Nebraskaland

32 NEBRASKAland • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2015 Brockman's musket was retooled after the war into a shotgun. Tom and two friends initially attended classes taught by Miller, and learned they could buy black powder through the North Fork Frontiersmen, but only if they were members. Brockman admitted the purchase of black powder was a backdoor approach to becoming a member, but soon after joining, Brockman headed off to a Red, White and Blue Muzzleloaders' Rendezvous outside of Grand Island. He slept in his car outside of the rendezvous grounds while watching the mountain men on the "other side of the fence." Hooked, he promised himself the next year he would attend the rendezvous as a full-fledged member to camp with the other mountain men. Today, Tom and Lola Brockman join long-time members at rendezvous who have been baptized with frontier names, such as "Old Buffalo," "Griz," "Two Feathers" and "Little Fox." As club officers, they work behind the scenes to help keep the Frontiersmen club going, arriving early at shoots to set up camp. They are also in charge of the knife and tomahawk throws. Since joining, Brockman has also made and fine-tuned much of the trappings he takes to shoots and rendezvous, including wooden table and chairs, a cooking stove, knives and walking sticks. Lola Brockman and other members are in charge of the "shack" at the North Fork shoot, where they sell targets for the shoot and tickets for the club's drawings. They use targets that are standardized throughout the state and national muzzleloading organizations. "True blue shooters will buy every target available to see how they can do," said Frank Novotny, another long-time member of the Frontiersmen. Re-enactment While many members head for the cloud of smoke at the firing line, others like Frank Novotny come for the re-enactment. Novotny enjoys making the clothing, tools and other trappings frontiersmen once used, from powder horns and leather knife sheaths, to moccasins and capotes to weather the cold. He has carved measures and stoppers from deer antler, stitched his possibles bag and fashioned buckles for it. He has used a forge to make small tools and a number of knives. Like the frontiersmen would have made their tools from whatever steel was on hand, Novotny used old knives to make suitable patch knives and hunting knives, plus added new handles on throwing hawks. Frank and his wife Lana Novotny are both devoted members of the North Fork Frontiersmen. Frank was an Omaha city boy when he first picked up a shotgun and picked off rabbits and pheasants at his uncle's farm along the eastern edge of Nebraska. He tried his hand at archery next, and when he was in his late teens he spotted an ad in a Dixie Gunworks' catalog for a single shot Spanish black powder shotgun. It was a plain and inexpensive shotgun, Novotny said, but it sparked his interest in re-enactment of the mountain man period. When Novotny saw a flyer in a Norfolk newspaper for a North Fork Frontiersmen meeting, he knew he had to check it out. Novotny purchased a 20-gauge flintlock smoothbore or trade gun, and built a percussion muzzleloader from a kit. He became a regular at meetings of the North Fork Frontiersmen, bringing along his wife and two daughters. As youngsters, his daughters regularly beat the boys their age at the firing line. As they've left home, Frank has begun to interest his 5-year-old grandson in black powder. Using their acquired skills as fontiersmen, Novotny and many other members have also made many period pieces to donate to the club's fall raffle, including handmade leather possibles bags or knives with deer antler handles, which help to fund the club's various activities. Winning ticket holders might also win a new rifle, a gift certificate to a local business or a Terry Redlin print, for instance. Area businesses also donate other prizes. Women on the Frontier "There are fewer women than men, but almost all shoot," Gary Miller said. Female members such as Jane and husband Brad Becker attend shoots because of their love of history and because it's fun. While not a big-time shooter, Lana Novotny has tried her hand at throwing the tomahawk, and she plans to pick up a fry pan and sling it in the air at the next meet like other North Fork Frontiersmen women who have practiced this tradition. But if you ask Lana, one of her favorite times of Ron and Mary Jones prepare lunch at their camp.

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