20 Nebraskaland • May 2025
ean Slader has tried retiring his
hammer and anvil several times.
The 82-year-old blacksmith's
relationship with Fort Atkinson State
Historical Park "goes back." While a
student at Fort Calhoun High School,
the archaeological dig down the road
made a lasting impression on the
teenage Slader.
Abandoned by the U.S. Army in
1827, the site of Fort Atkinson was
converted to farmland, and in 1961,
concerned Washington County locals
rallied for the restoration of the site,
thus creating the Fort Atkinson
Foundation that same year. Slader's
mother, Genevieve Dorsey Slader, was
a founding member. Her son took such
a strong interest in the area's history
that he went on to teach high school
social studies for 35 years, retiring in
2001 in Valley.
In the 1960s, Slader threw himself
into buckskinning, a subset of
historical reenactment concentrating
on the fur trade. He also became
involved with the Fort Atkinson
Muzzleloaders group. As a competitive
shooter, Slader started building his
own guns, including the ironwork of
fashioning trigger guards and butt
plates, which led him down the path of
blacksmithing.
"I got ahold of an anvil and a forge
and some basic small tools sometime in
the mid-to late-'70s and started down
that direction and never built another
gun," Slader said. It became what he
calls an avocation, a self-sustaining
hobby. His passion for blacksmithing
has everything to do with his interest
in the past.
"My craft is a 3,000-year-old craft,"
he said. "Historically, a hammer is a
hammer. A pair of tongs for handling
iron is a pair of tongs. A chisel is —
that hasn't changed. A punch hasn't
changed. It's because the form follows
function."
To be a part of living history is to
be a part of ongoing research, Slader
explained. It's the same for the
tinsmith, the weavers and spinners. In
many ways, Slader's story follows the
dawn of the state historical park, its
renowned living history program and
dedicated volunteers.
Friends of Fort Atkinson
The early days of living history
at Fort Atkinson were informal. The
earliest volunteers came from the
Fort Atkinson Muzzleloaders group,
which amounted to three or four
people, Slader said, including himself.
A Hammer, and a
Good Swing
Story and photos by Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley
D
Slader showing a nail he made bearing his "DS" stamp.
Fort Atkinson Blacksmiths
