The rendezvous held here on Aug. 18-19-20 was very well received by all who attended. This was our first experience at the new camping site and it proved to be very conducive to our needs. We have spent a good part of the year in preparation and cleared as many sites as we possibly could with our skeleton crew. Campers arrived and the woods filled with tents and tipis for the primitive attendees. There were those that came to shoot in the muzzleloading competitions and those that came for the archery and the trail walk with the hawk and knife throw. Then too, some came simply to visit with old and new friends. With the burn ban in effect there were no fires allowed for cooking. That possibility had been anticipated and the mountain men as always were on top of their game and made other arrangements for their food preparation. The grounds have now been gently broken in and we have hopes of opening up more sites to accommodate more campers. Those with modern tents and tin tipis set up in the modern camping area provided for them
The rendezvous was enhanced by the attendance of those from the Ruxton Museum. They kindly set up a display of original rifles to share and explained their history and function . Those persons who stopped by and visited with them were intrigued and impressed with these works of art from a bygone era. An era they and we are working to preserve and continue. We thank them for their help and participation. For more information on the museum visit their site at ruxtonmuseum.org
The rendezvous wound up with ending awards ceremonies giving ribbons and prizes for the winners in the various events. We have had some suggestions on other fun competitions we may consider including such as a frying pan toss. We like to have suggestions on how we can improve and make the future rendezvous more fun for all. Of course with more events we need more people to run them. We hope everyone will encourage others to come and join us. We need to make efforts to let the public know they are welcome to come, to learn and to experience and enjoy this special part of America’s history.
Special thanks to Our Booshay Chris (Packrat) for all the hard work he did in preparation for the shoot and his time during the shoot. We congratulate him also on the great score he got with the S. Hawken he built from one of our kits. More images after the break.
Talkin Hawken 