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Escape to yesteryear
Fired up about their return to frontier days Tony Heitz (‘Pa Gump’) fires his musket in a shooting competition at the Jed Smith Mountain Men Tall Trees Rendezvous. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson The orange target rings out with a metal twang as a black powder musket ball strikes home. Ma Gump grunts in appreciation and hitches her buckskin skirt at Pa Gump with a slight swagger. Neither will tell you who’s more accurate. The Gumps (Tony and Nena Heitz) and four other colorfully nicknamed black powder musket-toters were competing Tuesday at the Jed Smith Mountain Men Tall Trees Rendezvous, an annual gathering where participants reenact the 1800-1840 era of the Western frontier. The event continues daily through Saturday. “I’ve been doing this going on 40 years,” said Pa Gump, his rifle resting nonchalantly on his shoulder. “It’s nice to leave all the technology behind and go by the natural rhythms.” To see more pictures of the Rendezvous click here.
While participants come from all walks of life, a contractor here, a
retired teacher there, the simple camaraderie of a life without
material possessions and any worries other than surviving, binds every
rendezvous participant and shows itself in good-natured ribbing and
cheerful demeanors.
Even the nicknames are generally given out of humor – Lost Hawk, notorious for losing tomahawks; Swims With Arrows, swam after an arrow; Chocolate, had nothing else to trade. “Rendezvous names are earned by doing something stupid or repetitive,” said Lost Hawk (Mike Develine) after sending an arrow quivering into a cutout of a crouching deer. Now in its 31st year, the Tall Trees Rendezvous runs for six days at the Rowdy Creek Gun Club, a mile and a half east of Highway 101 on Rowdy Creek Road. Only participants may camp, but the public is invited – admission is free – to visit, shop at Trader’s Row and learn a thing or two about the “old ways.” Trapper John, whose been attending for 25 years, stood over a coal-powered blacksmith forge fixing a “nipple” on a black powder musket for his neighbor and musket repairman, Dave Silva of Arcata. “I don’t build these to sell,” Silva said, showing off a couple of muskets whose gorgeous wood stocks could rival the grain of any antique table. Trapper John explains why. “Doing old things the old ways, the pace of life just slows down,” he said. “We do this because we flat out enjoy it, there is something about living by the old standards, the old values that makes life more enjoyable.” While there isn’t a rendezvous fashion police, participants take pride in trying to do things as much like the old ways as they can.
 The Reids of Half Moon Bay make a camp fit for a family of five. ‘It’s a lot more fun than regular camping,’ said Abigail Reid, 11. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson Joyce Lockhart is one of the originals. “I have been attending these since the beginning,” Lockhart said looking comfortable and at home in her bonnet and dress. “It is really a blast, many of us try to be as primitive as we can.” It isn’t just adults enjoying a return to the old days. Whether judging knife and tomahawk throwing, or taking part in the shooting competitions, children of all ages gathered firewood, skipped through the woods and generally looked as if they had stumbled out of the past. “I love it,” said Abigail Reid, 11, of Half Moon Bay, who’s been participating with her family for the last five years. “We make all our own clothes. It’s a lot more fun than regular camping.” Reid’s father, Roy, made everything in their camp that provides comfortably for the family of five with his hands. From the cast iron and wood tripod used to hold their muskets, to the wood picnic table and matching chairs that all fold up, he did much of it in traditional patterns. “We sew all our own clothes,” Roy Reid said as his wife busted out brownies baked over a fire. “We like the peace, we have no watches. It’s really a return to the old values of family and hard work. It’s a much simpler way of life.” |
