Have you heard of Tom Oar?
Many people dream of leaving civilization and going to live in a beautiful forest or natural area, but few have the courage or the know-how to do so. Tom Oar is one such person who made the breakthrough and inadvertently rose to fame through the History Channel reality TV series he starred in, “Mountain Men”.
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Education and early career of Tom Oar
Tom’s exact date of birth is unknown, but we know that he was born in 1943 in northern Illinois, USA, so he is now around 77 years old. His parents were Chike Oar and Mary Jane Crellin and he has one brother, Jack Oar. His father worked on the Wild West Shows which ran until 1920, but like many of these participants he retired at an early age. Ever since he was a young boy, it had been Tom’s dream to rodeo.
From the age of 10, he practices on steers running in the chutes. He also rode carousels and worked with horses until he was 15, around the time his father and brother left the rodeo circuit. Still, Tom grabbed the bull by the horns and pursued his dream. In his early twenties, he rode the circuit and made eight international rodeo finals in his 16 years with the IRA (Interstates Rodeo Association). It was a time he remembers as a “fun life”.
Tom Oar’s family
Tom and his wife Nancy have been married for about 40 years. They have a son, Chad, and a daughter, Keelie, who was born in 1996 but sadly passed away in 2015 in Florida. From her Facebook page, it was evident that she was proud of her father’s accomplishments on the television series and she and her brother, Chad, appeared in episodes from time to time.
Chad is divorced and has two children – his son, Tanner, also appeared on the show. Chad has reconnected with his high school girlfriend, Kim Burnette, and both train horses and own Carriage Tours of Ocala, Marion County, Florida.
How did Tom and Nancy Oar end up in the mountains?
The 25 years of riding broncs and 18 years of riding bulls took their toll on Tom, with leg injuries causing permanent damage, so he had no choice but to leave the circuit.
At this point, when Tom and Nancy realized the rodeo days were over, the Illinois couple moved to Troy, Montana, where they had made friends by attending summer rodeos. The couple bought an acre and a half of land in the remote Yaak Valley in far northwest Montana, about four miles from the British Columbia border. The regional center of Yaak has only about 280 inhabitants.
The Oars moved to their property near the peaceful Yaak River in the middle of the lush Kootenai National Forest in the early 90s and lived in a small log cabin while they built their own log home. They had purchased a chainsaw in Illinois for this task, and it took them five years to build their house. For the first 17 years in Montana, they had no electricity, no technology, no running water. Later they got cable TV.
This self-sufficient lifestyle is not for the faint-hearted, as there is a lot of hard work to do to survive. The nearest grocery store is about 80 km away and they had to hunt, collect and grow their own food. Each long winter, they battled the harsh mountain elements and predators.
When they moved to Montana, Tom began to learn the art of tanning animal hides, an art passed down from American Indians 200 years ago.
The process is difficult and time consuming, but the end product is far superior as the leather becomes as soft as cloth, prevents sweat as the skin can breathe through it and is much more comfortable to wear than leathers made in trade.
Tom tans the skins and he and Nancy hand sew the custom clothing and moccasins throughout the winter. Tom’s work is highly sought after and he is known as one of the most skilled tanners still working in the United States. Tom also makes primitive bows and knives. When summer comes, they dress in their finest buckskin clothes and head to town, where they sell their wares on the go, reminiscent of the days of the fur trade of the 1840s.
How Tom Oar Became Part of ‘Mountain Men’
Tom says mountain wildlife isn’t for everyone, but he and Nancy lived peacefully off the grid, surrounded by natural beauty until their lives took a turn.
Their neighbor, Tim Linehan, hosted the TV show “Trout Unlimited” for six years, and when Warm Springs Productions had the idea to film people who lived off the land in remote, rugged wilderness, he suggested they approach Tom.
Tom’s audition included a day followed by a film crew, at the end of which they considered him a good match for the reality series.
