Lifelong Clearwater resident David Agnew went to his first rendezvous over 40 years ago, and with the exception of a few years in between, has been going steady ever since.

 

A rendezvous is a historical re-enactment of the fur trade era rendezvous from the 1840s. People would gather to catch up with old friends and meet new ones, play music, swap stories, engage in friendly competition, and purchase and trade furs and supplies. The same things happen at the rendezvous today.

 

Agnew had always been interested in history and grew up hunting and trapping, so when he saw a rendezvous being held during the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 he was decided to go. He was hooked, and began shooting black powder guns as well as taking part in re-enactments.

 

During Clearwater’s Sesquicentennial, Agnew was approached to get a rendezvous started for the celebration. Although it was successful, the event has only been held annually during for the past 12 years or so. 

 

Clearwater’s rendezvous takes place at Riverside Park during Heritage Days. Agnew expects this year’s event to be a good one, with around 20 camps if everyone that expressed interest shows up. 

“You set these things up and you never know what’s going to happen,” he said.

 

This year’s rendezvous is featuring a number of new attractions, including a shoemaker, a minstrel who plays guitar and sings in four languages, primitive cooking, bead working and potentially a woman and her daughter who dress in and talk about Native American culture.

 

Author Cynthia Frank-Stupnik is expected to be in attendance, selling her Clearwater-based books and ephemera.

 

The Heritage Days rendezvous also features working and apprentice blacksmiths, a flint mapper, primitive archery, tomahawk and knife throwing, corn meal grinding, cordage and rope making out of natural fibers, demonstrations of loading and firing black powder weapons and demonstrations of an atlatl, which is a type of spear.

 

Agnew himself talks about trapping in the fur trade era and demonstrates primitive traps. He also trades items that relate back to the 1840s.

 

Although his daughter, Kim, grew up in the rendezvous life and is bringing her children up in it, Agnew says young people today are losing interest in history and not getting involved. He and Kim are the only ones left of the original group he put together, the rest having moved, lost interest or passed away.

 

“I’d like to see more local people get involved and have it become more community oriented,” he said. “You don’t have to camp, you can just dress in period clothing and come down for the day.”

 

The Clearwater Heritage Days Rendezvous is free to the public and open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday, Aug. 5, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6.

 

“It’s kind of like stepping back in time and grabbing your own pieces of history,” explained Agnew. “It’s amazing how much of it is in this area. The Pike Expedition, which was sent out to explore the Louisiana Purchase, went right through Clearwater. The Mississippi River was the freeway of the frontier.”