Daniel Boone's Beaver Tail?

[meanwhile]

In discussing Famous Homesteaders, the students asked about the "tail like a beaver" in the song about Daniel Boone. Why does it say he had a "tail like a beaver"? The students can understand why an "eye like an eagle" but why the Beaver Tail?

Thank you if you know the answer.

[seedspreader]

I don't know and will be interested to learn myself... but don't the students take summers off or is this just informal training?

[Cabin Fever]

As a child of the 60s, I don't remember anything about a beaver tail in that song. So, I googled it and there is nothing about a beavers tail.

DANIEL BOONE
(Lyrics by Vera Matson / Music by Lionel Newman)
Fess Parker

Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
With an eye like an eagle
And as tall as a mountain was he!
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
He was brave, he was fearless
And as tough as a mighty oak tree!

From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Dan
To the heel of his rawhide shoe;
The rippin'-est, roarin'-est, fightin'-est man
The frontier ever knew!

Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
And he fought for America
To make all Americans free!

What a Boone, what a doer,
What a dream come-er true-er was he!

[seedspreader]

LOL, the only reference I can find about a beaver tail is that he didn't like to eat them because they were greasy.

http://books.google.com/books?id=IuF...um=6&ct=result

[FarmboyBill]

Funny thing is that Boone never in anybodys memory wore a beaver hat. He wore a broad brim hat, So I read or was told

[homesteadforty]

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

Funny thing is that Boone never in anybodys memory wore a beaver hat. He wore a broad brim hat, So I read or was told

Actually, decent broad brim and cocked (proper name for tricorn hats) hat were made from beaver... just not in the way most people think. The beaver was not used as a pelt but rather, the long guard hairs were pulled and the under-wool was shaved from the hide. This beaver wool was processed with mercury and rolled to make beaver felt. This felt was then shaped into hats.

The importance of beaver for hats lasted into the 19th century and spurred the westward explorations of the mountain men (or Rocky Mountain fur trappers). By 1840 beaver were largely trapped out and a new process using silk to make hats had been discovered... thus, for all intents and purposes, ending the era of the beaver hat.

BTW... I think Daniel Boone is most often portrayed wearing a coon skin cap. There's a whole 'nuther story about coon skin cap but the jist is that they were unknown in the shape that we now recognize.

[TedH71]

Also from what I heard is that he was away so long that his long-suffering wife had a baby by another man and when he came home, he accepted the infant because he knew he had been gone too long. Seems they had a passel of kids.

[blufford]

They say he when he blazed a trail he would mark his initials in a tree. I wonder if there any of them left?

[HermitJohn]

Originally Posted by TedH71

Also from what I heard is that he was away so long that his long-suffering wife had a baby by another man and when he came home, he accepted the infant because he knew he had been gone too long. Seems they had a passel of kids.

Question is, did he remain pure and chaste and true to his wife while on his adventures? He may have had a passel of kids with several women and couldnt really complain about a cukoo egg in his nest.

[Lynn Bodoni]

This beaver wool was processed with mercury and rolled to make beaver felt. This felt was then shaped into hats.

The hatters breathed the mercury fumes and developed neurological problems. This was seen as evidence of insanity, and that's where the phrase "mad as a hatter" came from.

[TedH71]

Hermit John,

I would imagine that Daniel Boone had other women. In the past, it was considered polite to provide a traveler with a woman if the woman wanted to and it also depended on which tribe/nation that he was staying at. Now I seem to recall that Custer had a son by a Lakota woman who apparently had blond hair and possibly blue eyes and his wife was very keen to prevent the world from knowing about it because they had no kids.

[meanwhile]

I cannot stop laughing! I called my Dad and all six of my brother/sisters, and two Aunts! When we were young, the song was "had an eye like an eagle and a tail like a beaver had he"!!! I am 54 and have sung "tail like a beaver" to all 3 of my kids! Now, thanks to Cabin Fever, we read Daniel Boone did NOT have a Tail like a beaver! Thank you!

seedspreader: No, we Homeschool and "School" year round. So, yes, Summer School! We take breaks here and there, when needed or wanted.

Thank you -- I have to print and learn the words to the song again.......

[EDDIE BUCK]

Originally Posted by meanwhile

In discussing Famous Homesteaders, the students asked about the "tail like a beaver" in the song about Daniel Boone. Why does it say he had a "tail like a beaver"? The students can understand why an "eye like an eagle" but why the Beaver Tail?

Thank you if you know the answer.

I don't know the answer,but I think CF has the answer, But their are a few things I've learned from this simple question about a beaver tail. Why didn't they tell us in school that he cheated on his wife and stayed gone so long she cheated on him, right much according to how many children she had that didn't look like him,but how could they if he won't there. Maybe them younguns might know something about the beaver tail. Oh and them initials on them trees, do you think a man of that caliber and believed to be doing things he shouldn't with other mens wives that would, be walking around leaving his initials in trees. After all he was DANIEL BOONE surely he was smarter than that. Atleast those other men left theirs where they wouldn't be found atleast till someone discovered DNA. LOL Eddie

[poorboy]

Originally Posted by TedH71

Also from what I heard is that he was away so long that his long-suffering wife had a baby by another man and when he came home, he accepted the infant because he knew he had been gone too long. Seems they had a passel of kids.

His own brother was the father, Dan'l had been gone for quite some time. Upon hearing the news and learning who the father was he merely shrugged and said."well the kid is family so it don't matter."

[meanwhile]

Hello -- since one of the students is only age 10, then I think I will leave the DNA, 'horsing around information out of it this time! I still cannot believe that all these years I have been singing "tail like a beaver had he" and those were not the words.......all my sisters/brothers are laughing too.........good one......

[EDDIE BUCK]

Originally Posted by meanwhile

Hello -- since one of the students is only age 10, then I think I will leave the DNA, 'horsing around information out of it this time! I still cannot believe that all these years I have been singing "tail like a beaver had he" and those were not the words.......all my sisters/brothers are laughing too.........good one......

I was joking. No don't tell them kids that part. Just the GOOD. lol Eddie

[Walt K. in SW PA]

Speaking of the question of Daniel Boones's initials on a tree I heard tell there was a tree on or near the Massengill farm near Bristol Tenn. that had his initials on it. Didn't see it myself though so I cannot verify. That's the only one I ever heard about.

[2Dogs]

Seems to me it was "eye like an eagle, tall as a beagle was he!"

[gardenfay]

I'm glad Cabin Fever had already found the lyrics when i read this. First, it would have driven me crazy - i had already started mouthing the words to the song.
second, that brings back some good memories. i don't think episodes of that old series ever air, do they? that would be fun to watch.