Shelby Stanga is the star of the hit History Channel show Ax Men. This show chronicles his strange lifestyle as a swamp logger. He lives on a swamp surrounded by the most basic elements of nature. The show portrays this lifestyle of his, and has become quite a hit in recent times, which has led to Stanga being a kind of a television personality. He lives on a boat on the banks of the River Tangipahoa.

On his television appearances, he is more commonly known as the Swamp Man. Ax Men shows him and four other such swamp loggers from different places around the America.

Early Life

Not many details are known about Stanga’s early life, and there are no details about his birthday as well. According to wiki sources, he was born somewhere in 1960, which puts his age at around 56 years now. He is an American but there is no information on his birthplace or his early education, apart from the fact that he dropped school at the age of nine.

He is quite a tall man at around 6 feet, with a robust physique. He attributes his physique to facing the difficult challenges that are posed to him by his swamp life.

Starting Out as a Swamp Logger

He became known as a swamp logger at a very early age. After leaving school, he began visiting the swamps around his house frequently. Given his strong physique, people would request him to get wood from the swamps for payment. He obliged them and soon he was employed by a dredging company. His adventures in the swamps educated him about the area intimately.

When he was just sixteen, he accomplished a very difficult project of removing a cypress tree that had fallen into the swamp. He only used a boat, tubes, and ropes. This brought him to the notice of people and his career took off.

Expertise

Stanga is an expert at identifying wood. He knows the names of the botany of the swamp and can easily identify all kinds of wood and even retrieve them from the swamps. He has special expertise in identifying rare logs. He can also redeem logs from deterioration. Some of his biggest feats have been retrieving logs that are two to five millennia old.

Television Appearance

Stanga’s unique lifestyle was found worthy to be featured on History Channel’s Ax Men. He has featured in eight episodes of the show that were aired in 2013. These were widely watched and turned him into a famous television personality. He also received a handsome salary for the features on TV.

Personal Life

Stanga is married to a woman named Donna. He lives in the swamps around New Orleans on the River Tangipahoa in a boat. He sleeps on a log bed amidst the lap of nature. He owns 3.5 acres of property in the swamps.

His current net worth is not clearly known but it is believed to be somewhere in the vicinity of $400 thousand. Most of it has come from his experience of 37 years of logging and his appearances on the TV shows.