The bird’s eye view from the top of Mount Rose that overlooked the stockade on one side and the pow-wow grounds on the other was grand. While both areas filled with people on Saturday, in the harbor sailboats and fishermen were out in their boats until the mid-day rainstorm.
Grand Portage National Monument’s annual Rendezvous Days was another massive success, featuring 145 historic re-enactor camps on-site. Nearly 8,000 visitors attended the event over the weekend, which hosted approximately 300 re-enactors sharing their passion for history of the fur trade era.
The event had an early French theme this year with the park playing host to renowned historian, Ken Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton presented three different programs over the weekend focusing on the topics of trade kettles, knives, and the history and evolution of the Great Lakes drum and song. He also regularly attends pow-wows across the country and thoroughly enjoyed his time dancing at the Grand Portage Pow-wow when he wasn’t entertaining the camp.
Additionally, La Compagnie de La Vérendrye, a re-enacting group of colonial French militia based out of Winnipeg, performed drills and shared their passionate love of history with the visiting public throughout the weekend. Re-enactors and public had opportunities to participate in turning a French-style rolling pin on a wooden lathe, observe a full-service dinner served to the partners featuring French cuisine, cook a French colonial meal in the encampment, learn French vocabulary in an educational workshop, construct a chaplet (rosary), and play boule, the equivalent of English lawn bowling.
Carefully carrying a cup of water on a canoe paddle, these two youngsters demonstrated one of several components that made up the Rugged Voyageur Pentathlon. Competitors had to lug a trove of heavy furs, carry water, undo and separate the furs, start a fire and so on.
Music continues to be a hallmark of the event as Grand Portage’s Stone Bridge Singers opened the weekend with the traditional drum. The Frenchthemed tunes of The Booneslick Strings, a group of musicians from Missouri, could be heard all weekend. The re-enactor house band also played throughout the event in camp and on the porch of the Great Hall, as well as the Saturday performances of Over the Waterfall in the afternoon and the evening dance in between the torrential downpour. In addition, the monument’s very own fiddler Carrie Dlutkowski performed a special Sunday afternoon program, and former ranger Jeremy Kingsbury played his bagpipes in the grounds once again.
The usual staples of voyageur games, music, and storytelling captivated the public throughout the event. Visitors were treated to a wide range of other activities including lacrosse matches, blacksmithing workshop opportunities, and classes and demonstrations on brain tanning deer hides, cedar bark mat weaving, and corn husk doll making. The weekend also included contests and games for re-enactors and public including a scavenger hunt and bead hunt, and the familiar competitions of the Rugged Voyageur, Yokes on You, Firestarting, and Work Challenge. One of the highlights of the weekend was the dance and regale where the monument remains open to the public late Saturday night providing an opportunity to listen to the music, enjoy the desserts, and see the candlelit buildings.
We look forward to seeing you all next August!
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