Tom Brown Jr.

Tom Brown, Jr. (born January 29 1950) is a famous American naturalist. He is the author of numerous autobiographical nonfiction books, including The Tracker, and a series of Field Guides. His skills in this field and philosophy were taught to him by an Apache man, referred to as "Grandfather."

Biography

Brown was born in Toms River, New Jersey, and graduated from Toms River High School in 1968. From the age of seven he was schooled in the arts of tracking, wilderness survival and awareness by an Apache elder and scout called Grandfather, or Stalking Wolf.^{[citation needed]} Stalking Wolf died when Brown was 17. For the next ten years, Brown lived almost exclusively in the wilderness of the United States using few manufactured tools to survive.

When Tom Brown left the wilderness he knew so well, he set out to find people who were interested in the skills he had developed through first-hand experience with nature. He met with little success, but eventually he was called on to locate a missing person, and since then he has been widely known as "the Tracker." Building upon this reputation, Brown developed his profession as a full-time tracker by locating lost persons, dangerous animals and fugitives from the law.

Tracker School

Tom Brown's Tracking, Nature and Wilderness Survival School is located in New Jersey.^[1] Most classes offered by Tracker School are held in 'Primitive Camp' which is located in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. However, classes are also offered in California and Florida. The school teaches wilderness skills and emphasizes a natural way of living.

All students that attend Tracker School begin with the 'Standard' class, which serves as a foundation for future, more advanced skills to be built upon. Standard class involves instruction in knife handling and safety, carving, building a primitive shelter, safe procurement and treatment of water, various fire-making techniques such as bowdrill, mouth-drill and hand-drill, making cordage (rope) from natural materials, trap-building, flint-knapping, camouflage, stalking, brain tanning, cooking, plant studies, throwing stick handling, awareness and of course, tracking. Tracking is broken up into two main sections: pressure release studies and sign tracking. While both pressure releases and sign tracking are self-sufficient disciplines, they complement each other well.

Books and film

Brown has written 17 books to date. Brown's first book (The Tracker, published in 1978) chronicled his coming of age under Stalking Wolf's tutelage. Reader's Digest ran a condensed version of the story and printed information about Brown's new Tracker School. Later books include Grandfather, The Way of the Scout, and a series of wilderness field guides.

His first audio book "Grandfather," was released in September, 2007, and has been nominated for several Audio Book awards.^{[citation needed]}

Other books include: Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival, Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking, Tom Brown's Field Guide to Living with the Earth, Tom Brown's Field Guide to City and Suburban Survival, Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants, Tom Brown's Guide to Nature and Survival for Children, and Tom Brown's Field Guide to the Forgotten Wilderness. In addition to the field guides, he has written The Science and Art of Tracking, The Vision, The Quest, The Journey, Grandfather, Awakening Spirits, The Way of the Scout, The Tracker, The Search, and Case Files of the Tracker.

Brown was also the technical adviser for the film The Hunted starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro.

Trivia

Tom Brown and his tracker school were featured briefly on Penn & Teller: Bullshit!. ^[2]

References

External links

In the Media:

Articles Written by Tom for Mother Earth News:

[1] [1].

[2] Atheist Nation | Atheist Videos | Bullshit - End of the world | Video 00794

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