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Bruce Druliner has been connected to Palomar Mountain since his grandparents purchased their Rancho Palomar adobe hacienda in 1954. Bruce spent many boyhood days, during family visits to Palomar, roaming the forested woodlands and playing
"Cowboys and Indians" while riding a western saddle cinched to a sawhorse.
In 1972, Bruce moved permanently to Rancho Palomar engaging in various occupations such as caretaker for his grandparents, ranch hand on local cattle spreads, gardener and maintenance mechanic at Palomar Observatory and self-employed musician, singer and entertainer. During those early years Bruce attended many barn dances at the old Bailey Palomar Resort where he learned to teach and "call" square dances. His first musical group on Palomar was known as "Hangin' Judge Druliner's Square Dance Band" and this
ensemble evolved into the Smith Mountain Band.
In 1986, with the encouragement of many school teacher friends, Bruce created the
Mountain Man Living History Presentation. Since then he has performed hundreds of
programs all over the west for schools, libraries, museums, resorts, State and National Parks. Beginning in 2000 Bruce worked four summers as a Park Ranger at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site in western North Dakota. In 2005 he became a tour guide and historical interpreter for Old Fort Benton in Montana, a position he will reprise in '06. Bruce enthusiastically performs his jobs and programs using his lifetime of
experience gained through reading, researching and hands-on "experiential anthropology" actually living the lifestyle of his buckskin-clad heros, the historic Mountain Men!
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