Article Contributed on: 8/3/2007 11:09:12 AM
I attended the Rocky Mountain Living History Society's Bayou Salado, near Harstall, CO last week. We are dedicated to teaching American History up to about 1900. So we have civil war enthusiast, Fur Trade era, Buffalo Soldiers, and back to revolutionary times. There was a shootist from the 1880's also.
We camp in period camps and cook period foods with period pots & pans on open fires. We dress and talk according to our period and are family friendly having many wives and kids in camp.
We have knife and hawk ranges, primitive archery, and a black powder shooting range, which I was in charge of this year. I had a walking range with 9 stations and 11 shots to challenge the shooters. We had a King of the Mountain Men competition, which we had to change to Queen of the Mountain Men, as a woman won the competition. She started a fire with flint and steel and set a beaver trap in 37 seconds. She won the shooting event and did very well in the archery contest and the knife and hawk to be the overall point winner. May won a new rifle as a prize.
We will be having another rendezvous near Jefferson City (by Fairplay) this week and the public is invited. This is College so we have classes where you can learn different skills of the Fur Trade, from shooting to cooking, and making things from leather, etc. Come out and follow the signs, you don't have to dress the part and you can enjoy food and drink and shop at the traders camps. Take a class and visit the shooting range.
See pictures from Bayou Salado
College runs from Aug. 6-11 open to the public from 9-6pm.