Zimmers Hardware Store, Dodge City

[Delmonico]

Yes I meant Zimmermans, CRS again.  They supplied gear to a lot of the early hide hunters. 

Maybe I should explain what I'm trying to find and it coming our of Zimmermans would be best.  Got some friends, good folks, but somethimes I wonder about their research skills.  Anyway they are setting up a hide hunters type camp when they go out.  Since they can't find meantion anywhere of a buffalo hunter using a lantern, they have it in their heads that buffalo hunters did use coal oil (kerosene) lanterns in camp.  Of course it is well know that these lanterns were cheap in the post Civil War time period as well as the coal oil and most likely about every sod buster owned at least one and they were meantioned a lot as being used on cattle drives.

Now there a a couple of accounts of them adding buffalo tallow to a fire for more light, but heck I do that with lard all the time when I need a bit more light for a few minutes even with 2-3 coal oil lamps going.  Just can't see why anybody that spent the several hundred dollars that a buffalo hunting outfit cost would not include a couple of lanterns at about a buck apiece and a couple gallons of coal oil that sold for 'bout 10 cents a gallon.  They have a funny notion no matter how common something was, if someone didn't write about it, they didn't use it, a flawed idea among a lot of the Living History community.

What I want to do is find where Zimmermanns had a large stock of them since in that time period Dodge City's main bussiness with the hide hunters.  I want to see how they will explain a large stock of coal oil lanterns if buffalo hunters didn't use them.

I will check those links out and thanks.