“Mountain Men” premiered on the History Channel on May 31, 2012, starring Tom, Eustace Conway who lived in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and Marty Meierotto from Two Rivers, Alaska. Later, the show included Rich Lewis, a mountain lion hunter residing in Ruby Valley, Montana, Morgan Beasley who lives in the Alaska Range, Jason Hawk who is in the Ozarks, Arkansas, and others. joining in subsequent seasons.
Tom, the white-bearded, soft-spoken mountain man with his cowboy hat and bright light blue/green eyes, seems to be one of the most popular actors and has received a lot of positive feedback from the viewers. . From its launch until the final season ended in May 2019, Tom has appeared in over 110 episodes.
Film crews descended on Tom’s property one week a month, every six months of the year. He claims that nothing much changed as he would continue doing what he normally does while they were filming him. However, the buckskin clothing and primitive weapons he made became so popular that it was impossible to keep up with orders. The film crews fell on hard times, like the three-day hunt in which they followed Tom while carrying their heavy camera gear.
The reality series featured Tom in his old Dodge pickup, fishing in his canoe or driving his snowmobile through deep snow, setting traps and going about his daily business. Nancy has also featured frequently on the show. At times, Tom has been seen performing perilous deeds such as chasing dangerous wolves away from his property, hunting caribou, tackling menacing grizzly bears, and battling fires that could have ravaged their home. One of the most difficult challenges for the Oars was to fight to survive the long, freezing and unrelenting winters.
His co-star, Eustace Conway, was the subject of Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2002 book, “The Last American Man.”
Eustace calls his property Turtle Island and welcomes guests whom he teaches basic survival skills and tries to inspire them to abandon their material way of life and return to a natural life.
Tom Oar’s net worth
In the early years of his mountain life, Tom made his living by trapping and selling tanned hides. When the fur industry declined, the Rowers struggled to make ends meet. Although their way of life was simple, they benefited from the income they received from the “Mountain Men”. They also made up to $4,000 on each date, and then Tom also made money selling his custom knives and bows. According to valid sources, Tom’s skills, resilience and television appearances have earned him a net worth of over $200,000.
What happened to Tom Oar?
He retreated to the mountains to escape modern life, so it’s no surprise he isn’t found on social media and doesn’t have a website.
I look at my #MountainMen Marathon @FOR YOUR INFORMATION #TomOar I learned so much from this man and from Nancy. #The best of shows #Season 4 #Those who have fallen 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙 pic.twitter.com/Sqn3KjwSQx
— Jasmine aka Jazzy 😍👑💜 (@J4Keepz) September 29, 2019
While Tom’s daughter Keelie was alive, she was trying to convince her parents to move to Florida. In fact, in one of the first episodes, Tom and Nancy go to visit a retirement community in Florida, but decide at this point that this lifestyle isn’t for them.
However, as the years passed, the threatening wolf packs became more and more of a problem, and Nancy grew concerned that Tom was checking the trap lines; inevitably, his age made it difficult to maintain a ruthless lifestyle. Tom had also complained about how, since the show had grown in popularity, their privacy was constantly invaded by intruding visitors who wanted to meet them and take pictures.
When the History Channel launched the eighth season and Tom was not featured, rumors swirled that Tom had retired, but he then appeared in the second and some of the following episodes, so it was obvious he chose to take longer breaks from the series.
Tom Oar spends his life doing what he loves. SHARE if you dream of doing the same. #MountainMen
Posted by Mountain Men on Friday, September 20, 2013
He admitted, “We can’t keep doing this forever” and that “Florida is a much better alternative.” He had also said that, even if they moved to Florida for the winters, he wouldn’t want to get rid of their house in Montana and that they would go there in the summer. It also seems like Tom values his fans and would actually like to retain some of his celebrity status. He has made a few public appearances, such as in February 2019 when he met at the Western Virginia Sport Show in Fishersville, Virginia.
The latest information is that the ninth season will be launched in early June 2020, and the information is that Tom will be part of it, so he and Nancy have not chosen to live a quiet life away from the rigors of the winter mountains. life and reality TV, but maybe a little bored of their (supposedly) quiet life.
