Since Dean Torges passed away, his website has remained online; I assume a family member is maintaining it and keeping it up and running.
But seeing as there are many well written articles and how-to instructions, would it be possible to bring/copy it all over to tradgang for preservation? Obviously tradgang admins would need to work it with Dean Torges' estate managers, go through proper channels, etc. Its just that every few months when I end up on his site, I expect to see it taken down with no idea where to find his work.
That's a great idea....I would just need contact info if anyone has it.
Terry, I have a contact number for you
Got it....just got off the phone with her...she is tickled we are going to preserve it. .... :campfire:
Man I hope that's tickled and not ticked. LOL
I sure miss Dean, he was a great guy to sit down over a drink and talk the night away.
Mike
Yes Mike...thx...dang phones!!!
I am SO glad to hear this. This is museum-worthy stuff that needs to be preserved, and I had no idea how to make that happen. Thank you Mary Torges, thank you Terry, and thank you RJones for posting the idea.
Dean was one of the very special guys in our sport, and a great, fascinating, and sometimes challenging(!) friend.
I still think of him and Jerry Pierce on a weekly basis, and really miss them both!
Thanks again for this effort that is underway!!! :clapper:
Daryl
One year at Cloverdale a friend was returning some books I had lent him. One of them was , The Shootingist Gentleman by Nash Buckingham. Dean noticed the book and asked if he could borrow it. He had hunted on the planation mentioned in the book and the old timers were talking about the book but he had never heard of it. Of course I said yes.
A few weeks later some of Dean's smoked bacon arrived at my door. You could smell the smoke flavor thru the vacuum packaging and it was delicious. Dean later contacted me and said the books were in return mail. I waited and waited but they never showed. We discussed it a few times and just decided they got lost in the mail. He was bummed.
A couple of months later he contacted me about the books. He had packaged them up but put them somewhere and forgot about them thinking he had mailed them. He said, "Don't tell anybody :)"
And I didn't until now :)
Ah....I too was lucky enough to receive some of his bacon....
He sent it in return of me sending him some of my bison I'd killed.
1st time I met him was at Cloverdale 2003...met him, Charlie Lamb, and Spudly...Jerry Pierce's son joined us as we shot the coarse....
Great weekend for sure....need to find those pics....
Again...Cloverdale 2003....
Dean, Charlie, Spudly, and Jerry Pierce's son.....well before digital cameras.
Tradgang was only 3 months old...
Go to the topic....then click the video....'Cloverdale Dream Team'....cause it was a dream to be able to meet and shoot with these guys...
Cloverdale Dream Team (http://www.tradgang.com/videos/cloverdale.wmv)
Sounds good! Thanks Terry for getting it started. Thanks Ron for sharing the contact number.
Robert, et al, thanks for outstanding idea and getting things rolling on this. Mr. Torges' writings have had a huge influence on my traditional archery journey. Again, thank you!
One year at Denton, I was determine to make my first selfbow. Dean was there and I'd run to him every time I'd remove some yellow wood. He'd pencil in areas I needed to remove more wood. Great generous teacher. That bow brought down a bear with a flint point arrow. I do miss the Man!
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I've been lucky to have had a few of Deans bows. The one I won't sell was his Bamboo Backed Yew bow that he made for the PBS St Louis 2000 Auction. His inscription says...
Yew:
cut by Chester Stevenson
stored by Gilman Keasey
liberated by Jim Fetrow
64" 50#@27" Yew & Bamboo
Firestyx by Dean Torges PBS St Louis 2000
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Great idea. I bow and . . . harrumph . . . gun hunt from a variant of a Dean Torges Tree Seat every year. And a Bowyers Edge is my tool of choice for shaft tapering. Though Dean said mine should have been shaped (it's still "clunky" and unstreamlined).
He was a good man and very much missed.
I was an osage stave gathering failure until I read his book "Hunting the Osage Bow", I never ruined another stave from improper handling after reading the book.
