HISTORIC RENDEZVOUS ON TAP THIS WEEKEND AT FORT DE CHARTRES

PRAIRIE DU ROCHER, ILL. - The Midwest's largest gathering of 1700s-era soldiers, settlers, traders and campers will be held Saturday and Sunday, at the 24th annual Rendezvous at Fort de Chartres State Historic Site. The fort is located east of Prairie du Rocher, Ill., north of Chester. Activities are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

Phyllis Eubanks of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in Springfield, says the annual Rendezvous brings people from across the country who are interested in re-enacting the traditional French fur trappers holiday of the mid-1700s. All activities are free and open to the public, and many activities feature public participation. The event is sponsored by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and Les Coeurers de Bois de Fort de Chartres.

Eubanks said the two-day event will begin and end with a formal flag raising and lowering ceremony, featuring the massed fife and drum corps and bagpipe bands. The daily activities will include flintrock muzzle loading competition, pistol shoots and military drills. The fort's cannon will be fired hourly, preceded by an instruction in the art of cannon firing by the 17th Illinois Territorial Rangers. Adam Adrian Crown, master-at-arms, from Ithaca, New York, will present fencing demonstrations each day, with free fencing lessons and a "fence-off" for all age groups.

There will be more than 150 blanket traders, a dance group, three folk music groups, two fife and drum corps, one bagpipe unit, 20 historic and modern food vendors and 900 primitive campsites.

About 30 artisan and craft demonstrations will include pottery, blacksmithing, tinsmithing, coopering, pewter casting, felt making, lace making, weaving, wood working, hide tanning, gunsmithing and silhouette cutting. Many of the items will be for sale.

Several new activities will be held this year at the rendezvous, Eubanks said. The Blarney Players, a traveling marionette company, will recreate entertainment from the 18th and 19th centuries. Re-enactors will also portray an 18th century physician and surgeon.

French Marines will be stationed at the fort's gates to welcome visitors and guard the fort as they did in the 1750s.

To reach Fort de Chartes from the Cape Girardeau-Jackson area, take I-55 north to Perryville, then go east on Route 51 and cross the Mississippi River Bridge at Chester, Ill. Turn left on Illinois Route 3, and go north to Ruma, then left onto Illinois Route 155 and go west to Prairie du Rocher. Cross the railroad tracks and travel another four miles to the fort.

Rendezvous visitors may also want to go by way of Ste. Genevieve so they can cross the Mississippi River ferryboat to Modoc, Ill. Signs will guide travelers from Modoc to Fort de Chartes.