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| Rendezvous |
In early years of the nineteenth century, solitary “Mountain Men” roamed the Rocky Mountains in search of beaver. Beaver pelts were in much demand as a high style item in Europe from the late 1600’s until nearly 200 years later when the near extinction of Beaver and a change in European style ended the hunt.
Mountain men had to endure endless isolation,
privation, violence, and extreme weather conditions. Living
in a rapidly changing world, they were a throwback to a much earlier era in
which the bulk of humanity lived in such circumstances; heroic, perhaps, but
also a life borne of grinding necessity. Finding
a modern corollary is difficult. Today, many
self-proclaimed “Mountain Men” claim that title however, virtually all have the ability, if they so choose, to escape even the most modest discomforts which our ancestors would have considered a life of luxury. Perhaps the nearest
corollary in our easy times would be a decision to intentionally live the
violence infused life of a homeless scavenger.
It is difficult to imagine why anyone in our coddled times would voluntarily choose such a life.
The life of a Mountain Man cycled through back breaking work trapping and preparing pelts in the harshest of conditions with the ever present threat of violence resulting in injury or death. In the course of time, often years, the product of this difficult work hopefully resulted in a harvest of a condition and size that it could be sold or traded to re-stock for the next trapping foray. The sale or trade occurred at
a gathering of the hunters and traders in an event called Rendezvous.
Rendezvous in this context was developed by early French trappers, “Coureur de bois” (“Runner of the Woods”), who were based in French Canada from the 1600’s. They were trappers and scouts for the French colonization of the vast North American unknown. Generally, unlike the later Mountain Men of American extraction, the Coureur de bois were intertwined with the indigenous people becoming a part of their culture through intermarriage and adoption of the indigenous life style. The original Rendezvous was developed as a place to trade with the French trading companies.
Rendezvous, in concept, carried over after the French and Indian War, American Revolution and Louisiana Purchase when American trading companies replaced the earlier French versions. Where the French relied on contract Voyageurs for transport of trade good to the Rendezvous via canoe. Now, the Americans organized overland carriage of supplies and trade goods by mule and wagon to the isolated wilderness for Rendezvous.
Rendezvous in this context was developed by early French trappers, “Coureur de bois” (“Runner of the Woods”), who were based in French Canada from the 1600’s. They were trappers and scouts for the French colonization of the vast North American unknown. Generally, unlike the later Mountain Men of American extraction, the Coureur de bois were intertwined with the indigenous people becoming a part of their culture through intermarriage and adoption of the indigenous life style. The original Rendezvous was developed as a place to trade with the French trading companies.
Rendezvous, in concept, carried over after the French and Indian War, American Revolution and Louisiana Purchase when American trading companies replaced the earlier French versions. Where the French relied on contract Voyageurs for transport of trade good to the Rendezvous via canoe. Now, the Americans organized overland carriage of supplies and trade goods by mule and wagon to the isolated wilderness for Rendezvous.
American
mercantile interests were masters of organization and profit taking. The American trading companies were owned by
people who gained wide notoriety such as William Sublette of St. Louis and John
Jacob Aster of New York, who would go on to become America’s first
millionaire. By 1845 it was over, Beaver
hats were out of style and left to molder in attics, fortunes were made,
Mountain Men cast to the wind and the Beaver left to recover. All built on the slaughter of Beaver to
satisfy the fashion of European elites.
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| Senior Citizens inhaling way too much black power |
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| Re-enactor Coureur de bois with lady re-enacting something confusing. |
At milepost 304 you round the curve leading into a
reverse curve in a placed named “Canada Jarosita”. There in the distance you can see white
buildings over a mile away hugging the edge of a deep crevasse falling away to
the Rio De Los Pinos some 600 feet below.
This place is Sublette, New Mexico, the second of eight section camps west
of the Antonito terminus of the Cumbres and Toltec. It is said Sublette was originally called Boydville; it has also said Sublette was named after
famed trapper and merchant William Sublette; furthermore, it is also said there
was a Rendezvous on the plateau just above the current location of Sublette; and adding icing to this story it is also said some orderly piles of
stone in the near vicinity of Sublette were the location of early Native
American villages.
Boydville was a mile east of Sublette and was abandoned for unknown reasons as were countless
other small communities in the west – we will never know why. William Sublette seems to have been briefly in
Santa Fe in the 1820’s but cannot be verified as ever being anywhere remotely close in space or time to
the location of the abandoned section camp at Sublette. Rendezvous were universally held close to
good sources of water which allowed transport of trade goods and water for the
participants of the Rendezvous – Sublette, NM has a spring feeding a cistern
for locomotive water and the touted location of the Rendezvous is on a
high dry ridge. The orderly piles of
stone – interesting, and they may have a story – but only a trained archeologist can make the determination and interpretation of
their origin and so far that hasn’t happened.
Other than the recorded construction and physical presence
of the Section Camp the problem with the rest of the story is little or nothing
of it can be verified. From railroad
records and first person accounts we do know about the families living there and how daily life was for
them and virtually
every detail of what was done and how it was done. Beyond the railroad records, no one knows why
the stop was named Sublette, just as no one knows why the term Toltec was
applied to the Gorge just beyond Sublette and on it goes.
However, there have been a series of well documented
Rendezvous along the Cumbres and Toltec and one just happens to be scheduled
for next week in Chama. Don’t get your
muzzle loader or loin cloth for this one; it will be a gathering of railroaders
to celebrate the semi-regular Steam Rendezvous on the Cumbres and Toltec. In addition to all the original equipment on
the railroad the D&RGW 315 (Erected 1895) from Durango as well as RGS “Galloping
Goose” #5 & #7 (Built 1930’s) From Dolores, CO and the Colorado Railroad Museum, will make runs up the 4% to Cumbres and Osier. There will be demonstrations of Maintenance
of Way equipment, dinners, celebration, pictures taken and stories to be told
many of which may rise, if retold, to the level of Local Legend. Railroaders were always good at telling and
embellishing a good story over a cup of coffee and a good laugh.
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| D&RGW 315 at Rock Tunnel #2 |
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| 30 years of technology D&RGW K-36 #483 (1925) & D&RGW C-18 #315 (1895) at Osier in 2008 |
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| Rio Grande Southern "RGS" Galloping Goose #5 on the Cumbres & Toltec |
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| Rio Grande Southern "RGS" #7 at the Colorado Railroad Museum - Golden, Co |
The event was unscheduled when I made our travel
plans early in the year. I will likely
be scheduled to docent at some point in this event and both Nate and Sarah will
ride the regularly scheduled Antonito – Chama with G and I on the last day of
the Rendezvous. Though we likely won’t
see the 315 or the Geese in action, it should be fun to see the rail fans doing
their thing.
I don’t like guessing and so remain a skeptic
preferring the comfort of solid research and verifiable resources. For me, the story of Mountain Men and
Rendezvous that are related to Sublette is an entertaining story, increasingly elaborated
with each repetition and well worth enjoying but with a qualifier - the story has all the trappings of Local Legend as does the story of Hangman's Trestle some 21 miles to the east. The story of what we really do know about
Sublette is even more exciting because it gives us an accurate picture of life
as our ancestors actually lived it – that is a story we can learn from.
