Troy | Paul | Emily | Don | Dave

Hello, I’m Troy D. Nordman, owner of Trails North Traders and, in my real life,  Lead Instructor for the English Department/Humanities Division at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas.  I received degrees for Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Wichita State University.   I have greatly enjoyed teaching composition, literature, and creative writing at Butler Community College since 1990.  Before coming to Butler, I taught for six years in a local high school.  While at Butler, I have served on various committees including the South Central Kansas Higher Education Consortium of English Instructors and the Heartland Alliance Consortium.  For three years I served as coordinator for the Butler County Community College Creative Writing Workshop.   

 

Along with my teaching and writing interests, I maintain a passionate interest in “living history.” Sometimes called “experiential archaeology,” living history is the study of a specific period of history through first or third person character interpretations, demonstrations, and experimentation using the dress, tools, equipment, foods, etc. to reenact that lifestyle in order to understand it more completely. Specifically, I enjoy reenacting an 18th century German carpenter for some events; at Cowtown, a living history museum in Wichita, Kansas, I portray an1870’s drover, saddler, and sometimes a bartender.  I also perform a first-person portrayal of Jack Bailey, a Texas drover who helped bring a herd up the Chisholm Trail in 1868.  This portrayal is based on the journal kept by Bailey as he came up the trail from Texas. This “hobby” has created opportunities both in research, writing, and presentations allowing me to share that historical knowledge with others.

I often present to numerous civic groups including schools, scouting organizations, and church groups.  My presentations are interactive so that audiences may have a “hands on” appreciation of the equipment, dress, and tools of the time period.

From 2000 -2004 I, along with the help of several students in the Radio and TV Production department and fellow faculty, have written, directed, and co-produced three docudramas entitled, “Along The Osage Trail:  The French and Osage Fur Trade in the Arkansas River Valley 1790-1825,” “Along The Osage Trail:  Journals of Discovery,” and “The Hunters of Deer Creek.”  Recently, I began work on a series of short documentaries called “History In Touch” which focus on local artisans who continue to keep historic material culture alive.  Available through the BCC Endowment Office, sales of these DVDs support the Marianne Koke Folk Arts Collections and future living history projects.

 

Paul

I have been a carpenter/cabinet builder for near 40 years and my father was a carpenter/cabinet builder so my lessons started early. I became interested in metal work about 30 years ago and am a self taught home machinist. I have been fascinated with history all my life.  I have built many of my own period tools so that I could demonstrate different periods of historic wood working. I became interested in coopering a few years a go so I researched and built all my own tools and taught myself White Coopering . For many years I have enjoyed researching and reproducing both wood and metal items that where used by our ancestors.

 

Emily

Greetings!!
I am a seamstress and I sew 18th and 19th Century Costume. This includes Men's, Women's and Children’s costume. I have been sewing for nearly ten years and have researched heavily in the two centuries.  I have access to numerous resources to answer any questions about costumes. 

Some of my past projects have been a frock coat for the Marshal of Dodge City, Allen Bailey. He and the frock coat have traveled all over the world. I have worked with Dodge City's Boothill Gunfighters to come up with period looks for their personae.  I have sewn several ball 
gowns for the Victorian Age including one gown that took grand 
champion for the Kansas Muzzleloading Association's Costume contest. I have 
sold complete outfits that include the basic underpinnings (the 
underwear) on up to the correct fit of the gown or suit. Not to mention, the dozens of shirts, vests, women's hats, wired bustles and just about anything you can name that I have sewn. 

If you take a look at my costumes, I hope that you find quality, historical clothing. If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call. Thank you. 
Emily Grasser
(620)855-7158

 

Don

I have been involved with living history for over 30 years and have been blacksmithing most of that time.  Being retired, I devote most of my free time my draft horses and cart making, but I also spend a great deal of time at the forge making my own items and teaching people who are interested in learning the craft of the smithy.  My wife, Charlotee, and I enjoy traveling to draft horse events and doing parades. 

Dave