Lessons Learned

 

Our first rendezvous was at the Cache Valley Rendezvous a decade or so ago. We had preregistered and were determined. The day was cloudy, with a “chance” of rain. We traveled an hour up to Brigham City where you enter the mountains and it started raining; no, poring. By the time we got up to the rendezvous it was raining to the point visibility was degrading by the minute. We had a small 6’x6’x3’ tall open trailer pulled by a minivan. We had all four of our very young children, and because our friends hadn’t made it up there yet, we didn’t know anyone. A spot was picked, Rhonda and I told the two youngest not to get out of the car. Our oldest two might have been four feet tall. As soon as we got out of the car we were soaked, all of the way thru. Still determined, we started setting up our tent for the first time; I had an idea of how it was supposed to work but no working knowledge. It took over an hour to set up that tent and fly and it was also soaked.

Once the tent was up we took out all of the gear placing it under the fly and set up our beds and stove. Thank goodness for that stove inside the tent! By now the kids had been in the car for about three hours and to say the least restless. They went straight into the tent. We had our two dogs; one a golden retriever the other a blue healer. We changed our clothes, ate something, and even though it wasn’t dark we went to bed because it was getting very cold. I woke up twice to find the healer had taken my blanket and the retriever was found the next morning buried inside the foot of one of the kid’s sleeping bags. We had arranged our beds trying our best to avoid the drips and we awoke to find six inch icicles hanging on the inside of the tent. It had snowed, down to about twenty feet above us on the mountain, so I got back into bed for a while.

Within a couple of hours the sun came up over the mountains and a beautiful day began. Everything dried out by noon. We had so much fun, and made friends that have lasted through the years!

What I learned: always plan for the worst, always set your tent up at least once before going to camp, and rendezvous is one of my favorite places on earth!

Romance

During the days of the fur trade, men, sometimes just barley; felt a need to remove themselves from society seeking the opportunity for self-sufficiency, some seeking adventure, some riches. They spent months to years away from basic comforts and interaction with others.

We watch television shows with survivalists who portray their version of modern survival in the outdoors while surrounded by forty plus producers off screen orchestrating every move. For the trapper every day of the year was survival. They may go a week or more without food if there were not any animals around, and definitely so if they couldn’t set a good trap or shoot straight. They didn’t spend a weekend overnighter sleeping as if on a dare in a competition to see who would hold out the longest in the snow.  There were no stores where they could go replace some piece of equipment. The mountain man had to do it for himself or die; no other options. They could be attacked at any moment by animals or an Indian brave. All they had was what they could carry on themselves and maybe a horse and that had to last.

That’s where the Rendezvous came in. Rendezvous were set up by fur companies so that they could collect furs the trappers had collected throughout the year. This was how the trapper got paid, and this gave them just enough money to buy supplies to last them through the next year. It was a time to catch up with old friends. Not necessarily the kind of friend you have because of lengthy time spent together, but friends you might only see once a year and the only thing you have in common is kindness and respect. It was about celebrating having lived through the dangers of the outdoors in the last year and seeing that others you know have too. Of course there was partying.

Reenacting is all about taking a step back into time. It’s an opportunity to advance ones talents, to learn new skills. It’s about taking a moment to contemplate those who went before providing the life we enjoy today.  It’s about being good neighbors, making friends. The true reenactor takes pride in doing things the way it was done in the period they are portraying.

Today true reenacting gets confused with role playing organizations who dress like characters out of a fantasy novel, or create makeshift armor outfits out of modern material made for a day at the park where untrained individuals pummel each other; or dance out in the desert burning effigies. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these events, they have their place, but in my opinion this is not reenacting. I know these statements will offend a few people, that’s ok. The reality of it is, todays rendezvous have their inherent inaccuracies. Large set ups like mine would only have belonged to the fur companies who had legions of horses and men to carry supplies. We eat food that has to be cooled in order to keep it safe. You’ll be hard pressed to find a rendezvouser sleeping on the hard ground with nothing but a blanket. But most of us take great care in coming as close as possible in creating an atmosphere of the past.

