An author and a musician, a boatbuilder and a carpenter, a deckhand and a dishwasher, Trapper Haskins has earned his keep in myriad ways since leaving school and his hometown of Memphis more than two decades ago.
In 2000 Trapper moved to Maine where he undertook a two-year apprenticeship learning traditional wooden boatbuilding in Rockland. Once finished, he took a rowboat he built 2,300 miles down the Mississippi River. Haskins wrote about the experience in a memoir titled Crooked Old River, released in April of 2024.
In the years after his apprenticeship, Trapper followed work opportunities and his own fervent curiosity from New York to New Orleans and from the mountains of North Carolina to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula before returning to Tennessee. There he maintains a custom woodworking business while continuing to write, record, and perform under his own name.
Haskins is a type 1 diabetic, a diagnosis which keeps health and wellness at the forefront of his mind. He is a triathlete with several Half-Ironman finishes. He has canoed and documented the length of the Harpeth River in Middle Tennessee, and he has cycled the entire 444 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway. Trapper is also active in the vintage base ball community (the national pastime under 1860s rules). In 2013 he co-founded the Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball to promote the historic game in his home state.
His writing has appeared in national publications including Sports Illustrated, WoodenBoat, and American Songwriter.
Get Trapper's book Crocked Old River on Amazon
Follow Trapper on all the usual social media @TrapperHaskins
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Hosted by Michael J. Reinhart
True stories of adventure and exploration as told by those who lived them.
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