2022 Fort Koshkonong Rendezvous well attended, organizers say

By Kim McDarison

Some 2,000 visitors arrived over the Memorial Day weekend to participate in the Fort Koshkonong Rendezvous, according to estimates made Sunday afternoon by event “booshway” and Fort Atkinson resident Joel Winn.

The 1840s-era fur trappers and traders reenactment event was held between Friday and Sunday in Fort Atkinson’s Rock River Park.

A booshway, Winn recently explained, is a title given by 1840s trappers to the “head man” at a rendezvous, which, in the days of the fur trappers and traders, was an annual social and supplies gathering event.

The Koshkonong Rendezvous has been taking place in Fort Atkinson since 1994, pausing in 2020 and 2021, as a COVID-19 safety precaution.

According to Winn, this year, on Friday, some 500 elementary school students visited the reenactment site, which is designed to help bring aspects of 1840s American history to life.

Typically, he said, fourth- and fifth-grade students from within a 50-mile radius are brought to the site.

All members of the public were invited to participate on Saturday and Sunday.

Several participants chose to camp for the holiday weekend event in campgrounds set up specifically for the rendezvous on the park’s north side.

The park’s stockade replica was built in 1960 as a replication of one built in what remains today an unknown site along the Rock River in 1932, Winn told Fort Atkinson Online in a previously reported story.

The idea for the rendezvous began as a Fort Atkinson Area of Commerce Project LEAD group endeavor designed to bring visitors into the area through a reenactment event. The idea had been successful in neighboring communities, Winn said.

The stockage replica in the Rock River Park seemed like a good fit for a historical reenactment, Winn added.

An earlier story about the rendezvous and its history is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/rendezvous-rescue-the-booshway-is-in/.

Photos from the event, taken Sunday afternoon, follow.

Alan Harrison, seated, of Dixon, Ill., displays an assortment of arrowheads while demonstrating the skill of “flint knapping,” a process by which tools were once made. The process involves precisely chipping stones into useful shapes.

“Capt. T.G. Anderson,” aka Tim Brown of Johnson Creek, shares his story with curious visitors. Anderson was in the fur trading business between 1800 and 1814, he said, adding that he had accompanied the half brother of a merchant with whom he had served as an apprentice to the American Post of Mackinac on what is today Mackinac Island. The men arrived to trade with the Indians. By 1810, Anderson had become a respected independent trader, traveling throughout what is today known as Wisconsin. He participated in the War of 1812, raising a company of volunteers after learning of the fall of Mackinac to the British, and helped the British capture a fort built in Prairie du Chien. After the war, Anderson was given the rank of captain and employed in the Indian Department. As a trader and government employee, Anderson maintained close contact with the Indians for 58 years. His full story is here: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/anderson_thomas_gummersall_10E.html. Brown said he has been telling Anderson’s story at events such as the rendezvous for 30 years.

Steve Blattner, Waukesha, greets visitors outside of the stockade replica. He said he was attending the rendezvous as an “old voyager,” who had taken up the trade of paddle maker.

Dan Bussey, Edgerton, talks about the process involved in wagon wheel making. Bussey described himself as a carriage historian and wagon and sleigh collector. “I love old stuff,” he said, adding that he has been involved with educating the public about carriages and wheels for 15 years.

A wagon is on display at the Fort Koshkonong Rendezvous held over Memorial Day weekend in Fort Atkinson’s Rock River Park. The wagon is owned by Edgerton resident and carriage historian Dan Bussey.

Fort Atkinson High School science teacher and community resident Nick Hamele, at left, and Nick Kjorlie, Middleton, demonstrate skills used in blacksmithing. Hamele described the old fashioned blacksmithing endeavor as a “side gig,” noting that reenactments are his hobby. He also teaches blacksmithing-related skills during summer school, he said, noting this year, he will be teaching a class called “Armor and Anvils.”

Daniel Vogt demonstrates the art of hide tanning. Vogt, a resident of Sheridan, Ill., said he has been operating his hide-trading business for three years, describing it as a “sideline” used to support his interest in reenactment events. He often sells his hides to fellow reenactment enthusiasts, he said.

Fort Atkinson-based Simple Life Country Store owner Dawn Garvey, at right, helps a customer. Several products typically found in her store were available for purchase at the “country store” found at the rendezvous, which was set up inside one of the stockage replica’s permanent buildings.

A view of merchandise found within the country story at the rendezvous.

Connor Patton, 5, of Fort Atkinson, peeks through a window of a building made from pegs and two-by-fours. His mom, Christy, not pictured, said Connor likes to play pretend. Connor agreed with his mother’s assessment that he climbed into the wood-and-peg-built model because it “looked fun.”

Cousins Zylee McGrade, 7, of Janesville, at left, and Cadence Brown, 3, Fort Atkinson, play with an old fashioned game while their relative, Karen Behm, shops at the rendezvous clothing store. Behm, Fort Atkinson, said she and family members were camping during the event. She has been camping at the rendezvous for eight years while the girls were enjoying their first camping experience. Behm said she saw the rendezvous as a good opportunity to help develop in youth an appreciation for historical events.

Siblings Zylee McGrade, 7, and her brother, Brian, 11, both of Janesville, enjoy the view from atop a walkway in the stockage replica.

Rendezvous clothing and games storekeepers Holly and Mark Gotstein, Manitowoc, invite visitors to their store. The couple has been coming to the Fort Koshkonong Rendezvous for 19 years, they said. They also attend one in Aztalan. Mark said he is a Civil War reenactment enthusiast and Holly runs the store.

A couple enters the stockade replica at Fort Atkinson’s Rock River Park.

A tractor-drawn wagon makes its way to the stockage replica. The vehicle was on hand to convey rendezvous patrons between the parking, camping and demonstration areas.

Rendezvous volunteers Grae Szabo, 12, at left, and Luca Vincent, 13, both of Fort Atkinson, travel by foot between the demonstration area and the camping area. The volunteers said that during the event, they demonstrated churning butter and making “pemmican,” which, both agreed, is something of an acquired taste.

Autumn Kittel-Phillips, 11, Fort Atkinson, from left, Isha Paudel, a former Fort Atkinson High School foreign exchange student today attending the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and Joel Winn, Fort Atkinson resident and “booshway” or “head man” of the Fort Koshkonong Rendezvous, greet visitors arriving at the event’s north gate. As of Sunday afternoon, Winn estimated some 2,000 people had attended the event which began Friday.

Members of the Janisch family, Brian, from left, his sister, Kayla, and his daughter, Hanna, enjoy lunch near the rendezvous campgrounds. The family is from Stoughton.

Kim McDarison photos.

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