a lifelong Northern Montana resident, historian, and reenactor who is passionate about Montana and the Canadian West. Formerly an interpretive ranger with the National Park Service, he currently works as a museum educator for Fort Missoula and as a guest lecturer for Humanities Montana. We talk about interpretation, why it is important and talk about an upcoming event at Fort Benton on June 28-30, called, "Nothing Like it in the Territory" which focuses on Fort Benton, the 7th U.S. Infantry and the summer of 1875. For more information about Fort Benton, go to: https://www.visitmt.com/listings/general/landmark/old-fort-benton For more information if you'd like to do the living history segment in late June, go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/882090679726028--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/brandon-delvo/support
In this episode, I go into detail on why it is important to invest in your history organization. Elements of marketing community engagement, lobbying and fundraising are all very key elements in making your group grow and succeed overtime sit back, relax, as I share some of my past experiences with you.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/brandon-delvo/support
I recently came across an article on debunking some myths about the history field. It was a fairly lengthy read, but it was an important one that backed it with some pretty impressive data. It went into the need and push to keep history programs alive and why organizations or historical entities still need history majors to work for them. It also goes further to look at the numerous fields one can go with a history degree. There is hope for you beyond dusting off old artifacts in a museum!! Today's job market can be good for employees, but this is also a push to employers to know that investing in a long-term, dedicated, historically-accurate employee can be very beneficial to a site or an organization. This is also an ask to entities that if one has an employee or employees that have languished at a site for too long and really contribute nothing to its historical integrity that they need to take a deep look into how viable that is to the overall interpretation and success of the site. It's also about going into this field and being able to make a living and live a life with some dignity too. I also take it a step further and make the ask that entities need to push why history is important at their site(s) to lawmakers and the public and how to do some marketing that can be cheap and easy to do. You have to keep people engaged and asking questions, but also being involved in the community is important. SOURCE: HISTORY IS NOT A USELESS MAJOR: FIGHTING MYTHS WITH DATA Paul B. Sturtevant | Apr 1, 2017 https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/april-2017/history-is-not-a-useless-major-fighting-myths-with-data
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The Fur Trade is a segment of American history that at times may be forgotten. The Fur Trade was a very lucrative business that helped such men as John Jacob Astor make millions and millions of dollars. It was a trade, and time, that had its dangers, but was also one of a peaceable and mutual economic system.
Karl Koster, a Ranger for the National Park Service at Grand Portage National Monument and more recently of Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, recently sat down with me to discuss the importance of the fur trade as we were wrapping up a successful Living History Weekend.
Karl is an amazing wealth of information on the Fur Trade and is highly regarded as an expert in the field. He has been in numerous books and is also an expert on how to interpret this valuable era of history to the public, thats what we mainly discussed.
Karl and I also discussed how to interpret history to different groups of people and how to dispel myths that many may have due to watching too many westerns or movies on the experience of the American West.
Karl is a great historian and is a good friend! I am honored and thankful he took the time to discuss how important this is!
Further Reading: John Jacob Astor: America's First Multimillionaire by Axel Madsen
NOTE: AS I HAVE A DIFFERENT COMPUTER NOW, IT IS NOT ALLOWING ME TO EDIT AT THIS TIME< THIS EPISODE COMES AS IT WAS RECORDED, WITH SPOTTY WI-FI AND A STREAM THAT CONSTANTLY ENDED THE RECORDING. IT IS AN UNEDITED AS IT COMES.
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Casey Beck and Alec Stork literally came out of the time machine!
They had just finished an event out at Fort Sisseton, or also known as Fort Wadsworth, in South Dakota this weekend and swung by my house on their way home and had a chat with me about all that is entailed with a first-person immersion living history event.
Casey has also recently successfully finished a living history event he planned and organized at Fort Abraham Lincoln, outside of Mandan, ND, just a couple of weeks ago.
It was great to sit down with these two living historians and get their take on the challenges and devotion it takes to do living history the right way!
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Leif Halvorson wears many hats, and one of those is a top hat, literally!
Leif Halvorson has always had an interest in history and he decided to take that one step further by actually doing it. I recently sat down via ZOOM and Facebook Live @pastlesstravelled and we had a great discussion about why living history is important and some fo the groups and history projects Left does along with some funny stories!
Two great projects Leif works on is a musical duo with his brother, another living historian, Cedric, called "Eric & Arty on the Upper Missouri." Their Youtube channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPw6s_pZI-iBsRkAzZQZ7RQ
Also, Leif does, "Drinking Through History" a great informative and fun video series where he combines history with alcohol! Go check it out! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0XumVmNqWNvnEOfGxKhVIw
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Brandon Lewis, of Cody Wyoming, has been a living historian for many years. Brandon has a wealth of experience in living history interpretation and he uses those skills in his everyday job too at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in the Draper Natural History Museum as a Raptor Program Assistant.
