John Blackshoe Sends - Serendipity History

Got Beavers? The Fort Bridger, Wyoming, Labor Day Rendezvous

The Bible and the beaver were the two mainstays of the Plymouth Colony during its early years.

Quoted by Eric Jay Dolin- more about him at the end of this piece.

Out here on the former frontier, they have an annual "Rendezvous" at Fort Bridger, WY just over the mountains from Salt Lake. This was a trading post started by mountain man Jim Bridger in 1843 as a place where fur trappers of the mountain west would gather annually to sell their pelts and squander their earnings on necessities, luxuries or vices before returning to the wilderness to chase more critters.

A really quick history of Ft. Bridger.

On the direct route across the plains (now I-80) this was on the route for Johnston's Army in 1858 when they came out to ensure that the Mormons behaved, and spent the winter at Ft. Bridger. They subsequently crossed the mountains and by 1860 the vast majority of the U.S. Army was in Utah, and were recalled back east as tensions leading to the Civil War deteriorated. The Army built a “fort” near Bridger's trading post and it was a guardian of the Pony Express route, followed by the telegraph line, and the transcontinental railroad arrived in 1868. The fort was only a minor player in the various Indian War campaigns into the late 1880s. Then it was shut down, and merely a stopping point along the Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 30) and the fort buildings converted to commercial uses or torn down. In the 1930s, the state of Wyoming took it over as a state historical site, and has done a great job preserving or reconstructing some of the structures and interpreting its history. Although the state owns the site, the Rendezvous is run by a small non-profit group of historians, reenactors and shooters.

This Rendezvous event is mostly historical, sometimes hysterical, a bit commercial and always interesting.

Two camping areas- one for traditional teepees and tents, the other for "tin teepee" campers.

Part of the campsite with teepees and tents.
Photo by author.

Participants (but not visitors) must be in costume circa 1840 or earlier. They are history nerds, like me, but not the same tribe.

A quick intro to the Rendezvous.

They have muzzle loading rifle matches, knife and tomahawk throwing, and also frying pan throwing for the women. Dutch oven cookery, blacksmithing, weaving, and other crafts. Native American dancers share their traditional dances in costume. I believe these are Shoshone (Sacajawea’s tribe), but several other tribes also participate. The dances tell a story, helping them preserve their history and pass it down to younger generations. Dancers include men and women from youngsters to mature adults, with different dances and drum beats and chants.

Crappy photo by author

About 100-150 vendors were set up in tents selling crafts, clothing, decorative items, jewelry, muzzle loading guns, hatchets, refreshments (non-alcoholic) and about a dozen food vendors like you find at carnivals and the like.

Editor's Note: JB had some very interesting photos of the following chap actually skinning a beaver. As it is my policy to not post photos which might put someone off their breakfast early in the morning, I didn't include all of them. I did include one with the gore pixelated out. Apologies to JB, but that's just the way I roll.

Beaver pelt removed and being cleaned.
Photo by author. (Edited by OAFS)

This year they had someone demonstrating how you get beaver skins to trade. Start by trapping a beaver, then skin it. Stretch the hide on a wooden stretcher and then sell dozens or hundreds to traders who sell them to hatters to make beaver felt hats. The hatters used mercury to loosen and shape the beaver hair into hats, and mercury poisoning caused many to be “mad as a hatter.”

This guy is a trapper, as well as a historical participant, and this was one of many beavers he trapped this year, a very small one. He froze it, and thawed out for the event. Trappers don’t have any use for the feet, so he cut those off, and gave them to kids who were delighted, although unsure what to do with a beaver foot. (Don't ask me!) He explained the process as he did all the cutting and skinning.

He explained that some cuts of beaver meat were pretty good such as the equivalent of tenderloin, but not a lot of meat on them. The tails are sort of leathery and can be used for wallets, shoe soles, and other purposes, and do not really have any commercial value. Selling price for small beaver pelts like this one from a 15 pound animal is about $10-15, while pelts from larger 30-40 pounder beavers bring more like $30-40.

Once the pelt is removed, any meat is scraped off the hide, and then it is stretched and dried. In the Plains Indian culture, the skinning and tanning of buffalo hides was usually done by the women.

He had a pretty good crowd and people were attentive to his presentation, either from curiosity, or aghast that some innocent woodland creature was being butchered before their sensitive eyes. Or, maybe just interested in learning essential frontier survival skills. Kids seemed really interested. Remember, many folks out here on the former frontier are ranchers or farmers who know where meat and fiber come from and how their forebears depended on frontier skills. They know meat does not grow in white plastic trays in the supermarket.

Other interesting sights included the folks in their fur trade costumes and lots of kids playing in the small stream that flows through the fort. Many of the original and restored buildings are open and very well done, worth exploring instead of the trade goods vendors.

A 1.65” Hotchkiss gun widely used during the Indian Wars

Photo by author.

Among the anomalies were a handful of bagpipers marching around delighting or annoying the visitors. I rather enjoy a serenade from the “ladies from Hell” occasionally. There used to be a very large contingent of Harley bikers who came out for this, but only a few in recent years. Most noteworthy oddball sights this year were (1) a burro in full Mexican regalia with saddle, etc; and (2) a large white poodle shaved in the customary way, with Barbie pink tail, foot tufts and ears. Some things you cannot unsee.

So, summer is drawing to a close. Soon the mountain west will be inundated with Kalifornia skiers, and we will long for the relatively normalcy of pink poodles and caparisoned burros.

Fort Bridger’s Rendezvous is a barely visible reminder of the extent and importance of the beaver (and other) fur trade which was pervasive in our country for several hundred years.

One of the most profoundly impactful books I have read (actually listened to while driving) was Eric Jay Dolin’s Fur, Fortune and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America, published in 2010 with about 442 pages. Used copies are available under $10 from AbeBooks.com

Editor's Note: I was unable to embed the following video, so you'll have to chase that link.

Here is a great C-Span presentation by the author summarizing the book in 51 minutes.