What makes a bunch of fully grown men and women want to spend a week, out in the weather?  Often in rain, snow, or intense heat, without the modern conveniences of modern life? Quoting from J.W “Doc” Carlson in his article in The Book of Buckskinning: “You must ‘feel’ buckskinning”,” there is a kinship with those that lived this type of life years ago, a kinship with the old values of our country and its greatness.”

I love it when I can walk through camp, seeing nothing from the modern world ruining the experience. I love watching the sun come up over the crest of the mountain after a cold night, warming the wet canvas with steam rising as it dries out. I love sitting by the fire warming up while making a friend. I love walking around on a dark night seeing the orange glow of tents lit by the fires inside. The scent of black powder smoke is almost as good as the smell of a fire cooked meal. Every time I get into my gear at home I spend a moment breathing in the scents of rendezvous which makes me yourn for the next one.

 

 

Where To Start?

Buy the book "The Book of Buckskinning Vol. 1", this is the single best place to get educated about Mountain Man reenacting!

It was tax time. I had a return coming. I knew that we all wanted to go to a rendezvous and camp period style. So we had family council. I told the kids that we had a choice; we could take the money that was coming and go to Disney Land once or buy equipment for Rendezvous and be able to camp many times. Surprisingly it didn’t take a lot of convincing, the choice was unanimous, and we were going to rendezvous. We really didn’t have a lot of money so where did we start? First I bought a tent from Red Hawk Trading Company. There are a few period tent makers but I am loyal to Red Hawk. We have had our tent now for years and it’s still as strong as when we started. I bought a bakers style tent with a large 15 feet fly for shade. I went big because we had a big family and I wanted room for visitors, but if it’s just you, or you and a friend, you really don’t need much more than a couple canvases to make a lean-to. Mountain men in all reality typically didn’t have a large set up; they were transient, trapping until they weren’t catching any beaver any more then moved on to the next pond or river. After the rendezvous the year before with 90°+ weather I figured a fly was important. Next I bought a steel fire pit from one of the traders I met the year before. Most places won’t let you build a fire on the ground anymore, so you need something off the ground. I arranged for the both traders to bring the tent and stove to me at rendezvous so it would be there when I got there and I didn’t have to pay for shipping. I already had something to cook in, a 12” Dutch oven. We found some wood handled silver wear, a few enamel covered tin plates and cups, and a few metal utensils that looked old fashioned, at the local thrift store it cost us about 10 bucks. I found a couple of Dietz oil lanterns; they actually started making these in the late 1800’s but are generally accepted in the rendezvous. Some of the more serious events do not allow anything non-period but for most these lanterns work just fine. You will hear some say that candles are more period. I think this is silly. A candle only last so long and it could be a year or more before a mountain man could trade for more. How many candles do you think they would carry and how many would it take to get through a year? If anything fire was their only light.

Shelter √, fire √, food prep √, light √, now I needed clothes.

While at the thrift store I found several pairs of flat front corduroy pants for me and the boys; corduroy was a common fabric in the 1800’s but they didn’t have pockets on the outside to I took the back pockets off to be more period. We found some skirts and dresses made from calico fabric for Rhonda and our girl. Calico fabric was very common during the 1970’s and 80’s and has been around ever since and maybe before the 1800’s. Very few of us can buy all the leather it takes to make period clothes all at once, so greenhorns usually dress the way country folk would dress during that period. We brought old leather shoes to finish the look.

The hardest thing to find away from rendezvous was finding period shirts for the boys and me. I did my homework and found a pattern. They are all over the internet for purchase. I then asked my mom to teach me to sew. I made two shirts for me and one for each of the boys. Rendezvousing is all about doing it for yourself.

How did you start up?

The Opportunity

I had wanted to rendezvous for a while but just didn’t know how to get started or talk my wife Rhonda into it. I had worked on craft projects for fun and made a period knife from a Green River knife blank and an elk knee bone; I made a latigo sheath using furniture tacks to decorate it.

