TRUE ADVENTURE

[Music] and now your true adventure host bill birth hi there this is bill bird saying welcome to adventure true adventure filmed as it happens throughout our fascinating world you see these but you can't guess what they are w-2 forms income tax insurance leases licenses all the paraphernalia of modern civilized life well we're going to meet a man who's turned his back on red tape entirely and has chosen in its place a life of true adventure many men seek adventure some spend weeks months even years facing the unknown meeting the exciting challenge of the elements but few men in this day and age would spend 30 years of their lives in the wilds completely alone as our man is done yes 30 fantastic years he's lived in the Idaho primitive area I think you'll be amazed and thrilled with his story you know I've often wondered if there still exists a pioneer spirit in America so I sent our camera reporter my lesson shot up find out the story he brought back is a great one Milas says this man is by no means a hermit he welcomes visitors he's a great conversationalist he's well educated he's attended three universities before beginning his unusual life in the wilderness you may wonder what makes such a man leave our civilized world behind but I don't know looking at these forms income tax and so on you may end up wanting to join them in a life of genuine true adventure in an age of the thousand modern comforts and conveniences one man has chosen to live alone on a mountain in the wildest section of the United States with no conveniences except those he can make with his own hands here by Idaho Salmon River the River of No Return lives buckskin Billy he's a legend a rugged individualist but a genuine true adventurer his stockade fence his home his cooking utensils his weapons most of his clothes he makes himself buckskin was born in the Oklahoma Territory in 1916 the highly civilized name of Sylvan a heart from his family he inherited a love of the earth today he enjoys growing all of his own vegetables almost every variety you can think of onions okra beans eggplant tomatoes carrots potatoes everything and he's an excellent cook as a house full of cookbooks and studies them night after night and I hear tell that you'd be considered very lucky if you get snowed in for a few days and have some of Billy's cooking now Billy lives alone but that doesn't mean he dislikes people no sir Billy loves company and during the winter he enjoys meeting the hunters who may come by he's glad to help him sometimes picks up the only real money he ever gets by skinning elk for him but for most of the year he's content content to be alone with only his black cat Panther to talk to panther by the way is a Manx cat who behaves exactly like a dog you know we've become so used to civilized comforts that we wonder what kind of a man would want to build his own house make his door handles out of deer horns or his chairs of antlers and rope [Music] or we'll make a couple of do-it-yourself projects to please our wives maybe but chopping the trees and hewing the lumber for every inch of our home our barn our fence well it's going too far especially when there are chickens to feed or strawberries together of course Billy wouldn't have anything to sort the berries in if he hadn't made his own bowls that's right all of his pots and pans and bowls he makes of copper and brass oh I know what you're saying now how the natural question is where does he get the metal well around 1880 gold miners were bringing tons of metal equipment into this area by pack train and when they left they abandoned the heavy equipment along with the mines there it stands today like a sort of copper mine for Billy I'm so piece by piece he carries at home melts it shapes it in the molds that he's made himself towns it into the final design and presto a beautiful Bowl or a ticket or a pot or a pan or a tub no trouble at all how did all this start well in Billy's family there was a tradition many years ago every male in the clan had to live one year in the wilds his father lived his term with the Cree Indians but buckskin decided to go it alone in the Idaho primitive area that was in the year 1932 he went there to live one year decided never to leave he came out in 1942 though to serve in the Air Corps as a bombardier but now back in his secluded home he makes his own old-fashioned weapons as well as the machine that rifles the inside of the barrels and the molds in which he makes the parts he finishes by carving the beautiful designs that you're looking at right now an amazing man [Music] oh he's an expert marksman and old-fashioned as those weapons maybe it really hits that was a gallon can bucks kyun is not without his pride he'll live gladly show you his hunting trophies but one of his favorite hobbies is the study of Indian lore by day he hunts for arrowheads and by night he reads volumes on the subject he's really an authority on Indian sign language though he's never really had to put it to use living 50 miles from the nearest town buckskin doesn't get too much company but his nearest neighbor alt ice does drop by now and then he lives about 15 miles downstream in this country almost all travel is by boat there are no roads there's no mail delivery when people are going up Billy's way they take along his mail which may have been accumulating for four or five months boy would I like to trade places sometime well out ice has come to ask Billy to act as a guide for the next group of fishermen that his sportsmen camp buckskin he's raring to go [Music] so the next day buckskin Billy starts out on his trip he begins mulling over the stories he'll tell the civilized folks around the campfire oh they always like his stories maybe maybe you'll tell