CALICO ROCK — The 2018 Calico Rock Mountain Man Rendezvous on Sept. 7-8, 2018 at Rand City Park in Calico Rock.

The event is hosted by the Calico Rock Museum and Visitor Center and will be held all day.  Calico Rock Rand City Park is located on Highway 5 at State Highway 56.

“Experience early American frontier life at the Calico Rock Mountain Man Rendezvous as you visit the rendezvous camp and re-enactors wearing period dress,” a news release states.

Rendezvous activities include Knife & Tomahawk Throwing, Period Bow Making, Spinning, Mountain Man & Mountain Mama Competition, Trapping & Pelting Demonstration, Stew Cooking Competition, Authentic Vendors, Period Tents & Clothing.

Calico Rock Museum has a new partner for the Rendezvous, the Early Arkansas Re-enactors Association. The EARA members provide encampment and demonstrate the everyday life skills of early settlers.

The Calico Rock Mountain Man Rendezvous is a sanctioned event of the Early Arkansas Re-enactors Association because it is authentic. “This group of dedicated men and women take re-enacting seriously. They camp in period tents, dress in period clothing, and they live for the week just like the early fur traders and settlers did.”

Mountain Man Rendezvous were an annual gathering (1825–1840) at various locations held by a fur trading company at which trappers and mountain men sold their furs and hides and replenished their supplies.

Rendezvous were known to be lively, joyous places, where all were allowed- free trappers, Indians, native trapper wives and children, travelers and later on, even tourists who would venture from even as far as Europe to observe the festivities. Rendezvous are still celebrated as gatherings of like-minded individuals or clubs in many walks of life.

The fur trading rendezvous are celebrated by traditional black-powder rifle clubs all over the US and Canada. These gatherings range from small gatherings sponsored by local clubs to large gatherings like the Pacific Primitive Rendezvous and others. These gatherings include much of the same activities of the originals, centering on the shooting of muzzle-loaded rifles, trade guns and shotguns, the throwing of knives and tomahawks and primitive archery, as well as cooking, dancing, singing, the telling of tall tales and of past rendezvous. Personas taken on by participants include trappers, traders, housewives, Native Americans, frontiersmen, free-trappers and many others, including soldiers.

These early frontier gatherings were called “rendezvous,” which is French for a meeting at a particular place and time.