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Jack Vargo
I am currently the co-owner and head artisan for the Beaver River Trading Company, a business stated in 1995 for the purpose of providing historically accurate museum quality reproductions of 17th ...view moreI am currently the co-owner and head artisan for the Beaver River Trading Company, a business stated in 1995 for the purpose of providing historically accurate museum quality reproductions of 17th and 18th century colonial artifacts, for use at historic sites, museums and by re-enactors of the colonial period.
My background in mechanical engineering and my interest in the early technologies of Native American and Colonial populations plus knowledge gathered through the archaeological studies presentations, and publications Donna and I did throughout the 1980’s have enabled us to engage in this endless endeavor in experimental archaeology.
I co-published three papers with my wife Donna
“The Rabuilt Cave Site, PKe 4-1”, in the Bulletin and Journal of Archaeology for New York State, #87, 1983.
“The Feasibility of and Requirements for Establishing a Comparative Faunal Collection” in North American Archaeologist, Vol. 6 #4, 1985
“Preliminary Results of Archaeological Investigations Conducted by the Multi-Component Tamarack Site”, in Archaeological Society of Connecticut Bulletin #49, 1986.
I presented material to be used by the New York State archaeologist (the Late Dr. Robert Funk) in “Some Contributions of Archaeology to the Study of Cave and Rockshelter Sediments: Examples from Eastern New York, NYS Museum, Man in the Northeast No. 37, 1989.
I wrote numerous articles for historical society bulletins and journals.
Though we did some of the material used in the movies “Last of the Mohicans” and “Tecumseh” and an 8 hour PBS documentary on the “Lost Colony of Roanoke”, our focus remains within the historical community.
Besides operating a colonial blacksmith shop focused on the production of Knives, Trade axes, and other metal trade material, I am engaged in the production of brain tanned buckskin and items made from it as well as porcupine quill embroidery, loomed quillwork and other techniques used to decorate Native American objects.
Donna and I also conduct classes on brain tan buckskin production, quill decoration and practical blacksmithing.view less