The Hunters of Kentucky: A Narrative History of America's First Far West, 1750-1792

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Summary: A COMPLETE ORIGINAL.
Review: A great book, one perhaps destined for cultdom. I love this guy's writing--clear, lucid prose, very spare and virtually poetic in many instances--and he deserves to be far better known and read than he is.

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Summary: Go slow, enjoy it like vintage vine, Belue is in control
Review: First, this is a singularly different American frontier book than any ofher KY book out there, bar none. Belue takes an inconoclastic approach, much no doubt to the dismay of pendant critics/academics who revel in the predictable, the mundain, the banal, prosaic, lockstep line up with the 18th century living-histry clones bedecked in walnut dyed. Belue writes like a vigorous Abbey, Twain (see Interlude V), and Mattheissen, all though distilled and rendered through Belue's rather novel sense pf vision. Like any artist, he writes for the grave, knowing its own inherent good, not giving a damn though if anyone agrees. Often every paragraph takes the form of a sonnet, with impressive voice switches between Belue's chapters and interludes. Belue is a concise, eonomic writer and purely American--pure bones, sinew, muscle, sans fat and gristle, but roughed up prose where needs be --and so his writing (rather retro, and I mean that in a good +way)--hearkens more to the old masters (Steinbeck, EH), rather than the deconstructionist ideologes currently in vogue that can criticize EH with impunity, but can't write three words sequentially like him. But Belue can and does so routinely.

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Summary: A Rich History Of Kentucky!
Review: Get ready to head down the trail towards to cane breaks!
Ted Belue's 4th offering "The Hunters Of Kentucky" will
set you directly in the middle of the wilds of that unexplored
hunters paradise called KANTA-KE! Belue's "Hunters" is a fantastic
read, chronicling the early exploration of Kentucky, including
the original native inhabitants, gentlemen explorers, itinerant hunters,
and the early settlers who dared to make this wooded eden their home.

Belue neatly and expertly seperates mythic fact and romance from meaty fact,
delivering up the rich and detailed history of the Kanta-Ke territory. From the
migration of the "Shawanoe" peoplesto the impact of the beaver wars between
the French & English as they grapple control of a continent away from
the Spanish and Dutch. Included are narratives and biographic sketches
of some of the early explorers, traders and hunters. Follow Dr, Thomas Walkers
four month, 1750 exploration of the Kentucky country, as well as Christopher
Gist's and Nicholas Cresswell's tour of the of the Kentucky lands.
Belue details the incurssion of the of the buckskin clad "shirtmen" who
came following the red deer, foreshadowing the first tendrils of an
unstoppable tide of settlers, and the resultant decades of war and strife between the anglo invaders and the native peoples, including the brutal
aftermath of frontier warfare and an end to a way of life for the native peoples.
Belue weaves a rich colorful tapestry of mostly forgotten frontier personalities
including Andrew Montour, Monk Estill and pompey the black Shawnee, as
well as the more well known personalities of Boone, Kenton, Girty and others.
"Hunters Of Kentucky" is lavishly illustrated with photos and art, and is set
off by an extensive appendix and chronology of events.
In the end, "Hunters of Kentucky" will definately leave you wanting more.
A must have book!<

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Summary: A curious, novel approach...but one that works!
Review: I am far more used to academic works and prefer them, rarely read fiction and have little use for "creative" esoteric historial approaches offered by trade presses, wanting the real thing, not its 2nd cousin, nor some romanticized faldoral.

Well...on a hunch I bought this HUNTERS OF KY after seeing long-haired, bolo-tyed Belue the author on THE HISTORY CHANNEL, and bought HUNTERS not so much of his tv delivery, which was a little rambling though often jocular and witty--mostly due to his inexperience, one might think, giving him the benefit of the doubt--but because of the strength of such venerable subject matter.

