Reasons Why Mountain Men Is Totally Fake

Publish date: 2024-05-06

Even before being approached to appear on Mountain Men, cast member Eustace Conway established a series of programs at his Turtle Island Preserve in Boone, North Carolina. There, Conway teaches visitors everything from hog killing to how to be your very own blacksmith. You know, the kinds of things superfans of wilderness reality TV shows can't wait to learn so they can feel as 'authentic' as the survivalists featured on TV. To get a better idea, check out the fan video above about Conway and his "education center and natural retreat."

The thing is, the programs Conway puts together for visitors are anything but cheap — the blacksmith workshop starts at $300 per person. Because of the popularity of Mountain Men, Conway is in an ever better position to use his fame to convince starry-eyed fans to try out a few of his workshops. If only one person took up the offer for everything available, he'd make hundreds of dollars. But as the grinning tourists in photographs demonstrate, he's likely made far more than that.

That's why it's interesting that the History Channel seems invested in portraying the exact opposite. His official Mountain Men bio even mentions Eustace Conway relying on a grassroots lumber operation to "secure his financial future." Nothing at all is said about the dozens of tourists handing over hundreds of dollars to be instructed on the fine art of animal hide tanning.

As for other cast members, thanks to agreeing to be filmed for the show, Reality TV Net Worth estimates that they're each worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, with cast member Kyle Bell's personal worth making him an actual millionaire. So much for roughing it.

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