CoHT National Gathering
The Coalition of Historical Trekkers' National Gathering
was held at Fort Atkinson,
April 23 – 27, 2014. Many thanks to Chris,
Linda, John
Slader and the staff of Fort Atkinson for all their hard
work to prepare the fort for our arrival. The fort had
been scheduled to open the weekend after we left but the
opening was moved to 2 weeks before we arrived so the
staff had time to prepare for our arrival. I shared a bunk
room with our President Tom Cissel. It worked out fine.
However with eight folks, the number of bunks, it would
have been crowded. We cooked our meals in the fireplace.
After the kiva styled fireplaces at Bent’s, it was shear
luxury. Also there is “real” wood there. Throw a log
on the fire before retiring and there were coals to start
the fire the next morning. At Bent’s the only way to do
that is to feed the fire all night. On Thursday morning, a
few of us went to the steam ship Bertram exhibit at the
Desoto National Wildlife Refuge. It is a steamship that
was sunk on April 1, 1865. The museum is filled with
recovered goods. In the afternoon we had a tour by John
Slader, the park’s superintendent. He started working at
the park as a archeological laborer during the early days
of the excavation and has been there since. The tour
included the surrounding area as the Army had purchased a
15 mile by 15 mile square property centered from the flag
pole. A shooting match was held in the afternoon.
A handful of shooters participated but Nathan
showed everyone how it is done. He was shooting Kiwi’s
25 cal flinter. The hole is less than a ball diameter from
the center along one of the arms of the X. Two years ago,
Tod and his wife were top bidders for an
18th century 3- course meal prepared by Tammy.
It was presented this year. A course in the 18th
century consisted of a main dish with sides and a dessert.
Here is the bill of fare for the meal.
Appetizers
Irish
Farmhouse Cheese
Smoked
Salmon Pate
Cranberry-Onion
Relish
Apple-Pear
Chutney
Cocktail
Rey Bread
Scottish
Oatmeal Biscuits
First
Bill of Fare
Paddy
Burkes’ Pepper Soup
Steak
and Mushrooms
Grilled
Asparagus
Poached
Pears
Red
Wine
Second
Bill of Fare
Pumpkin
Cider Soup
Apple
Sage Pork
Black-eye
Peas with Relish
Walnut-Date
Pound Cake
With
Caramel Frosting
Irish
Cider
Third
Bill of Fare
Game
Hens with Brandied Peaches
Corn
Bread Mushrooms Stuffing
Pan-seared
cucumbers
Ambrosia
and Wassail
Needless to say it was a lot of food.
They took 3 hours and 45 minutes enjoying it. Long
walks between the courses helped. On Friday the business
meetings were held. Tavern
night was held Friday evening in the Council house. Tracy
Smith debuted some new songs he’s preparing on for a new
CD. On Saturday the auction was held after the evening
potluck. Tod prompted spirited bidding earning good income
for the CoHT. As the auction was breaking up it started to
feel like rain. The rain almost held off till after I
left, which was fairly early (not as early as Tom though)
It was starting as I left. I heard it really poured later
in the morning. As I entered CO, I stopped for lunch and
over heard some folks who were driving from Denver say
that the hail was a couple of inches deep a few miles down
the road. I noticed that even though most of the storm had
passed, it was still really windy. I could tell by the
pickup truck with a camper trailer that passed me when it
started to fish tail. I slowed to give him plenty of room
and sure enough not to much further the trailer was blown
across the lane and flipped the truck on its side. The
driver was OK, another motorist got him into his car to
make the appropriate phone calls. Within a mile there was
a state trooper heading toward the roll over.
Santa Fe Trail Rendezvous
Santa Fe Trail Rendezvous was held
June 8th through the 14th at Coal
Canyon of the Wittington Center in Raton, NM. I
visited on Wednesday. The turnout was about 38-40 camps
but 2 more camps move in while I was there. The
participants were enjoying the shooting program Hands was
running. It is “learning” rendezvous so slack is given
to folks who don’t have a correct kit, even if they have
been in the game for 20 years.
Bent’s
Fort Santa Fe Trail Encampment
June
7, 8th Bent's
Old Fort Santa Fe Trail Encampment – This year the event
included the Military weekend. We had approximately 50
volunteers in various rolls.
Many were members of the military encamped in
the ”cottonwoods” however the
fort was well staffed. On Saturday we had a heavier than
normal flow of visitors through the carpenter shop and the
blacksmith shop. Park Wood and his assistant, Stuart
Shirley worked and interacted with the visitors in the
blacksmith shop, Gabe Hanratty worked on the carretta in
the wagon shed, while I manned the carpenter shop. Greg
Holt, the NPS volunteer coordinator, spent most of his
time “in the cottonwoods” but when he did visit the
fort on Saturday afternoon, he reported that there were
approximately 30 folks in the Hunter/Trapper camp while at
least that many were watching the 3 different military
groups ( Dragons, Infantry, Mo Volunteers) drill and the
Topographical Engineer display. When the gate count was
complete the fort had set a record as to the number of
visitors for one day.
Sunday
the Santa Fe Trail walk was held. Many of visitors from
Sat. participated in that event which is held off site
along the Santa Fe Trail. The activity at the fort was
pretty slow but we still had some visitors. I had time to
finish the tortilla press requested by the domestics and
they had time to give it its inaugural run. After fixing a
minor implementation flaw, it worked fine.
Rocky
Mountain National Rendezvous
I
attended the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous the first weekend
in Gunnison Co. At the opening ceremony, it was announced
that there were 310 camps. The horse camp was the largest
of the past few years, with about 12-14 head of horses and
mules plus another 6 or so in the Indian camp. There wer
lots of both large professional traders and smaller
blanket traders including 2 kitchen/cafes. My camp was on
the edge of short term camp the horse camp, the other end
of the camp was about 1/2 mile away.
Upcoming
Activities at Bent's
Dec
5,6 - Bent's
Traditional Christmas Celebration – celebrate Christmas
at the fort with candle light tours on Friday and Saturday
evening and a full schedule of events on Saturday.
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