Early on in my bow making journey when I described the way I made bows he said I was "a disgrace to the true art of bow making". At first I took offence to his comment but it pushed me to work harder and perfect my craft which entailed a lot less following my own wacky path and alot more following the advice of master boyers like Dean.
Later on after my bows had won countless state and national championships and placed in the IBO worlds he was a bit more complementary, saying "well, my bows never won anything".
I liked him, he could be a bit cantankerous but he sure knew his stuff.
After making my own selfbow....Dean came out with his book 'Hunting the Osage Bow'....so I had to make another with the faceted tillering.....
Bear Necessities is her name....
(http://tradgang.com/tg/images2/bear3.jpg)
(http://tradgang.com/tg/images2/bear4.jpg)
(http://tradgang.com/tg/images2/bear2.jpg)
As you can see, She has taken on some beautiful color over the years....
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So happy Dean will have a place here. He was a very unique guy. Sent me a fantastic Osage bamboo backed firestyk as a surprise gift, I will never forget him and still talk to him while in the woods.
Dean also submitted one of the 1st(if not the 1st) video clips on Tradgang....
I'll see if I can't round it up....
You can see how technology was with videos on computers when we started Tradgang....
"R Rated" for language...
Enjoy!!!!!
http://www.tradgang.com/videos/atha-squirrels.wmv
Great "snapshot" of the man we knew and loved!
Thanks for posting that, Terry. Somehow, through all the years I knew Dean, I never saw that one. Good to hear Spudley's voice, too...
Now that's a back quiver. No shortage of arrows when wearing that.
A picture of a box call - on the top of the paddle it reads "for my buddy Cory Mattson with yew wood from Gilman Keasey & Chet Stevenson Good Hunting Dean Torges July 26, 05"
We were good friends and hunting buddies for many years. I miss Dean. There is much more - Deans depth, breathe and scope on many subjects was amazing! When this box showed up I wasn't even surprised- this is how he rolled. I was afraid to take this call into the woods though and it stayed in my den a cherished item reminding me of good times. This year I started hunting with it and this was the only call I used this year and 5 gobblers made it to our freezers courtesy of the excellent craftsmanship!!! This things a killer - as was Dean. More times than not if I went to check on him he was dragging game out! Very cool reading some of the posts- many a pack of smoked wild hog came to our house. In the skinning shed and the kitchen he was brilliant.
One of our NC birds sure shows the call better :)
The paddle is Purple Heart- very cool!
" In the skinning shed and the kitchen he was brilliant"
And in person... and in the written word...and in the shop... and in the amazing ponderings of his mind!
It was a privilege to get to have a friend like Dean (also for so many here!), and a shame that there aren't enough relationships like that in life!
Daryl
I really enjoyed his writings, and wish I could have met him. If you haven't tried his lentil soup recipe you are missing out!
This is great news!
Yeah Cory....all around....thanks for sharing!!!
Who knows the secret ingredient he used in his pancakes? 😀
Interesting....care to enlighten us?
I don't know the ingredient. Way back, before Trad Gang and on the "other site" there was talk about this secret ingredient. Dean would never reveal it but someone he invited to his house for a hunt possibly saw it while Dean was making pancakes. I think he was even sworn to secrecy.
Any of you old timers remember this?
Too funny John...
We will have something up for Dean by the end of the week.
We will have the writings of Dean Preserved Tradgang in a few days. :thumbsup:
Outstanding!
Dean helped me a good bit when I started making bbo bows and I met him in WV once.
Be awesome to have a link to his site here on tg.
Roy, it won't actually be a link, it will be copies of his pages in case is website goes away.
Cool.
Terry
Are you going to get his stories that Dean did for Traditional Bowhunters Magazine?
We are going to preserve the writings on his web site for now.
Dean made Jerry Pierce and I pancakes the morning after we arrived to his house late in the night from a hog hunt on Milbury. Honestly, I don't remember any special ingredients going into those pancakes, but everything Dean did was done with flair. The pancakes(He called them "Ostrander Lites") and syrup he used were no exception. He was quite the guy and a treasured friend.