him about the many times he's been snowed in up there for weeks and weeks that always gets him or maybe some of his hair-raising adventures with the Grizzlies the Grizzlies people say aren't supposed to be in Idaho but I guess nobody told the Bears that it doesn't occur to buckskin Billy that traveling in a homemade canoe is an adventure he made the ribs of dogwood covered them with canvas painted the whole thing with airplane dope and in this canoe he rides the rapids of the river of no return [Music] but it's not an adventure because he does it all the time you see that's the amazing part about this man on his story what he's been doing his routine for nearly 30 years would be high adventure for most of us on a three-day weekend but not to Billy the Buckskin by the way says that this is the only way to run the rapids the only way you can see the rocks up ahead [Music] oh this isn't necessary but Billy thinks it's fun he says you know people die because they lose their morale and their desire to live by that standard I think Billy's gonna live forever because he's in a rapid right now in an age of too many lazy thinkers and crowd followers it's a real treat to see an individual like buckskin Billy here's a courageous man who does as he pleases free of civilized red tape but he's facing everyday nature at her roughest hang on Billy at the airstrip at Mackay bar you'll meet alt ice and start on the next leg of his journey now this is an adventure to Billy a ride in an airplane and a human being to talk to why he looks forward to it eagerly they'll fly into the very heart of the Idaho primitive area alt ice is used to hopping all over the countryside in his plane now says this is the only way to get where you're going in this country and to look at it untamed virgin land which is destined to remain that way forever it's been set aside by the government it's just about the only primitive area in our country look at that herd of elk what a sportsman's paradise tough to get into the ranch that al theis run solves the travel problem by flying hunters and fishermen in and providing comfortable lodging in the 1800 Stonebreaker ranch was a stopping place for weary miners traveling by pack train on their way to find gold what stories these buildings could tell if they could speak stories frontier America they land right in front of the ranch little while the fishermen the folks from the civilized big city will arrive buckskin will hear news of the modern world the world he left behind the men will talk about war and rumor of war and buckskin well he will worry with him but then he'll talk of other things perhaps teach them something about his world why he chose a life of a true adventure in the Idaho primitive area [Music] here in the Chamberland basin the very heart of America's most rugged territory where wildlife abounds buckskin Billy is enjoying a rare holiday for the moment he's free of his summer job of preparing himself for the hard winter ahead because he's going to take care of some sportsmen from the big city sportsmen who are coming here for a taste of true adventure Billy's come here to get away from it all I guess it's all in your point of view the weather is perfect Billy can see the fishings gonna be great [Music] having landed at the nearest airport the sportsmen are brought to the ranch and a wagon their charter plane was too large to land at the ranch they're really raring to go and catch the big ones they've been hearing about for 50 weeks they've been struggling in some office building somewhere and while they fish buckskin you'll prepare for their return back to civilization he checks his knives this one for cleaning fish this one for skin and out he's got about a hundred fifty knives each with a single special purpose and he knows how to use them [Music] buckskin claims that you could survive forever anywhere in the world with only a good knife and the knowledge of how to use it he has one special prize in his collection an Indian knife made of obsidian he actually uses this stone to clean fish and says it's one of the best knives he's ever had while he's making ready for them the sportsmen are having a field day the big ones are jumping and when they bring them in they'll learn that buckskin Billy's an expert at smoking fish they can carry some of their catch home to their families but smoking fish is not as simple as just lighting a fire first of all Billy says you have to know the right kind of wood not pine it's too oily hardwoods are best like birch and though this isn't the the hunting season buckskin is going to show the man how he skins an elk in the winter time little advance advertising [Music] but after a delicious salmon dinner buckskin lets the men in on a few of his trade secrets like the care and feeding of a good faithful rifle then that gives him a small fireworks display [Music] then they all settle back to listen listen while buckskin Billy spins out his amazing stories he even tells one an Indian sign language translating as he goes along and holds everybody spill [Music] well duh buckskin those were three fine days were those sportsmen from the big city but now buckskin has got to get back on the job you see winter is on the way there's lots to do he's got to catch more fish hang and smoke him he's got to live on him he's got to make repairs around the place can all that produce that he was growing all summer long and then check his trails you remember I I told you Billy makes his own guns well that's nothing compared to loading them now let's take this old flintlock for instance what you're going to see turns back the clock fifty to a hundred years in Civilization for us after measuring out the right amount of powder He pours it carefully in the barrel pushes