DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAINS

It's rendezvous time! These men have spent a lonely year trapping beaver in the solitude of the Rockies but now they are more than ready to come "Down from the Mountains" for some good-natured gambling, drinking and trading.

The first rendezvous was held in 1825 on Henry's Fork of the Green River in what is today Wyoming. Several mountain men converged to sell their furs and stock up on provisions. So successful was this first rendezvous that it became an annual event held in different parts of the West, enjoyed in summertime when trapping was slow and crossing the Rockies was relatively easy. In the early 1840s, when beaver hats fell out of fashion, the trappers abandoned their livelihood and the rendezvous was a thing of the past. Perhaps it was just as well; the mountain men spent so much money on entertainment that they often went back to the mountains poorer than they were when they came down.