Well, I have no idea who TFB is, but he is, first, one hell of a writer (yet undiscovered, and will of course most likely remain that way); and, second, after twice reading HUNTERS concur with my fellow reviewers that his is a singular talent exhibiting scholarship blended with literary art, and, finally, his book a fine book that takes a reader out of the classroom and into the woods.

Heartily commended and a signal contribution to the Kentucky frontier destined to stand the test of time. His research and interpretion thereof,incidentally, is impeccable, though some of the words he uses I can't find in the dictionary. If you are a student of pre-statehood Kentucky, buy this book, and his first three titles. Dr. Ed Clark

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Summary: Belue's "Hunters of Kentucky" Hits the Mark
Review: Not since Alan Eckert's "The Frontiersmen" have I found a book about the American frontier so scholarly, well researched yet readable and thoroughly engaging. Belue's fresh eye and distinct voice tell the story of a vanished frontier with a remarkable clarity so lacking in the glut of Kenta-Ke lore. I wanted to rush through and read it all, but I found myself sipping it like fine wine, trying to make it last. The breath of Belue's understanding of the complex forces that shaped the people and land of that dark and tumultuous age is vast. His presentation of characters too long overlooked complete a rich, textured narrative of the westward expansion. Read it!

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Summary: Give your heart to the hawks.
Review: Ted Franklin Belue is that rare mix, both scholar and wordsmith, with an artist's eye for the beauty of America and the legacy of the past.

In the preface, he acknowledges Win Blevins's narrative, GIVE YOUR HEART TO THE HAWKS, as a model for his own narrative of the eastern woodsmen. It belongs beside that one but, in this researchers opinion, this book surpasses it.

The text is equally involving, compelling, inspiring. But Belue has packed his own book with much more, including the marvelous illustrations of frontiersmen and Shawnees, well drawn maps and charts, mini-biographies of interesting characters.

Also, Belue supplies notes and appendages which will prove invaluable to the legion of historians and genealogists doing their own research into the frontier era, looking for more.

This book has already been praised to the heavens by such renown authors as Dr. Thomas Clark and Allan Eckert, but you don't have to be well read in frontier lore to appreciate it. In fact, this book will likely inspire others to great works, just as Blevins's GIVE YOUR HEART TO THE HAWKS inspired Belue to eventually write the landmark work you see before you.

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Summary: From Smoke and Fire News Sept 3, 2003 by Bob Holden
Review: Ted Franklin Belue knows well the colorful history of the Trans-Appalachian region, a fact that is fully evident in his recently published The Hunters of Kentucky, (Stackpole Books, 315 pages, $29.95). This excellent book will be of interest to a wide spectrum of readers. Those not familiar with the Kentucky backcountry will learn a lot. Those already knowledgeable about the facts will come away with a heightened appreciation for the unique character of the Kentucky frontier. Belue's approach differs from the usual form of narrative employed by most historians. Rather than include all the players and events in the drama, the author has selected certain personalities and subjects to emphasize, weaving an intriguing tapestry of the Kentucky frontier-in effect a backwoods mood piece. By employing this technique, Belue exhibits a much more distinctive style of writing than was evident in his equally valuable earlier book, The Long Hunt.
Following a prologue, The Hunters of Kentucky is divided into ten chapters. Each chapter is followed by a shorter exposition, termed an interlude. Among the major figures featured are Dr. Thomas Walker, Christopher Gist, Thomas Bullitt, Daniel Boone, Nicholas Cresswell, Daniel Trabue, James Estill, Pompey, George Michael Bedinger, and Spencer Records. Subjects covered include exploration, surveying, warfare, buffalo, clothing, long hunters, and weapons. A helpful chronology appears in an appendix. The maps and illustrations are first-rate .
One of the most interesting sections of The Hunters of Kentucky describes how the long rifle came to be identified specifically with Kentucky. When readers finish this segment, they will feel as if they were actually in the New Orleans audience as Noah Ludlow first sang the newly written ballad, "The Hunters of Kentucky" one night in May 1822. Only seven years earlier, Kentuckians had joined Andrew Jackson's other backwoodsmen to devastatingly defeat the British forces attempting to invade New Orleans. Many of the half-drunken frontier rivermen in the audience that May evening had been with Jackson at that incredible triumph, which became instant hallowed history. Dressed in a hastily acquired backwoodsman's outfit, with a long rifle by his side, Ludlow launched into the first verse ending with "O Kentucky, the Hunters of Kentucky; O Kentucky, the hunters of Kentucky!" The crowd showed great excitement. As he finished the second verse that referred to Kentuckians as a "hardy freeborn race" and "alligator horses," the audience was losing control. Ludlow sang the third verse, "But Jackson he was wide-awake, And wasn't scared at trifles, For well he knew what aim we'd take With our Kentucky rifles; So he marched us down to Cypress Swamp, The ground was low and mucky, There stood John Bull in martial pomp, But here was old Kentucky." Ludlow immediately dropped to one knee, leveled his rifle, and took imaginary aim. Then it happened. Pandemonium reigned. The ballad, "The Hunters of Kentucky," had captured the essence of the Kentucky backwoods ethos. Two centuries later Belue has done it again with his book, The Hunters of Kentucky.

