Tom Brown, Jr. (born January 29 1950) is a famous American naturalist. He is the author of numerous autobiographical nonfiction books, including The Tracker, and a series of Field Guides. His skills in this field and philosophy were taught to him by an Apache man, referred to as "Grandfather."

Biography

Brown was born on January 29, 1950 in Toms River, New Jersey, and graduated from Toms River High School in 1968. Brown claims that from the age of seven he was schooled in the arts of tracking, wilderness survival and awareness by an Apache elder and scout called Grandfather, or Stalking Wolf. Stalking Wolf died when Brown was 17. For the next ten years, Brown lived almost exclusively in the wilderness of the United States using few manufactured tools to survive.

When Tom Brown left the wilderness he knew so well, he set out to find people who were interested in the skills he had developed through first-hand experience with nature. He met with little success, but eventually he was called on to locate a missing person, and since then he has been widely known as "the Tracker." Building upon this reputation, Brown developed his profession as a full-time tracker by locating lost persons, dangerous animals and fugitives from the law.

Tracker School

Tom Brown's Tracking, Nature and Wilderness Survival School is located in New Jersey. Most classes offered by Tracker School are held in 'Primitive Camp' which is located in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. However, classes are also offered in California and Florida. The school teaches wilderness skills and emphasizes a natural way of living.

All students that attend Tracker School begin with the 'Standard' class, which serves as a foundation for future, more advanced skills to be built upon. Standard class involves instruction in knife handling and safety, carving, building a primitive shelter, safe procurement and treatment of water, various fire-making techniques such as bowdrill, mouth-drill and hand-drill, making cordage (rope) from natural materials, trap-building, flint-knapping, camouflage, stalking, brain tanning, cooking, plant studies, throwing stick handling, awareness and of course, tracking. Tracking is broken up into two main sections: pressure release studies and sign tracking. While both pressure releases and sign tracking are self-sufficient disciplines, they complement each other well.

Books and film

Brown has written 17 books to date. Brown's first book (The Tracker, published in 1978) chronicled his coming of age under Stalking Wolf's tutelage. Reader's Digest ran a condensed version of the story and printed information about Brown's new Tracker School. Later books include Grandfather, The Way of the Scout, and a series of wilderness field guides.

His first audio book "Grandfather," was released in September, 2007.

Other books include: Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival, Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking, Tom Brown's Field Guide to Living with the Earth, Tom Brown's Field Guide to City and Suburban Survival, Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants, Tom Brown's Guide to Nature and Survival for Children, and Tom Brown's Field Guide to the Forgotten Wilderness. In addition to the field guides, he has written The Science and Art of Tracking, The Vision, The Quest, The Journey, Grandfather, Awakening Spirits, The Way of the Scout, The Tracker, The Search, and Case Files of the Tracker.

Brown was also the technical adviser for the film The Hunted starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro.

Controversies and corroborations

Tom Brown himself is the main source of all his stories. His abilities seem fantastic at times; his tracking skills go beyond what other professional trackers think is possible. Many doubt his claims that he can, for example, detect a person suffering from a cold based on their tracks, or to tell from tracks when an animal has a full stomach or needs to urinate. His explanation of these techniques in The Science and Art of Tracking often points to minute details, a number of which are difficult if not impossible to see.

There also may be little independent documentation in print on Rick (Brown's childhood friend who died at a young age), on Stalking Wolf (a Native American who was quite solitary and of whom there is only one photograph), or on Brown's lone adventures away from society. There is also an error in Tom's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking when it depicts a porcupine as having 5 toes on its front foot when in fact it has only 4. This same mistake appears in Olaus Murie's classic Peterson Field Guide to Animal Tracks. Additionally, his categorization of animal gaits into "diagonal walkers", "pacers", "bounders", and "gallopers" is simplified, when any given animal can have various gaits, depending on if it is stalking, walking, running, and so on.

