Fur trading days make a comeback at 4-H Center
Men made fortunes during those boom times. Few people realize that John Jacob Astor built his multimillion dollar empire by outfitting trappers and buying and selling animal pelts and hides. Fewer folks know that 13 of the 16 recognized rendezvous were held west of the Continental Divide.
Six of the gatherings took place in territory belonging to Mexico and six more at Horse Creek near what is now Daniel, Wyo. The sites were chosen to accommodate almost 2,000 men and were named for the site area.
Fast forward to the present day: the lost tradition gets reborn June 14-16 at The Furtakers of America Rendezvous at Evansville’s Vanderburgh 4-H Center. Trappers, traders and woodsmen will gather to conduct demonstrations of woodcrafting, trapping, hide preparation, root and herb identification, skinning techniques, nuisance animal control, predator calling and much more.
Talk about reliving the glory days! Evansville Indianna is having a three day rendezvous extravaganza to teach families and children all about the glories of beaver trapping – and no I’m not kidding. Tickets for all three days are 10 dollars each. That’s a bargain at twice the price! Remember that historic rendezvous combined some of the most dangerous, greedy men without social skills in an open space with gunfire and alcohol – you can see why they’d want a rerun to teach the kids about!
It was fur, not gold, that opened the American West.
After the United States acquired the massive Louisiana Purchase in 1803, fur trappers began banding together for sojourns into unknown territory. They risked their lives in quest of beaver pelts.
European fashion dictated that “gentlemen should wear top hats made only from beaver plews (pelts).” Europe soon ran out of beavers, so the task fell to American trappers to fill the orders. However, it was one thing to get the pelts and a different matter to sell them and obtain supplies without lengthy journeys back to civilization.
To solve the problem William Ashley staged the first Trapper-Trader Rendezvous in 1824 on the Green River near the Wyoming-Utah border. It was an uproarious success, and for the next 16 years trappers, traders, Native Americans and mountain men eagerly awaited these rowdy encounters.
Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate our greedy heritage of slaughter and unintended consequences! No word yet on whether Evanston plans to hold a similar ‘draught festival’ or corresponding ‘silent spring jubilee’ later in the year.
The general public is invited to join in the scheduled outdoor activities, games and crafts designed to interest children of all ages and women who are interested in participating in things like trap setting, turkey calling, knife sharpening and wildlife identification.