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Summary: From MUZZLELOADER magazine, March/April 2003
Review: These days, Kenta-Ke remains a symbol of the first "Far West," a New World Eden that sparked mass migrations through the Cumberland Gap and down the Ohio and, ultimately, creation of the Union's fifteenth state. In Twentieth Century Fox's 1991 version of The Last of the Mohicans, when Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Poe declares that he is "heading west, to Kenta-Ke," he's speaking for all Americans seeking elbow-room. In reality, Hawkeye, like Kenta-Ke, are metaphors for two centuries interpreted and reinterpreted in a literary glut tantamount to a cottage industry.
It would be hard to write about all of this with a fresh eye, but Ted Franklin Belue, in this his fourth and newest release, The Hunters of Kentucky: A Narrative History of America's First Far West 1750-1792, manages to do just that. And artfully so.
The Hunters of Kentucky is unlike any Kentucky book ever before written-a bold statement, considering the number of books out there on the Commonwealth, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Long Knives and longhunters. Belue's Hunters opens with a dark, brooding, Iliad-like prologue describing the Ohio Valley's first inhabitants and the land's despoliation during the brutal era of the Beaver Wars and ends with the Treaty of Lancaster (1744), setting the stage for exploration and settlement.
Then, seeking to restore a balance lacking in most histories, mainly that Daniel Boone was far from being the only capable woodsman roaming Kentucky, The Hunters of Kentucky tells of the sweep of humantide infiltrating the Middle Ground via an anthology of sagas, narratives and themes with overlapping shifts in chronology and voice. Its focus rests upon the lives and deeds of mostly unheralded men-like George Bedinger, Nicholas Cresswell, James Nourse, Daniel Trance, Spencer and Laban Records, James Estill, James Smith-and a few famous ones, like Thomas Walker, Christopher Gist, Capt. Thomas Bullitt and his Fincastle surveyors, the infamous Girty and the legendary Boone.
Dialogue appearing in The Hunters of Kentucky was ferreted out from the Draper Manuscripts and other primary sources. Frontier slang (like "jumed" for zoomed, "tuckeyho" for Virginian) abounds, as do insights into the day's political, social and religious fabric, all part of a common man's life. Appendix A presents perhaps the finest Kentucky chronology ever compiled. Appendix B details Fort Pitt trader George Croghan's inventories of goods, c. mid-1750s, in all, sixteen full pages set in reduced font.
Allan W. Eckert, Emmy-award winning writer, seven-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of 39 books, including The Frontiersmen also received an advanced copy of the book's page proofs and comments, "In The Hunters of Kentucky, Ted Franklin Belue has produced what is probably one of the most remarkable and important works on Kentucky history that has ever been penned . . . It is a joy to read and I recommend it most highly."