|
The
Branderosa Rendezvous
by Ed Crabtree
Every
since that first issue of The Message
Tree, in June of 2001, we have enjoyed
meeting people from all over the Ozarks
that are working so hard to preserve,
protect, and keep our history alive. From
those volunteers that staff the local
museums and historical societies to those
who make history a part of their
lives.
All
far too often, Hollywood portrays the
Frontier people as crude backwoodsmen who
shunned society preferring to live for
months and even years at a time, a
solitary lifestyle in the dark woods and
mountains that had not been settled in
those days when America west of the
Mississippi river was just a young, wild
undeveloped land. But these people were
more than that, they were business men,
explorers, some had been educated at the
finest schools of the time, and some,
surveyors mapping out the land preparing
for the great westward expansion, all
these contributed to the eventual opening
up of the west and they laid the
foundation for those who followed, settled
and built the towns and villages that grew
into our cities of today.
At
living history reenactments, the
participants are themselves in one sense
the historic exhibits. They pick out a
time period, research the people of those
days and develop costumes appropriate to
the character or composite of characters
from history that they portray. At great
personal expense, I might add.
Rendezvous
were a special time for the frontiersmen.
A date and location would be prearranged,
then men and women from an entire region
would meet to buy, sell, and trade their
wares, or just visit as the event was part
business, part family reunion.
Today,
men and women leave their modern high tech
jobs and lifestyles behind and rendezvous
at locations all over the country, some
just to relieve stress of this modern
world and escape into a decidedly low-tech
lifestyle for a few days, some have made
it a part time and even full time
business. So it is not uncommon to find
two different areas at a rendezvous site,
one sometimes called commercial row for
the business men selling their time period
correct products and a primitive camp area
where those that are there just for the
sporting events or even just for the pure
enjoyment and fellowship, make their homes
during the event.
One
might ask what would the visitor expect to
find for sale on the commercial row, and
the answer would be any thing that the men
and women living on the frontier might
have used in their daily lives. Of course
primitive arms would come to mind, but you
can also expect to see cooking utensils,
necessities made of cast iron and forged
steel, pottery such as crocks for storage,
bead work and assorted craft items that
might have been used to ordain clothing,
period correct costumes, and the list goes
on. Even canvas tents and covers to hide
some of the modern conveniences such as
coolers, all modern items being required
to be covered or otherwise out of sight.
So the visitor to a event such as this can
not only find living history, sporting
events such as displays of marksmanship
with primitive arms, and the shopper can
find unique hand made primitive items that
can make wonderful collector's items and
conversation pieces.
In
that very first issue of this electronic
magazine, we did a story on Delaware Town
on the James River and briefly mentioned
how Joe Philibert started his career in
the Ozarks at the trading post located
there, doing business with the Native
Americans of that early day Ozarks
community. Ironically, two years later we
have returned to the banks of the James
River, a great circle if you will, to
cover another story about modern day
traders who find great joy and
satisfaction in reenacting and celebrating
the time period of those intrepid men and
women who pioneered the frontier before
the settlers, the time period that
Philibert lived and the days of the
Mountain Man and Long Hunter.
Near
where the James and Finley rivers become
one, there is a wonderful place known as
Branderosa Therapeutic Equestrian Resort,
(see side bar) and this not for profit
group dedicated to providing services to
mentally and physically challenged
children sponsored a living history
reenactment or rendezvous on June 27
through 29. Not only was it a pleasure for
this writer to cover the event and bring
to you the accompanying story detailing
the good works of Branderosa, but also as
with the rendezvous of the old days being
a family reunion, old friendships were
rekindled with those history re-enactors
in attendance that participated in the Old
Silver Mine Days event at Branson West,
that we helped to promote in October
2001.
At
that mini rendezvous in 2001, we learned
from many of the vendors that were there
displaying their time period specific
wares to the general public of how living
history participants spend so much time
and money developing their characters,
costumes, and in the case of vendors,
finding suitable product lines. But at
this most recent event we caught up with a
Father and Son pair that chooses to
participate in preserving a historic
lifestyle for more spiritual reasons.
Their love for the out of doors and
escaping our modern world into one from a
time long ago, being a catalyst for
bridging the generation gap and building a
bond between Father and Son, one not often
found today when there are so many
dysfunctional families.
Wayne
Sayler and his son Jason have been doing
period reenactments since Jason was 11.
