Ben Lilly

rdf:langString Ben Lilly

rdf:langString Benjamin Vernon Lilly, Ben Lilly

rdf:langString Benjamin Vernon Lilly, Ben Lilly

rdf:langString Wilcox County, Alabama

rdf:langString Winter of 1856

rdf:langString Outdoor portrait of Ben Lilly

rdf:langString Dec 17, 1936

rdf:langString American

rdf:langString Big game hunter, trapper, mountain man, hunting guide, writer, blacksmith, houndsman, predator control agent, pioneer, rancher.

rdf:langString Lelia Lilly, Mary Lilly

rdf:langString Ol' Lilly, Old Man Lilly

rdf:langString Benjamin Vernon Lilly or Ben Lilly (1856 – December 17, 1936), nicknamed Ol' Lilly, was a notorious big game hunter, houndsman and mountain man of the late American Old West. He remains famous for hunting down large numbers of grizzly, cougars and black bears. A mix between a transcendentalist spirit and an ardent Christian, he is described as an unfathomable Southern wild character. He was a stern practitioner of simple living and outdoor freedom, roamed and hunted from Louisiana to Arizona and from Idaho to as far south as Chihuahua and Durango, Mexico, and was a subject of American folktales. He guided on hunting expeditions oiler W. H. McFadden and President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he intrigued and who wrote about him. He was arguably the most prolific hunter of apex predators in the history of North American hunting and also the last active mountain man of the historical American Southwest. He was not a conservationist but made important contributions of fauna specimens and naturalistic observations to American institutions and museums. He was a contradictory character and his exploits have been consistently exaggerated to folktale proportions, and most records are oral, bona-fide, Americana transcripts.

rdf:langString Ol' Lilly, Old Man Lilly