The Wilderness Family

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The threads "contact with other homesteaders" and "update/contacts with other homesteaders" have made me think about the Wilderness Family. We love that video series and I have often wondered how the homesteading all progressed for the Robinson family over the years since the last video was produced.

I am wondering if the family stayed on the land, if the mom and dad are still? About a year ago I tried doing a search for an update on the family with no success. Anyone know how life has progressed for the Robinson family? I would sure like to know! After watching the videos over and over again with the boys, I felt like we knew them a bit...

Just wondering about how peoples' lives go...

Kelly

-- Kelly longing to live in the woods... (angelridgemom@ameritech.net), January 17, 2002

Answers

Hey we watched Mountain Family Robinson the other day. First time I had seen it. They shore make those wild animals look very friendly don't they? In this one part a bald eagle comes flying in and lands right next to them while they are shingleing the roof. I thought "Oh yeah, sure. I've lived in the country all of my life and have never had a wild eagle land on my house". Wild bears just take right up with the family and mind them when scolded. "Sure, right". Several different animals all bunched together not being on each others food list. "Yeah, right".

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), January 17, 2002.

I have the series also but I'm a little confused here ??!! Wasn't the Wilderness Family movies just fiction ?? I didn't think they were taken after a real life family. Let me know. I do have the paperback book also. It is almost word for word like the movie but it didn't say even there that is was a real life family. So....let me know again if this is for real. Many years ago MENS did a couple of months stories on homesteaders that were beginning their lives as such in the early 60's and what they were doing in the 80's. It was very interesting and I would be interested today to see how they are doing now. I remember in Countryside a couple of years ago they did a few stories on a family in Russia and what their lives were like. I always wondered what happened to them. Anyone know what I'm talking about here ?

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), January 17, 2002.

That was Hollywood and Disney at it's best or worst, whichever view you want. Remember Marty Stouffer? Most of his films used staged scenes. The animal trainers were off to one side, encouraging the "wild" animals to act.

Bald Eagles are common up here and are carrion eaters. Almost never see them in the summer, when there's plenty of fish to eat. In the winter, they fight over roadkill, with the crows, ravens, magpies, stellar jays and hawks. Whenever we lose a lamb, most assuredly to a coyote or wolf, the eagle is right there in the chow line.

Truth hurts and life is not a bowl of cherries. They're always a lemon in the bowl.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 17, 2002.


Helena,

Maybe I am confused and I'll have to pull out the first video to confirm, but I thought I was postive that this was the "media" account of this real family adventure...

I'll pull the video out after I feed the munchkins.

Imagine how stupid I will be feeling if I started this thread about a non-existent family...

Geeze~ hoping I don't have to turn red with embarrassment!

Kelly

-- Kelly longing to live in the woods... (angelridgemom@ameritech.net), January 17, 2002.


Don't feel bad Kelly. A lot of people have been "hoodwinked" into believing that animals are tame like in the movies. We often hear people ask us where the "real" animals are, not the ones we have. I usually tell them the real bears are munching on them.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 17, 2002.


I love these movies too. I make my nieces watch with me every couple years. Cheesy, but I like them. Anyone remember "Continental Divide" with Jim Belushi? That was fun. Similar non-threatening wild animals.

-- Anne (Healthytouch101@wildmail.com), January 17, 2002.

Hey Kelly, even if it turns out not to be about a real family; it sort of is anyway. How many of us wouldn't want to live where they did? That is definitely my dream homestead. "Old Samson", the bear, can stay outside though! Who wouldn't want a dog like "Crust"? We jokingly refer to him as "Crust the Wonder Dog" because he never gets hurt (too bad) and encounters all sorts of perils. Have a great day Kelly (and everyone else too)! To think all this time I thought I was the only one who appreciated that movie series (corny as it is).

-- Sharon (spangenberg@hovac.com), January 17, 2002.

Anne: That movie starred Blair Brown and was hokey but true, at least about the mating habits of the eagles.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 17, 2002.

I love those movies....I agree they are corny but I don't care. My family teases me about them. I remember watching them with my family as a kid growing up at the theatre...at least the first one. How many were there anyway? I have 3 of them and wonder if there are more that I don't have? (and need!!!!) I never heard that they were a real family. I hope so. And I hope they never gave up.

-- Jenny (auntjenny6@aol.com), January 17, 2002.

Well, I don't know if the family was real or just Disney, but Hubby and I once took a snowmobile tour near Crested Butte, CO. One place we went was to a beautiful isolated lake that was supposed to be where the film was made. Looked right...who knows?

-- Mona in OK (modoc@ipa.net), January 17, 2002.


Mona: That's Lake Irwin.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 18, 2002.

If that is Lake Irwin up high in the San Juan Mountains by Crested Butte then it get very very cold in the long long winters there.

Makes Denver & Chicago balmy by comparison.

-- Michael C (noemailon@webposts.com), January 20, 2002.


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