Brandon's love of history goes back to when he was a child and his interest was furthered by going to some historical events throughout his childhood.
Brandon and I recently did a Facebook Live on our page @pastlesstravelled where we just sat down and talked about living history and why historical interpretation is important to the public.
Brandon has done everything from many of the 150th Anniversary Civil War events to also being in some historical documentaries and movies.
Thanks to Brandon for taking the time to sit down and discuss such an important topic in the historical field.
Some Additional Sources:
"Interpreting our Heritage," Freeman Tilden, University of North Carolina Press, March 2008.
National Association of Interpretation
https://www.interpnet.com
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Memorial Day is a time that we, Americans, take the time to honor those who, as Abraham Lincoln said, "Gave the last full measure of devotion" in the service of the United States.
We may also remember Memorial Day for the War Movie Marathons that are on TV. I recently sat down with two friends of mine, Rory & Cody Cowan and we went over a few well known movies, discussed them and somewhat rated them on their realism and accuracy. These movies were NOT ranked in any way, as I can't stand that.
We were also waiting on our other buddy, the 'token Navy guy' to give his take, but his ship was late to port, if you know what I mean. He didn't show up until after we were done recording, which given the fact we were out fishing when we did this podcast, if we had to do any amphibious operations, we wouldn't have had any naval support.
We also know that many other great movies were left out of this podcast as we could've went all day discussing so many great war movies that have been made.
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For Mother's Day I thought it would be a great opportunity to sit down with the love of my life, and mother to our two amazing children, and have a conversation with her about what it's like being married not just to someone who has an interest in history, but someone who also does living history. As we were both on vacation, I took out a mic (like an idiot, i thought I only had one cable for it, but found the other later) and we had an unfiltered and unedited conversation over a bottle of wine, classy, right? Jessie tells her tales of events she has participated in at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site and we also go into the dynamics of juggling my love of history and our marriage. We also wonder if our kids will have the same interest. And we think that we may scare the neighbors sometimes with all the clothing and musket cleaning. But we do get along with all our neighbors, just sayin. This one was fun!
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April is a big month for history, we have everything from the beginning and ending of the Civil War and the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic, one of the most famous maritime disasters.
Today, I sat down with Mark Chaffee, who is the grandson of Herbert, more commonly known as HF, and Carrie Chaffee who were both First Class Passengers on the Titanic. Mark talks about the history of his family and their settlement in the Red River Valley prior to North Dakota statehood and he goes into further detail about how his grandparents came to be on one of the most luxurious ocean liners at the time. Mark also adds an interesting aspect to this tragedy that I haven't heard before, he gives his thoughts about the ship given his naval service as an officer on a minesweeper. This episode is as unedited and unscripted as it comes, just two guys having a beer and talking history.
A big thank you once again to Granite City Food & Brewery and Mark Chaffee for sharing his family's story.
Some Sources that were mentioned in this episode: "The Day of the Bonanza" by Hiram Drache Encyclopedia Titanica– https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/ Titanic Historical Society–https://titanichistoricalsociety.org
NOTE: The coal bunker fire was in Coal Bunker 5, not 6, that is where water quickly began to rush in after the impact with the iceberg. The Titanic’s wireless operators were employees of Marconi. Also, it's disputed on various sites and records if Carrie Chaffee was on Lifeboat 4 or 11, in this case we went with Mark's account from his grandmother based on the manifest of Lifeboat 11.
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In this episode I talk about a little known, or more forgotten story of one of the biggest manhunts in Canadian history that ties into a story told to me by my grandfather. The Albert Johnson manhunt and the Johnny Johnson story have all the makings of a good movie: the foot pursuit, shootouts, explosions, airplanes, outlaws and a mix of the Old West. The best way to tell this story is by telling it from a paper my great uncle, Wallace Rustad, did in 1962 for the State Teachers College. In this paper he interviewed individuals who were still alive to tell the story of their personal interactions with Johnny Johnson, something many of us in the history field don't get the opportunity to do on a regular basis. So sit back, enjoy and listen to, "The Violent Road to Death: An Episode of a Rebel Against Humanity."
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The first of hopefully many episodes where we delve a little deeper into history. A little bit about me, how I got interested in history and living history and we go into National Medal of Honor Day by highlighting a few ND Medal of Honor Winners such as Woodrow Wilson Keeble, Willis Downs and go into distinguished units as the ND 164th Infantry.
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