A Man and His Toothpick

If you're from Texas, I know you heard from Jim Bowie. If you're from anywhere else, there's a decent chance you've heard of him, but you probably don't know much about him. But, most of you have probably heard of the Bowie Knife, sometimes called an Arkansas Toothpick, and it is for Jim Bowie that it's named. But, that is really just the tip of the iceberg for 'ol Jim.

I've always thought of Jim Bowie like a bit of a Han Solo figure. He was always the baddest dude in a fight, and was most likely one step ahead of everyone else. He moved around a lot; Tennessee, Louisiana, Mexican-owned Texas. Oh yeah, and he loved him some money and was always looking for ways to go make it. However, most of the ways he went about making money were rather unsavory. He was a land speculator. He was a slave smuggler. He even went so far as to partner up with a pirate in an effort to bring slaves into the US (after the slave trade had been barred). Bowie and his brother made a pretty penny off of this illegal venture and used it to fund their land dealings.

Now, as I mentioned, Bowie was pretty good with that knife that bears his name. He was involved in this scuffle called the "Sandbar Fight" and while he took his licks, he made sure he put a lot more on everyone else there. The funny thing about this deal, it started as a duel between two people. The two participants actually missed each other after firing, so they shook hands, and appeared to be moving on. Then, however, supporters of both participants began to fight each other, and eventually, people were turning the wrath on Bowie (most likely because, again, he was an unsavory land speculator that forged documents to obtain land he never actually owned). No matter, though, Bowie did his thing. Killed some guys and walked away. Seriously, go read about the Sandbar fight. His weapon of choice during this ordeal? His knife, the aforementioned Arkansas Toothpick.

Eventually, Bowie moved to Texas, did a little land speculation there, but ultimately married a woman and settled down. The woman he married was the daughter of a prominent local Mexican politician, which helped bolster his popularity among the Mexican population in Texas. Anyway, as Texas decided to fight Mexico for its independence, Bowie enlisted to help the cause, which is how he wound up at the Alamo at the wrong time. He was posted up there throughout the entire siege, but he ended up battling an illness which left him unable to leave his bad for days at a time. It was in his bed that he died when the Mexican Army, commanded by form H-POD subject, General Santa Anna, stormed and overtook the Alamo in March of 1836.

So, that's a little bit about Jim Bowie. The 2004 film "The Alamo" with Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Quaid did a pretty good job of portraying Bowie, (played by Jason Patric) if you're interested in that sort of thing. Anyway, all of this is just a small part of Bowie. He lived a pretty complicated but never dull life, too much to write in detail about on this blog. That's why they write books. So, I encourage, at least google Bowie and read a little more about him.