Eustace Conway

[FFTorched]

I am halfway through the book "The Last American Man" by Elizabeth Gilbert and am fascinated by the life of Conway. I was wanting since he is so closely tied in with the Appalachian Mountains if anybody on here has met him and what impressions you have of him. I am seriously considering when I get some leave from the Army going to visit his Turtle Island Nature Preserve. Just wondering if he is a interesting as the book makes him out to be.

[Natchez]

interesting book and man so many contrasts and conflicts in that guy I would love to talk to him.

[Marta]

I have not met him, but by strange coincidence, I ran into his father on my last pre-Hike hike last summer. His father, who looks to be in his 80's, was at the top of King's Pinnacle, near Gastonia, NC. We talked for a little bit, then as we were about to go our separate ways, he told me his name was "Doc" Conway, with the unusual first name of Eustace. "You're the father of 'The Last American Man', aren't you?"

I was impressed that a man of his age was doing a fairly ambitious hike that involves some rock scrambling on a 100-degree day. He gets a pretty bad rap in the book, but I can see the spark that his son must have inherited.

[Tipi Walter]

I first met Eustace around 1983 in Boone NC on the campus of Appalachian State University. I was homeless living out of my North Face backpack (and in various tipis)and I was sitting around campus when in the distance I saw a figure coming up, himself wearing a large framed backpack. We talk and he tells me he is Eustace Conway and has just arrived in Boone to stay.

A year later we meet again inside a grocery store dumpster scrounging for food, by this time he has a canvas tipi set up 8 or 9 miles outside of town and rides a dirt bike motorcycle to and fro with a plastic milk crate strapped to the back(to haul all that thrown-away food!) He has some good dumpster-diving stories, one about a store clerk throwing a heavy thing into the container and hitting Eustace inside. We ALL have our great dumpster stories, but I digress.

About this time I go out into the Pisgah NF with a group of Dr Ayers anthropology students for an Indian sweatlodge ceremony and Eustace comes to run the sweat and teach the students about the Indian way of life. We also go together to the Schiele Museum in Gastonia for a powwow where Eustace dances in the Indian regalia he made.

Around 1984-85 Johnny B and I cruise up Howards Creek road to visit Eustace's big tipi(made by Darry Wood)and spend the day studying his lodge and his primitive camp. By this time I've been living out of a pack and my own tipi for 5 years and it was fun to see his setup. Also, Johnny B had a tipi set up and was living out, so the 3 of us constituted the entire Tipi Dwellers of Watauga County, NC.

Inside Eustace's tipi he had a woodstove with a unique stovepipe which did a big circle around the top of the lodge before exiting near the smokehole. He showed us rope he made from dog hair and a car battery to supply juice for his tape player. He mentioned getting rid of pesky mice using a pair of vice-grips. Around his camp he had primitive tools and furniture and a large deer hide frame for fleshing and tanning.

We lost touch until loggers came thru to rape his ajoining land, forcing Eustace to eventually find and(with the help of his father), purchase a huge track of land east of Boone near Deep Gap. He started out in another tipi on this new land and began to call it Turtle Island. It became a workshop and camp for hundreds of kid and adults and he offered a work-program with room and board, etc. Johnny B and I visited occasionally and checked out his canvas tipis and eventually his log cabins, horses, and all the rest.

I probably have more memories and could easily add a bunch of rumors and gossip better left to myself.

[Tipi Walter]

Check out
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=14556&catid=member&imageuser=7874

I paid Eustace a visit and got to meet Hawk Hurst and his family who were staying in this lodge for the winter.

[Tha Wookie]

For some reason I am shocked to see Darry Wood's name appear on this site, but I'm glad it has. The man is an excellent Tipi maker, among many other things. I am so thankful for his influence on on so many people, as I am also with Eustace. Before I digress, I have to say that Earthskills Rendezvous are absolutely wonderful events, which Darry, Snow Bear, and others founded over two decades ago.

I met Eustace, briefly, after a bow drill presentation he did at Merlefest. I was unaware of the book about him at the time, but he was signing copies. I have not read it.

My sense about him is that he is just as real as the next person, faults and good things. And just like with about any person, you can choose to focus on either. Often times, what you choose to focus on reveals the nature of yourself.

With that being said, what Eustace teaches is far bigger than himself, and it is a wonderful tradition of getting along with this continent. He is a great person, just by that fact alone. I advise going to Turtle Island and getting hte most you can out of it. No doubt it will be life changing.

But go for the knowledge and the connection -not the man.

I bet he would tell you the same thing.
peace.

[spittinpigeon]

My impression from the book was that the author was in love with Eustace. Also, hold your decision to stay at Turtle Island until you read the rest of the book.

[Tipi Walter]

I used to visit Darry Wood when he'd set up his fine lodges at the Union Grove powwow. He'd talk about regalia and beadwork as we sat in his fully outfitted old-time lodge with the painted liner, the peyote-stitched coup sticks, the parfleche containers, the fine plains-style moccasins and all the rest. He is part of a small network of primitive skill teachers associated with various rondezvous such as the Rivercane rondezvous and the Earthskills.

Eustace learned a lot from Darry(Hayesville, NC)and everyone coveted one of his handmade tipis. If I could collar Darry Wood alone without interruption, I could ask him anything about the old days, especially Indian regalia of the southeast, and he'd talk fully and indepth about every little detail. A treasure trove. He was also a great powwow dancer.

[Cedar Tree]

I went to college at Mississippi State with a guy named Eustace Conway. He was in my fraternity. Its gotta be the same guy, how many Eustace Conways can there be? Does it say anywhere in the book where he went to college. He was a Senior when I was a freshman, so I really didn't get to know him.
Cedar Tree

[Skidsteer]

I went to college at Mississippi State with a guy named Eustace Conway. He was in my fraternity. Its gotta be the same guy, how many Eustace Conways can there be? Does it say anywhere in the book where he went to college. He was a Senior when I was a freshman, so I really didn't get to know him.
Cedar Tree

In Mississippi?

There are at least two (http://www.google.com/search?q=eustace+conway+mississippi&hl=en&pb=r&sa=X&oi=rwp&ct=title) in MS.

[EagleMountain]

The Eustace Conway, subject of the book The Last American Man, is Eustace Robinson Conway, IV.
Eustace Conway, Jr., (1920-1997), was an SAE at Mississippi State in the late 1930s/early 1940s. He was also captain of the basketball team and a member of the football team at Mississippi State.

[EagleMountain]

In looking at your post again, Cedar Tree, I realize that you would have been a fraternity brother with Eustace Conway, III, son of Eustace Conway, Jr. They are the two listings in Mississippi. Neither is the Last American Man!

[Cedar Tree]

In looking at your post again, Cedar Tree, I realize that you would have been a fraternity brother with Eustace Conway, III, son of Eustace Conway, Jr. They are the two listings in Mississippi. Neither is the Last American Man!

Yeah, when I saw your first post I realized it had to be Eustace Conway the 3rd. So his Dad was SAE? We are Sigma Chi.
Cedar Tree