A major difficulty with the errors and inconsistencies in Tom Brown's stories and books is his use of a teaching style he calls "Coyote Teaching". One of the main elements of this teaching style is to lead students on a path that will teach them a deeper lesson. The classic example from his books is Grandfather advising him to make a bowdrill fire from green oak. After extreme yet fruitless efforts, he tried with a dry wood and had instant success, the lesson being that perfect form is more important than instant success. The problem with this teaching method is that Tom can never be caught in a lie or making a mistake because it could always be a "Coyote Teaching".

Tom's brother, Dr. Jim Brown, the Dean of Science, Engineering, Health Sciences and Human Performance at Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey, and Chairman of the Board of the New Jersey Public Health Association, verifies his brother's biography:

I remember Tommy taking me into the Pine Barrens when I was about seven, Tommy was ten. He perfected the art of 'deer smacking.' Tommy would slowly stalk up on a deer and smack it in the backside. It was truly spectacular to see. He would take nearly a half hour to slowly approach the deer. Tommy was amazing in the woods! He also fashioned a bone knife and killed a large buck with it, dragged it home and brain tanned the hide just as the Native Americans did. He actually wore the buckskins to Toms River High School despite the fact that they had a strict dress code at the time. It was like growing up with Daniel Boone!

Tommy was probably the most amazing person I have ever met. As a younger brother I worshiped Tommy as all younger brothers do to their older brothers. I disliked Rick (Tom's friend) who at the time I felt, took Tommy away from me. Rick didn't like having me around when they were off on one of their adventures. Looking back this is quite a normal part of growing up. Tom had his friends and I had mine." Jim was very close to their maternal grandfather, William McLaughlin who died in 1960 and spent his spare time working with the homeless. "I resented Tommy calling Stalking Wolf 'grandfather' when our own grandfather had recently died. I didn't realize then what a wonderful impact he would have on Tommy's life. Tommy was close to Stalking Wolf, I was close to our maternal grandfather, it turns out they both had tremendous impacts on our lives. Stalking Wolf opened the world of nature to Tommy whereas "Grandpa" opened the world of public health to me."

Tom's first book, The Tracker, is used in both elementary schools and in middle schools as a reader. "Tom was a true environmentalist before people even knew what Earth Day was. Tom learned to live in peace and harmony with nature and not the style of survival that you see today as reality TV. I think this is the compelling reason people see something very different and unique in Tom.

Jim Brown jokes that he may have his Ph.D. in Microbiology, but Tom has his Ph.D. in "the wilderness." "The world of nature is Tom's classroom, and Tom is the finest teacher I have ever met!"

Ocean Township Police Lt. Scott Sprague, who worked with Tom in 2003 to successfully find a missing boy, says of Brown:

Have you watched him (Brown) do this? You watch him and you say to yourself, "This guy is trying to pull the wool over my eyes. There's no tracks on the pavement to see. Who does he think he's kidding?" Yet, he was able to do in two hours what nine cops, a bloodhound and a guy in a helicopter could not do in twice that time.

Trivia

Tom Brown and his tracker school were featured briefly on Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.

References

External links

• The Tracker School site
• Tracker Trail website: Comprehensive and largest source of information about Tom Brown Jr on the internet (interviews, controversies etc.)
• Old Site of the Tracker School (circa 1999)

In the Media:

• Mother Earth News article on the Tracker School
• CBS News 6 December 2006
• CBS News 24 June 2005

Articles Written by Tom for Mother Earth News:

• Shelter (Issue 71, 1981)
• Water (Issue 72, 1981)
• Fire (Issue 73, 1982)
• Hunting & Traps (Issue 74, 1982)
• Edible Plants (Issue 75, 1982)
• Survival Cooking (Issue 76, 1982)
• Animal Tracking (Issue 77, 1982)
• Making Natural Cordage (Issue 79, 1983)
• Be a Back-to-Basics Bowyer (Issue 87, 1984)
• Basic Skills & Lost Proofing (Issue 93, 1985)
• Advanced Survival Shelters (Issue 95, 1985)