A man from the past

Matt Denison, of Superior, is a firearm's enthusiast. He loves guns. He studies guns, and he makes them.

Matt Denison, of Superior, is a firearm's enthusiast. He loves guns. He studies guns, and he makes them.

You could call him a firearm's expert. His beautifully tailored guns are sold all over the world and are highly acclaimed.

They're so well made and Denison has practiced with them so much that he can hit the small end of a pop can at 50 yards.

That may not sound like much when considering that the average rifle with the average shooter can hit a bullseye at 100 yards, but it's something special for the guns Denison makes.

The guns he makes are historically authentic trade guns, muskets and pistols, from the 17th and 18th century.

"I'm a firearm's enthusiast and always have been," says Denison. "When you begin studying guns, you can't help but begin to study the history of when the gun was developed and when it was used."

Being a firearm's enthusiast he not only makes the guns, but he shoots the guns competitively and four or five times a year he dresses up and reenacts the history of his guns.

These reenactments are called rendezvous and they are what initially started the 24 year journey leading Denison to build these guns.

He literally stumbled onto his first rendezvous in Modoc County during a vacation.

"I pulled in there and there were tepees and wall tents and all these guys wearing buck skins and funny clothes and moccasins and I could hear gunfire off in the distance," explains Denison.

The participants there were shooting black powder guns and immediately one shooter asked Denison if he had shot yet to which he replied "no, I don't even know what's going on."

The shooter then took Denison out and shot with him and it turned into the classic tale of Denison then immediately asking where can I get a gun like this.

Soon after the chance encounter, Denison ordered a gun of his own for $139 that included everything but the gunpowder.

He still has the gun and loves it. In those first years, he shot the gun so much that wore out the barrel and he had to have it replaced.

The gun also turned his attention more to the rendezvous in general and he began conniving his way into attending more and more.

"Now the guns were the hook. That's what got me into it, and I think it's what gets ¾ of everybody that gets into rendezvous. It starts out about the guns," says Denison.

He started to become a regular at the events. He would attend the reenactments wearing a flannel shirt, blue jeans and his work boots. However, after awhile, he began to feel out of place and even started taking good hearted teasing from his new friends who would ask him when he was going to learn how to dress.

He then upgraded his gear. He fashioned himself a pair of elk-skinned pants and bought a pair of moccasins and a mountain man shirt. Although he now admits that he looked like a fool at the time, it began a process of reading history books, listening to experts and eventually becoming as historically authentic as possible.

There are actually two types of rendezvous camps. The non-primitive camp allows tourists, few modern conveniences and is more laid back. On the other hand, walking through a primitive camp, you would never know you lived in the 21st century.

When Denison attended the national rendezvous in Idaho this year it was a primitive camp. Approximately 1200 people attended the camp toting tents, guns and other gear made mostly of the three main mountain man materials: brass, wood and iron.

Because everybody is striving for historical authenticity of the rendezvous period, 1825-1840, many of the items are hand crafted. Denison explains that this plays perfectly into the artistic minds of him and other reenactors.

He remembers spending eight hours making a beautifully tailored fork, a minor convenience of a large campsite.

It's not only making the bits of history, but living history for either the weekend or up to a whole week that puts Denison in the interesting position of studying history through trial and error making him a unique historical archeologist.

"Historical archeology: to see if it's possible. You can verify, true, false, good idea bad idea," says Denison.

All of this tinkering with history has gone a long way to help him manufacture his guns. He describes his early years at the rendezvous where he competed and won shoots, because of his ambition, hard practicing and sharp eyes.

However, when he would go up against the "bid dogs," he would lose because they had better guns than him and practiced just as hard and were just as good a shot as him.

"So I kept on working on the guns that I had so I could make them better, shoot better, faster straighter," explains Denison.

Being an expert of the mountain man and aspiring to be one on certain weekends, he has a business card that says "professional mountain man." Denison has a deep filled admiration for their lifestyle.

As he talks about them wandering the American West, discovering new places, climbing mountains and crossing rivers his voice fills up with respect and tinge of envy of the freedom of the past heroes of the West.

As a child he remembers wanting to a rider on the Pony Express, a wiry young man with no ties and no obligations strapped to a wild stallion racing hard across the plains delivering the mail.

Although he never made it to the Pony Express, Denison did make it to the West and became a mountain man at least over the weekend.

"Some of it what I'm doing now I don't want to say it's a culmination of fantasy. Things kind of just fell into place for me to do this," admits Denison. "[But] I'm susceptible to the romance of it, absolutely."

The romance for Denison is freedom, an American freedom that he has seen respected all across the globe from his international customers.

Sharing a beloved quote, Denison leaned in with a spark in his eyes and said, "the Western American Mountain man is the last free man to walk on the earth."