Jeff’s Reviews > Adirondack French Louie: Early Life in the North Woods > Status Update

Louie has decided to build a new camp that will be even more luxurious than any other. An Indian, Johnny Leaf was caught stealing Louie's traps and Johnny pulled a knife but Louie knocked him out. His new camp has many new functions from a smoke house to an ice hole. It becomes more advanced as more outsiders come in. A mass migration of bears passed through, 400 were spotted and at least 75 were killed and sold.

Louie has expanded his territory to hundreds of unclaimed acres of wilderness. He brings in hundreds of dollars a year from his hunting, fishing, trapping, and gum-picking. Louie now sees many visitors at his camps who pay for lodging and boat rental. The money he makes is all spent in a week when he visits town. He buys children candy and everybody drinks. Louie decides he is going to scout new land to the west.

Louie continues to live in his camps where he hunts, fishes, traps, and grows his food. He came across a lake with very large lake trout in it and these new trout attracted new people, so Louie became a guide to these people although he hated the outside world and enjoyed the solitude of his little camps. He was a savior as well, he made efforts to keep the fish and game population thriving rather than decimating it.

Louie Seymour is introduced as a rough and strong young man that has been raised in the wilderness of the Adirondacks. He joined the circus at 8 and then at 12 he got his first job working on the Erie Canal. In his 30's he spent time on lumber jobs from Indian Lake to Saratoga. He spent all the money he made on liquor every week. He soon built lean-to camps across Upstate New York where he trapped and sold his furs.