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Texas Free Trappers Rendezvous XIII info
Friends of TFT,
We announce some changes that are being made in the hope of improving the quality of the event and boost attendance. As you can imagine, the cost of putting on a first class event is not low. For most of us the prizes are not the real reason we rendezvous, but the re-creation of a unique American and Western piece of history, the fur trade rendezvous of 1825-1840.
All of you know that competitors must be members of the White Smoke Company of Buckskinners, Inc. The club has three divisions, Texas Free Trappers, Fritztown Free Trappers and the White Smoke Brigade. FFT has rendezvous on the second weekends of March and October; TFT has rendezvous on the second weekend of April and November; WSB has black powder matches on the fourth Saturday of each month. All four rendezvous will be at the La Vernia site for the foreseeable future and WSB matches are on private land on Highway 306, east of Canyon Lake.
That being stated, we are going to have the same $15 entry fee for TFT rendezvous competitors. In addition, there will an opportunity to re-enter each event. A re-entry fee of $2 will let you make an attempt to better your score. The score of the last event entered will be your score, so if you do worse on the re-entry you can re-enter one more time….event schedules and daylight permitting.
As before, each event will have a First Place prize winner with the number of additional Second and Third Place prizes determined by the number of entries; the more entries the more prizes.
Guns must be loaded with black powder or a substitute for black powder. No smokeless powder blends are permitted. Only patched round balls may be used.
Smoothbores used in smoothbore matches may not have a rear sight.
Tomahawks must be of traditional design with blades no longer than 4 inches.
Knives must be of traditional design and no longer than 13 inches.
I was contacted by a family in Iowa that cooks breakfast, fry bread and Indian tacos at rendezvous and bike rallies that will be setting up at Rendezvous XIII as a “trial run” in this area. I had great success with a similar operation at two of my Taos Free Trappers rendezvous in New Mexico. You might become an addict of fry bread and Indian tacos like I am. We will try to teach them to make breakfast tacos. This is their webpage: www.crazyladyscafe.com
Members of Celtaire String Band, a group that plays at Texas Revolution events, and other places, is planning to join us Saturday to get introduced to rendezvous and regale us with some period music at Council Fire.
Our good friend, David Sutherland, the bagpiper who lives in La Vernia is invited too.
We asking any serious buckskinner in our group to study up on a character from the fur trade and entertain us at Council Fire with a true story (or tall tale) from the life in the Shin’ Mountains.
In closing, I also ask you to participate in all of the Council Fire activities and show some appreciation to the folks who make a presentation or perform period music with the goal of bringing the fur trade era back to life. These programs are for your entertainment as well as knowledge and are not available at many rendezvous.
Keep an eye on the horizon . . .
Grey Wolf, Bushwah
wolfbear@gvtc.com
830-935-3121
More details are available on the Events page.
Rendezvous News – WHITE SMOKE COMPANY OF BUCKSKINNERS
Greetings!
When I say “Rendezvous News”, I mean to say there is a LOT of new stuff going on!!!
The first news announcement you may know about by now. The White Smoke Brigade, Texas Free Trappers, and the Fritztown Free Trappers have all combined to form the WHITE SMOKE COMPANY OF BUCKSKINNERS, INC. We are now a non-profit organization. We did this in order to be able to get liability insurance for our events. You will also notice that we have our very own club email address!
The second big news concerns the dates for our rendezvous. If you are a Fritztown Free Trapper, listen up! ALL rendezvous’ will be on the SECOND weekend of the month. This means the October event will be on the 9th-10th-11th. If you have to schedule vacation time way in advance, keep this in mind. Fritztown rendezvous’ will be the 2nd weekend of March and October. Texas Free Trapper rendezvous’ will be the 2nd weekend of April and November.
Also, the October rendezvous will be held at La Vernia – NOT in Fredericksburg on the Sagebiel property. We spoke to David Sagebiel (Big Chief) after the March event and decided that since he has not been able to burn any of the cedar (and he has cut down more) that it would be best to move the rendezvous to another location. The good news is Big Chief has taken the property off the market so we can continue to use it in the future………..if Central Texas EVER gets any rain!!!
