Reece (Bear) Whitacre RIP | NWBA Announcements | Forum

We lost a long time member of the NWBA and a friend of mine.
Reece (Bear) Whitacre.

Bear has been fighting cancer for a while now and lost his battle.

He was always taking notes at the many blacksmith conferences and events and
had his own library of NWBA notes.

We also were members of the Northwest Civil War council (NWCWC). Bear built many cannons, including the Lew Scott gun at Ft. Stevens.
(see in the Hot Iron News 2003-3 below).

It is a replica, that can fire a black Powder charge. Originally the gun would fire 25 lbs of black powder, we would only fire around 6 ounces. It put out a lot of smoke and gave the spectators a good idea how it would have worked. Bear attached a spring to give the impression of a cannon recoiling. It put on a great show.

Bear also built replicas of the cannons found on the Oregon coast at Arch Cape.
They were displayed at Astoria Marine Museum, before they restored the originals.

He was a very creative and good person and will be missed.

See
Hot Iron News 2003-3
September 8th, 2003

Table of Contents
page 6 Defend the Columbia!
see
https://blacksmith.org/2003-3-hot-iron-news/#more-973.

Rest in Peace Bear.

Craig Flynn