it down with a ramrod then he takes a piece of wadding like he's doing right here and places it over the top of the barrel on top of the wadding he puts the ball that's the bullet right there tamp sit down and with a knife one just right for this job of course he cuts off the excess wadding and rams the ball and wadding into the barrel there we go and removes the ramrod replaces it in its storage place beneath the barrel all this time of course he's being charged by an angry grizzly but is he through no siree places more powder in a cup in the flintlock the hammer will strike the Flint which will ignite the powder which will burn down to the powder inside the barrel and boom that's it and before you say that this isn't done well it was done for years and years so we got our modern rifles loaded gun in hand he sets off now to check the trails remember buckskin has lived here alone for thirty years in that time well he's pretty well made his own world and I think what he's accomplished single-handedly is amazing like an Indian Billy's alert to this many signs that he can read a bear's been here clawing this trunk [Music] this hand-hewn bridge is buckskins work [Music] but everything has to be checked for safety living in the wilderness for 30 years Billy's learned this in the winter you'll have to use his trails and bridges for survival he'll hunt elk and deer for food by the way he'll charge here four dollars to skin and help I think most folks had charged $30 for a job like that but you see buckskins philosophies different from the modern point of view he says chefs I'd rather be independently poor than independently wealthy he figures a rich man as anything but independent rich man spends all his time protecting his money investing and Counting at paying taxes on it bucks kid Billy's poor monetarily but I guess he's just about the most independent man I ever saw yes a lot to do to survive but he's got a lot of time to do it in no appointments to keep and no papers to sign we make makes another discovery here for us it's a print that proves that there are Grizzlies in this area he says they're coming in from Montana they're mean ones and big [Music] now here's another example of Billy's achievements how to survive in the wilderness for thirty years an example of common sense if the spring floodwaters rise and cover your trails hang another trail on the side of a cliff simple certainly but be sure it's secure obviously this man has acquired engineering abilities along with everything else well he figures he chose this life alone in an untamed land he better make it work I think he's done a fabulous job of it he didn't come here to get away from people Oh sue he came here to get close to companions companions like these to watch and listen to the unmanufactured beauty of nature how far do we have to travel to see sites like this hundreds of miles while Billy has them in his own backyard true we can reach into the freezer for ice cream get water from the faucet our lights our electric our chairs are upholstered but you know in our hearts most of us know we're missing something was man born just to find the ease and comfort but was he born to create to discover to conquer frontiers we know what buckskin Billy's answer would be and maybe our answer would be the same now that we've spent some time with this amazing and wonderful true adventure [Music] ladies and gentlemen I want you to be our special guest Milas Hinshaw who photographed this picture for us malice is one of the better-known adventure cameramen and reporters in Hollywood and a real fine guy to boot my ELISA I think it'd be interesting for you to tell our friends your impression of buckskin Billy is he really a believable character when you're with him well bill he's the most unusual person there's no doubt about that buckskin Billy as was brought out in the film is a very well-educated man he's a fellow that has many and varied interests I think it's interesting to note that his hobby is archaeology throughout the area there are numerous caves ancient Indian campgrounds and in his spare time he spends this time looking around in these old areas for anything that might have something to do with the early life of the Indians he's also quite an expert on Indian sign language has all the books and everything that he can get on that particular subject now who he's going to use the Indian sign language on I have no idea cuz he's up there all by himself - there's a lot of parents watching and I'm a parent you know and I always say to my boy you got if you just live like he did in the old days now the the youngsters have seen how they lived in the old days would you really trade yourself I don't think I would bill to be honest with you but for this particular person buckskin Billy heart this is really the way of life that he he likes after living with him for a week I can see how he has certain things that you and I have not been able to achieve he certainly has complete freedom he's his own boss he has doesn't have to answer to anybody for his actions how about staples and supply does he get to get something from the store occasionally once a year he goes into McCall Idaho and with a little money that he makes skinning elk for hunters and cleaning fish occasionally throughout the year he manages to save just enough money to go in and buy his staples salt gunpowder and things of that nature - I want to thank you very much for being with us and I have a gift for you here is a w-2 form for you to keep I want to thank you for taking the program ladies and gentlemen I want to thank you out there for sharing this true adventure with us until we meet once again this is bill bird saying may all your adventures be happy one [Music] [Applause] [Music]