Talk:Sylvan Ambrose Hart

Sylvan Hart entered the public imagination primarily through Harold Peterson's book The Last of the Mountain Men, the associated Sports Illustrated article, a 1963 Curt Gowdy interview on ABC's Wide World of Sports and (reportedly) a National Geographic television special by the same name. Peterson's book led W. Clifford Dean to spend a winter with Hart and write a book about the experience (Laughter in the Mountains: Enjoying the Last of the Mountain Men). The interest generated by Peterson's book also led Chana Cox, the wife of Hart's nephew who lived close to Hart, to write an autobiography (A River Went Out of Eden).

Unfortunately none of these books involved scholarly research, with the primary source for all three being personal conversations with Hart. I have the sense that his stories changed with the audiences and times. The result is a great deal of conflicting data on most aspects of his life, including:

• where he was born;
• where he went to school and whether he graduated;
• his employment and source(s) of income;
• his conflicts with the federal government.

Further, while Peterson's title was taken literally by many, Hart was certainly not the last mountain man in any sense. True Mountain men are usually defined as trappers and explorers in the American West prior to 1900. The trapping industry had crashed long before Hart arrived in Idaho (Hart's primary income appeared to be gold panning) and Hart was not an explorer. Nor was he the last self-sufficient man living in the American wilderness; other well-known hermits, such as Richard "Salmon River Caveman" Zimmerman, long outlived him.

With that said, however, Hart has become the best-known of the 20th-century American wilderness hermits and their token figurehead. His compound is now a museum that remains a highlight of the numerous Salmon River rafting expeditions that travel through the area.

Dlovegrove (talk) 16:36, 22 February 2016 (UTC)Reply