If you have never been to the La Vernia site, shame on you…..but you will have the opportunity to check it out on Saturday – August 29th!! That’s when we have scheduled our “Work Day”……. and yes, we realize it will be hotter n hell at the end of August, but that is when it has to be so at this point Justeve and I are down on our knees BEGGING for volunteers to come out and help us get the property ready for rendezvous! IronBurner has been busy this summer building another hooter (Taj Mah Stal) that will need to be assembled on site. Grey Wolf needs help setting up a new shooting line, including moving targets. Justeve will be setting up new hawk and knife blocks, and the Archery walk. If you have one, bring a leaf rake, loppers for cutting small branches, and gloves. A weedeater might also be nice to have on site.
We will meet on site at 9:00 a.m. and if enough wonderful volunteers show up, we can get through with everything and then relax with a cold one! If you can help, but have never been to the La Vernia site, send an email to this address and we will email you a map. We need your help to make this rendezvous possible.
I will be sending out info about the October rendezvous right after Labor Day, but you can volunteer now to help run an event!
Hope to see a bunch of you on Saturday, August 29th!
– Kathy (Hummingbird) Boyd
For more information, contact Hummingbird at txwscb@yahoo.com
Fire Ban for TFT Rendezvous IX
Buckskinners!
There is a fire ban in effect in Wilson County (and others).
Big John is trying to get dispensation for the hog roasting fire.
Bring stoves for cooking and candle lanterns for Council “Fire”, and maybe fuel lanterns with dimming control.
It’s supposed to rain lightly for a couple of days then turn beautiful again.
I went to the site yesterday to drop off 12 hawk blocks. We will try hard to get a Knife & Hawk Walk set up on Thursday.
Stay below the horizon…….shinin’ times are a comin’
– Grey Wolf and the Brigade
Rendezvous IX promo
Folks are invited to join Joe Wolf and the Texas Free Trappers at Rendezvous IX on November 14-16. 2008.
It is a reenactment of the fur trade rendezvous 1825-1840 where beaver trappers met the wagon train of supplies that came out of St. Louis in the summer to sell their pelts and buy their supplies. It was a time to meet old friends that had survived since the last rendezvous, drink bad whisky, gamble, have shooting, knife throwing, tomahawk throwing and archery competition, have horse and foot races, etc.
We don’t do all of that, but we live a weekend in the 19th century as much as is practical and possible. Civilian clothing is the usual, though when the woolen and cotton clothing and leather boots they wore to the mountains were worn out they went to buckskins and mocassins. Weapons were the same as in Texas in the same period. Nothing modern is supposed to be in sight in camp.
The site is a 400 acre on historic Cibolo Creek near La Vernia. Indian dancer friends are invited. There will be a potluck supper Saturday evening with roast pig provided, and a Round Robin trading circle, so bring something to trade. Last year a piece of the Santa Maria’s sail was traded for something equally valuable (tongue in cheek).
A Lipan Apache drum group that includes Jimmy Gonzales did a music program at Council Fire at Rendezvous VIII. They enjoyed themselves so much they say they are coming to Rendezvous IX and bringing some dancers.
Download the flier
Download the map
– Grey Wolf – wolfbear@gvtc.com
Notice from Grey Wolf about Texas Free Trappers’ Rendezvous IX
Skinners and pilgrims …………….take heed.
The dates of Texas Free Trappers’ Rendezvous IX have been changed to a week earlier.
A Civil War battle reenactment is scheduled on our original date and we find it best to change our dates.
The new flier is attached, as well as a map to avoid having to send it later to those who were unable to join us at our previous Rendezvous at the La Vernia site.
There were 30 registrants at Rendezvous VIII plus two youngsters whose registration is not required and our new Native American friends, The Running Waters Drum. They presented a drum and song program for us after council fire and enjoyed themselves enough to say that they will be at Rendezvous IX and bring along some dancers.
I hope to get some of our Native American friends that we will see at the “Celebrate Bandera” powwow over Labor Day weekend to be a part of Rendezvous IX.
The TFT brigade has been invited to set up a mountain man camp at “Celebrate Bandera” for the second time. We will be doing demonstrations and talking to visitors about the days of the fur trade. Period camps and campers are invited to join us there. Contact me for more information and/or to let me know if you will be there. We need to reserve plenty of space for lodges, knife and hawk, and possibly archery demonstrations.
At Rendezvous IX we can expect to meet some new reenactors who have found us. I was told that they do well researched “personas” of Cherokee and Seminole individuals and are ready to portray the 1810-1840 period with us.
We will have “Trader Bucks” ready to award as prizes, in addition to the black powder, so be there, traders!
Grey Wolf can be contacted at wolfbear@gvtc.com for more information.
This event has been posted to the events page – Many Rifles