We must be doing something right because the spammers have caught on to our new site and have heaped upon us offers for viagra and testosterone enhancers.

Phatwater Gauge at Natchez today is 21.25′, down from a year ago about 5.75′.

We sent out several shots of the Phatwater Bowie #V yesterday, and have had many requests to purchase the small revolver accompanying the knife in the shot. The suggested retail price of the revolver, which is rumored to have belonged to Jim Bowie, is $1,000,000.00.  Actually, that’s not true.  The pistol is an early ‘Tip Up’ Smith & Wesson revolver, possibly a Model One, which was not manufactured until twenty-one years after Gentleman Jim was slain, so it’s not likely to have belonged to him at all, given the circumstances which the timeline of history has thrust upon us.  I will take a million dollars for it, however.

The cigar is also for sale. You may purchase it, or one of similar construction, from Bartender J.D. Montgomery at the Under-The-Hill Saloon, following the Phatwater.

Fundraising has been hair raising this year but I want to thank each of you, again, who made a contribution to this web site back in April and May.  With this kind of power behind us, we will persevere.

Here’s a shot of the “touch mark” or “stamp” used by Terry Vandeventer on all his knives.

It is not actually a stamp, but rather, an electrochemical etching.  From time to time people ask me what it is meant to signify.

Terry Vandeventer, as many locals are aware, is a herpetologist and herpetoculturist.  A “snake man” in the vernacular of the day.  One of his abiding interests within this field has to do with pine snakes, of the genus Pituophis. This  genus includes not only pine snakes, but gopher snakes and bull snakes as well.

A Bull Snake In Western Oklahoma

Bull snakes found in Mississippi are found only in zoos and private collections.  Pine snakes are native to Mississippi; however, the only pine snake which occurs in Mississippi is the Black Pine Snake, Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi, which is found in the area around Hattiesburg.  Because Terry Vandeventer is an expert on the life history and ecology of this snake, which is listed as threatened and is protected by law, it is Terry’s objective to bring to the attention of our native human population the critical need to preserve not only the Black Pine Snake, but habitat of Black Pine Snakes as well. Thus, the “Touch Mark” on Terry’s knives depicts a Black Pine Snake, as a means of recognizing it as a native Mississippian, worthy of protection.

More later—KB