Meet me on the Green for this year’s Rendezvous scene

by Janet Montgomery

While buckskin garb and whiskey-bottle trades are now just props for the parade and pageant, the goods were fair trade in the early 19th century with Rendezvous throughout the west.

The bellow of “Meet me on the Green” called forth traders to the rendezvous in the Green River Valley of Sublette County for six of those 16 trade gatherings of the early 1800s.

Today, the second weekend of July in Sublette County is a rousing good time when locals and visitors alike participate in the historical celebration of mountain men who braved the wild lands and the cold weather of the West to trap and sell the ever-popular beaver fur.

With more than 70 years of tradition in Rendezvous celebration, this year’s festivities include some old favorites as well as few new gigs to enjoy. The traditional history talks and demonstrations at the Museum of the Mountain Man (MMM) will commence throughout the four-day event with three nights of rodeo at the Pinedale Rodeo Grounds next to the Rendezvous Pageant Grounds just south of town.

Other activities planned for the Rendezvous Weekend include the annual Rendezvous Ramble walk/run Saturday morning along with the Pinedale Community UUC Rendezvous pancake breakfast from 7 to 10 a.m. at 113 S. Maybell. The parade down Pine Street is set to start at 11 a.m. on Saturday while the Sublette County Chamber of Commerce presents a Kids Fishing Derby from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Children’s Fishing Pond in the Boyd Skinner Memorial Park. The Sublette County Historical Society Board will host the Buffalo Burger lunch at the MMM Saturday as well. The Chamber also plans a horseshoe tournament starting at 1 p.m. at the American Legion Park on Saturday. Head back to the MMM for an evening of American Mountain Men Campfire stories and songs at 8 p.m.

Sunday’s activities begin with an 8 a.m. challenge next to Proactive Rehabilitation as competitors pay a $5 entry fee to participate in the atlatl, hawk, knife and primitive bow and arrow competition. At 10 a.m., the Prairie Mass will be hosted at the site of the DeSmet Monument outside of Daniel, while the MMM continues to host lectures and demonstrations in the morning as the Green River Rendezvous Pageant is set to start at 1 p.m. with a $5 admission to be paid at the gate of the Pageant Grounds.

Don’t forget to peruse art and craft venders of the Rendezvous Street Fair along Pine Street as well as taking a jaunt to Traders Row between Faler’s General Store and the Sublette Center on Bridger Ave., where trading tradition continues with goods from the Mountain Man era.