Now 22, Jason says that enjoying the great
out of doors and participating in living
history has become almost a lifestyle for
him, eagerly awaiting the next opportunity
to step into character and step back into
time.
Wayne
made the comment about camping out
mountain man style, "It's the type of
living that makes a Father and Son come
closer together." He went on to say "It's
not like sports where it is a competition
between this Father and that son. It's
just you and your son setting by the
campfire in the middle of the night
watching the falling stars."
"It's
something that the world has really lost,
that we will never really get back." He
said that period reenactments, "was just
camping with your kids, it is just that we
have taken it one step further, living
like they did 200 years ago."
"With
all the technology of today, society has
lost something that we can only get back
through reenacting history and preserving
it (history) so that others may see how it
was."
Just
like the custom of men on the frontier,
Wayne invited me to sit down in front of
his campfire and we both got out our
pipes, mine made of imported briar,
Wayne's made from Deer antler, and in the
ancient tradition of mountain men we
shared tobacco while he related to me the
thoughts above. While I listened to him go
on to tell the history of Long Hunters and
Mountain men I began to feel like I had
stepped through a portal in time. The
smell of food cooking over an open fire
and surrounded by men and women in
buckskin, carrying long rifles that
depended upon flint or percussion caps to
ignite the black powder.
Nearby
other folks were using the same type guns,
shooting at a target hung on a large stack
of hay bales, while still others were
demonstrating the knack of throwing a
tomahawk at a log, just as people at a
rendezvous of two centuries past might
have competed to see who was the best shot
or most accomplished at using the "tools
of the trade" of the frontiersman. It was
a terrific experience, one that I would
recommend to any family. These folks have
studied so much about the people that they
"bring to life" that they are only too
eager to share a history lesson with
anyone willing to take a moment to listen.
And the best part is that they are just
plain folks, not park employees or trained
actors, but people like you and I that
just have a love for our American
heritage.
In
the accompanying photo of Wayne's and
Jason's camp you can see some of the
cooking accoutrements that a typical
mountain man might have used, most of the
items made by Jason. Also in the photo can
be seen the tools necessary for producing
lead bullets for their muzzle loading
guns, a ladle in which to melt then pour
the lead and a mold to shape the ball to
just the right size for the bore of the
rifle. Also in the picture is Wayne's
Dutch oven which like our forefathers,
Wayne bakes his bread in while in
camp.
After
about a two-hour history lesson, I left
Wayne's camp and returned to the
Commercial Row to visit with my friends
who were there to sell their
products.
Raymond
Heying, who has a business named Black
Powder Hill, sells a wide variety of
reproduction primitive arms as well as an
occasional antique. Under Raymond's tent
the shopper can find anything that the
black shooter might need for the popular
sport. If you haven't ever shot a
muzzle-loading gun, you have missed out on
quite an experience. After pouring the
powder down the muzzle of the "front
loader" then ramming the patched ball
home, aiming and pulling the trigger, you
then have to wait for the smoke to clear
to be able to see if you hit the target, a
process that can take some time, depending
on your speed and proficiency. An
experience decidedly different from modern
guns that can fire as fast as you can pull
the trigger.
Some
living history participants travel each
weekend from event to event, just to
compete in primitive arms shooting
matches, even our Uncle Bob Johnston was
at one time very active in the sport and
developed enough profiency that he won
trophies at each shoot he competed
in.
With
this visit to a rendezvous, I noticed one
thing different than my last visit, and
that was the appearance of awards given to
the vendors for their efforts. For example
at a rendezvous at Pomme De Terre, the
traders or period vendors rated each
others tents or stores, and out of 43 such
vendors, Raymond was judged by his peers
to have the best store and was given a
coin minted with a representation of a
Hudson Bay Company trading ship, an award
Raymond is very proud of. Steve Johnson
and Jennifer McAnarney posed for a photo
with their awards for being the best
dressed. Steve and Jennifer operate a
business that sells all sorts of canvas
products, from tents to covers for those
modern items that by camp rules have to be
hidden from sight, such as coolers.
All
too soon, my schedule called upon me to
say good bye to my rendezvous friends and
return to the modern world, and the
thought occurred to me perhaps I should
research and develop a character I could
step into so that I could enjoy
participating in these living history
events. Perhaps I could be an early 19th
century journalist, humm, I wonder if
Steve has any canvas covers for laptop
computers?
When
I am on a horse my legs are whole,
I can go where I normally could not
go!"
|
