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Hide the plastic food coolers! Mountain Men take over small Wyoming town By
Bryce Atkins
Esterbrook, Wyo., became a small, two-century-old city last week. The Rocky Mountain National Rendezvous ran from July 14 through Sunday. There were 650 canvas structures -- meaning tipis, tents, etc., with about 2,500 participants. Lots of traders with piece goods, called wares, portrayed the Mountain Man era, the years of 1790 through 1840, when white adventurers penetrated the Rocky Mountains. Men in buckskins and breechclouts, moccasins, and fur hats dominated traders row. The town had a wine saloon at one end. The rest of the street had various shops and places to eat and drink. The other end of the street had a store featuring items from Scotland. Horse camp was away from the main camp with about 50 structures. They had their own games and contests with their horses. Several Indians and Mountain Men came into camp on the backs of horses with pack mules and horses in tow. There were people from Pennsylvania, Kansas, Montana, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. There were shooting matches, bow and arrow contests, tomahawk and knife throwing competitions, and cooking competitions. There were classes in making jams and jellies, identifying plants of the mountains, beading, jewelry of the 1700s to 1850s, soap making, wool dying with natural dyes, and candy making. A ladies pantaloon social was hosted by the saloon and the young single men of the camps served the ladies. Afterward, there was a pantaloon parade of all the single young ladies in their pantaloons, camisoles and parasols. There was an over-50s party that had all participants competing in different games with prizes going to the teams that won each event. One event was a canoe race with two people holding a pole between their legs and running the course, paddling and yelling "Stroke, Stroke, Change, Stroke, Stroke, Change". These people take the entire Mountain Man re-enactment seriously, the food coolers had to be hidden, nothing modern was to be shown around your camp. They live as primitively as possible.
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