Our young family was on our way home, I don’t remember from where but off the freeway at the local reservoir there was a rendezvous. Of course I had to stop. We visited the trade tents and in comes an older fellow with a long beard, full buckskins, and all the regalia. I wanted to look just like him, excepting a beard; I’ve never been able to grow one. I bought a beaded rosette with the little money I had, went home, found some leather and made a new medicine bag.

I got a job working as a drafter and my co-drafter and I became friends quickly. He had wanted to rendezvous and beat me to it. He and his family were friends with a family that had been rendezvousing for some time. They invited us to come up to camp and have dinner with them. The night was warm, the old style lanterns were lit, and we sat around a bright fire eating his Dutch oven masterpiece. Later they invited us to camp with them. We were in the habit of camping anyway, and we wanted to attend, so we packed our modern camping equipment and headed out to Cache Valley Rendezvous in May.

There is one thing you should know about this rendezvous, it almost always rains and you usually get one or more cool days. This was the exception it was hot, real hot, high 90s to 100s. We camped in the “tin teepee” area. Many rendezvous have an area set aside, away from the main rendezvous area, where people can setup there modern gear or camping trailers. Each day we would walk down the hot and extremely dusty road about ¾ of a mile to where our friends were camped. Side note: I hadn’t met my friends family yet, as soon as our camp was set up I left my wife and kids to go find my friends camp. It was a bit of a walk to the rendezvous so I decided to cross the river that divided modern camp from period camp. I went down through the brush and here are some kids, one of them, a young boy had a dead black dog by a hind leg and was trying to pull it out of the river. I told him he “probably shouldn’t be doing that” and left the grizzly scene. Eventually I found my friends and later found out it was my friend’s son that I had passed on the river, and he wasn’t very impressed by my story.

Rhonda, the kids and I spent the next four days running around camp. There were games for the kids and also craft projects. I shot my friends black powder rifles and threw the tomahawks. I don’t remember all that my wife did, but it seemed she was having a good time. My friends had a large canvas fly that provided great shade and even though it was miserably hot out it was nice in the shade. We had a lot of fun. As the camp went on Rhonda informed me that she wanted to camp in the period area at the next rendezvous. Wow, I couldn’t believe it, here was my opportunity. We had a great time even though my neighbors Coleman lantern fell and broke the glass which of course he blamed it on the kids, who had not been close to his camp; he wanted me to pay $50 so he could get a new globe. They are five bucks at Wal-Mart. He made stink about it and I told him to jump off.

Anyway it was fun, the kids loved it, Rhonda loved it, and I couldn’t wait to do it again, only the right way.

Cach Valley Rendezvous: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Man-Rendezvous-Reenactments-Rocky-Mountain-Region/146539856156?sk=messages_inbox&action=read&tid=id.385711374830579#!/pages/OEMM-Cache-Valley-Rendezvous/127071744027856

Why Mountain Man Reenacting?

I got my start as a Boy Scout. I loved camping, worked hard for my merit badges, and had great leaders. I eventually became a member of Order of the Arrow (OA). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_arrow

The Order's ceremonies and pledges are Native American themed. We made craft projects building Indian costumes to be used in OA events. My first project was a small medicine bag. It wasn't the pouch type you see so many reenactors wearing like mini purses around their necks. It was a small bundle of items that had personal significance. The items are wrapped in a piece of leather with a leather thong around the top holding it closed. Indians would wear items on their person that held power. They saw that nature had power that plants had power, and animals had power. By wearing these items they were able to capture a bit of that power which would strengthen their endeavors. This medicine bag did this for me. I do not believe in the same spiritualism the original Natives did, but, it led me to a lifelong interest and hobby.

Sometime during this time as an Arrowman I attended my first mountain man rendezvous. I was hooked. The smell of the smoke in the air, people dressed in period clothing, period lodges (tents) all created a time machine pulling me back to an era so easily romanticized. With the explosive growth of the Rocky Mountain fur trade in the 1800s, mountain men, who lived in the wilderness trapping and selling animal pelts, captured the American imagination. Years later I collected a few Items and began reenacting with my wife and kids. This time spent together is one of my greatest treasures.

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