Rendezvous With Time in Historic Wyoming

For one weekend each year a fold in the Wyoming hills swirls with splashes of color and resounds to guttural mountain-men voices, Indian drumbeats, the shouts of children, bows scraping fiddles and musket fire.

The rest of the year it’s a monochrome of harsh, inhospitable hills.

To Jim Bridger, who arrived in 1843 in search of pelts and stayed to set up a trading post, the cottonwoods and aspens tracing the course of the Black Fork of the Green River must have looked mighty good.

Because of the river’s clear water and the Oregon Trail crossing, Ft. Bridger saw 47 years of service as a trading post, a Mormon outpost, an Army post and Pony Express and Overland stage stops. It was also a haven for mountain men, Indians and immigrants.

Meadows and Trees

Ft. Bridger, in the southwestern corner of the state, still stands beside the Black Fork surrounded by meadows of aspen and cottonwoods. The guardhouse, the trading post within its stockade, the barracks, the commanding officer’s house and the other buildings have been restored or re-created with authentic furnishings, wagons, weapons and other memorabilia recalling those years of life and color.

A former barracks serves as a museum tracing the fort’s history. A Wyoming State Historic Site, the fort stands guard over a way of life that echoes in the low gurgle of the Black Fork and the howl of coyotes in the hills.

Every Labor Day weekend mountain men, Indians and immigrants rendezvous at Ft. Bridger. The meadows are dotted with tepees. Children in buckskins and calico splash in the creek. Indians in feathers and beads dance.

Today’s mountain men come to trade pelts, knives, guns, jewelry, clothing, pottery and other necessities. They fashion authentic tepees, trap, hunt and keep old-time crafts alive. Many, moving comfortably in their throw-back world wearing names such as Angry Bear and Two Deer, make their living at these gatherings.

Women in calico and buckskin cook near the tepees. Mountain men in buckskin compete in black-powder shooting and other events, 1840s style.

A 22-inch piece of nylon rope lost the contest last year for an otherwise authentic tepee (canvas is permitted in lieu of traditional skins, the rationale being that it was in use in Bridger’s time).

Entrants in costume categories such as Indian squaw, frontier woman, Indian brave and mountain man must explain the clothing’s authenticity. Most pull out all the stops with beading, luxuriant fur headpieces, feathers, buckskins and calico fashions, wagon-train style.

Flatlanders watch contests in buck-and-squaw egg cooking, cannon shooting, muzzle loading, Dutch oven cooking and other skills. Children take part in frontier-style games. And count on a wedding, primitive style, at most rendezvous.

At night, families bring a bygone era to life around campfires, singing and swapping yarns.

Weekly Events

A rendezvous is held somewhere in the area every weekend between Easter and fall, but the Ft. Bridger rendezvous has the appeal of history and the restored fort. It draws about 2,000 people in costumes of varying degrees of authenticity, plus an estimated 30,000 flatlanders.

At last year’s rendezvous I walked about goggle-eyed, roamed the trading tents, and scarfed down an Indian fry-bread taco with salsa so hot it could have set off a musket.

I chatted with friendly folks anxious to explain the mountain-man ethos, watched Indian hoop dances and listened to frontier tunes played on guitars and fiddles.

Then I wandered down to the re-creation of Bridger’s trading post, burned in 1857 by retreating Mormons.

The replica, opened in June, 1987, adds the final note of authenticity to the fort. Docent Lea Reid said that Bridger put up a stockade not to keep out Indians (Bridger, with Ute, Shoshone and Flathead wives, was considered one of the family) but to prevent petty thieving by immigrants.

The trading post sells merchandise that includes pierced tin lanterns, wool blankets, beaded jewelry, hand-forged iron items, furs and clothing.

You can write to Bridger’s Stockade Trading Co., Box 16, Ft. Bridger, Wyo. 82933, for a catalogue of authentic trade items.

Ft. Bridger State Historic Site, three miles off Interstate 80 between Evanston (27 miles) and Green River (80 miles), is 105 miles northeast of Salt Lake City via I-80. Green River has a few motels and campgrounds, while Salt Lake City and Evanston offer complete tourist facilities.

A KOA campground and Valley West Motel are in Lyman six miles from Fort Bridger just off I-80. Reservations: KOA at (307) 786-2762 or Valley West Motel at (307) 787-3700.

Visitors are welcome to the rendezvous free. The fort is open daily through Oct. 15 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Between October and May the buildings are open on weekends only.

For more information about the fort or the rendezvous, contact the Ft. Bridger Historic Site, Ft. Bridger, Wyo. 82933; (307) 782-3842.