Sylvan Ambrose "Buckskin Bill" Hart (May 10, 1906 – April 29, 1980) was among the last of the

mountain men A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening u ...

in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

. The oldest of six children born in Camargo in the

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

, one year before it became Oklahoma, Hart worked in Texas oilfields during the Great Depression. For nearly a half century, from 1932 until his death, he lived in isolated central

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and W ...

, on the Five Mile Bar of the Salmon River in the

Frank Church River Of No Return Wilderness Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Cu ...

. Hart attended

McPherson College McPherson College is a private college associated with the Church of the Brethren and located in McPherson, Kansas. It was chartered in 1887 and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. History During their 1887 Annual Meeting, the Ch ...

McPherson, Kansas McPherson () is a city in and the county seat of McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 14,082. The city is named after Union General James Birdseye McPherson, a Civil War general. It ...

, in 1926, then studied petroleum engineering at the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

in 1927–28, but did not graduate. He purchased of land at Five Mile Bar for one

dollar Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar ...

, where he built a compound that included a two-story house, blacksmith shop, a stone turret, and a bomb shelter. The defensive structures reflected his sense of continual threat from the federal government, which peaked in 1956 when Howard Zahniser's Wilderness Act threatened to designate the Five Mile section of the Salmon River as a non-habitable Primitive Area, and he was in danger of being evicted. Hart volunteered to serve in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, but due to an enlarged heart, he was assigned to a Boeing plant in Kansas where he worked on the

Norden bombsight The Norden Mk. XV, known as the Norden M series in U.S. Army service, is a bombsight that was used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the United States Navy during World War II, and the United States Air Force in the Korean an ...

. Following the war, he returned to his compound and was employed by the

National Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

. He farmed, hunted and fished for survival, and made his own guns, weapons, clothing and tools. A lifelong bachelor, Hart died of natural causes at age 73 at his home in 1980. His funeral was held in Grangeville and he was buried at his home at Five Mile Bar. His compound has been preserved as The Buckskin Bill Museum.

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;Video * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Sylvan Ambrose 1906 births 1980 deaths People from Dewey County, Oklahoma Mountain men McPherson College alumni University of Oklahoma alumni

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