WATERTOWN (AP) — The enigmatic character who roamed the Connecticut countryside for years has been brought back to life, at least in costume.

Local historian Florence Crowell, 92, has recreated the head-to-toe leather outfit worn by the legendary Old Leather Man as he wandered a circuit through western Connecticut and eastern New York in the late 1800s.

"It's a pretty authentic reproduction," Florence Crowell's son, Charles Crowell, said. "I think if I were to start walking down Main Street wearing it, people would be taken aback a little bit by it. It's really kind of creepy."

Charles Crowell said he wanted to experience the 60-pound garb the Leather Man wore day in and day out for more than 30 years. He replaced sections as they wore out in a patchwork of tanned animal flesh.

"It's just sort of a hands-on history experiment," Charles said.

He said he plans to wear the costume for a talk about the Leather Man with the Sons of the American Revolution in Florida and perhaps donate it to a museum.

He had no idea how to piece the outfit together, so he turned to his mother, who had made her own clothes for years.

"I never thought at my age I'd be doing anything like that," said Florence, who sewed the fabric together with strips of leather. "The Leather Man was really a character."

She said she started working on the project in July and is still completing the finishing touches. The costume comes with pants, jacket, hat and pouch. The Leather Man's original apparel was once on display in a museum, but it was lost when the museum burned down, Charles said.

Charles said he got the material for the costume from an old leather chair and sofa he had at his home in Florida.

The leather is hot to wear, Charles said, but it likely protected the Leather Man from vicious dogs. Charles said the Leather Man probably never washed the outfit. He walked hunched over, Charles noted, taking little steps that made the leather rub against itself and created a weird sound. The stench and the rubbing sound likely spooked horses and women as the Leather Man passed by, Charles said, but he was considered harmless.

In the late 1800s, thousands of tramps wandered the countryside, raiding orchards and fields, Charles said. The state passed laws banning the tramps, but authorities looked aside when the popular Leather Man passed through town.

"It was almost like a gimmick wearing the leather," Charles said. "That separated him from the others."

Local shops would give photos of the mysterious man to customers as gifts, Charles said.

The Leather Man typically walked about 10 miles a day, Charles said, passing through Watertown about once a month. He entered through Woodbury and exited over Frost Bridge into Thomaston. He rarely spoke, but he would stop at homes where he could get a free meal. Newspapers would report where he stayed and who fed him.

Toward the end of his life, the Leather Man used leather to cover a hole in his cheek that had been eaten away by cancer so he could eat, Charles said. The old man was found dead in the outfit in 1886. No one ever discovered his real name.

"You can let your imagination go in any direction you want with the story," Charles said.

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Information from: Republican-American, http://www.rep-am.com