Rendezvous is two weekends of partying like it's 1839

Back in the 1800s, this part of the country was the domain of the American Indians, a few settlers and fur trappers. It was a dangerous, solitary, difficult way of life. To socialize and to get necessary supplies for trading and hunting, fur trappers relied on what they called the rendezvous.

A rendezvous was a wilderness gathering, a way for backwoodsmen to trade their furs for supplies without having to go all the way to St. Louis.

Now, organizations like the Southwestern Regional Rendezvous re-create and relive those times.

The Rendezvous is held every two years in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana or New Mexico, with the group voting on the next venue. The 2015 rendezvous marks the first time Arkansas has hosted the gathering in 10 years.

People come from all over the country, from as far away as California and upstate New York. This weekend, trappers, weavers, hunters, smiths and general history enthusiasts will descend on the area around Leslie for two weeks of camping out and living a 19th-century life.

They're happy to share their skills and knowledge with visitors.

"We do a lot of educational stuff. There's a lot to learn," says organizer James Thompson. "We enjoy people coming out."

The skills on display are wide-ranging: weaving and spinning cloth, archery, knife-throwing, blacksmithing, gun making, animal trapping, fire starting, candle making and so on.

Thompson says a man will demonstrate period fishing, including how to make a fishing line from horse hair. A woman from Kansas will bring her milking goats and others will bring horses to show how saddles and gear have changed over the years.

In short, it's a taste of life in the 1800s wilderness.

Emphasis on taste, because cooking is a big part of it too. Thompson and other re-enactors have campfire skills, and their expertise can surprise people.

"I've had a lot of people come up to me, say I make biscuits, and say, 'How did you make these?' You tell them and they just look at you like there's no way you could cook this on a fire. There's nothing you can cook at home that I can't make on a campfire. I can make cheesecake camped out."

Civil War re-enactments are pretty common, particularly with the ongoing sesquicentennial, but Thompson says the rendezvous has a different feel. The period they're re-creating is 20 years earlier than the war. There are no battles and, because there are no armies or ranks, the rendezvous is less structured and everyone's on equal footing.

When 19th-century trappers got to a rendezvous, the proximity to a group of people meant they were relatively free from the threats that loomed over a solitary existence: clashes with Indians, illnesses and injuries. The organized rendezvous re-creates that mood.

"They were able to relax," Thompson says. "They let their hair down, so to speak."

Weekend on 03/12/2015