RELIVING THE RENDEZVOUS: RE-ENACTMENT BRINGS FRONTIER FORT TO LIFE

A cannon fired live rounds during a cannon competition at the rendezvous at Fort de Chartres. Cans filled with cement were fired from the cannon because of a lack of cannonball.

PRAIRIE DU ROCHER, Ill. -- Mornings were unusually quiet among the white tents and teepees pitched around Fort de Chartres this weekend. "Rooster" didn't wake anyone up.

"Usually you hear him walking between the tents at 7 in the morning calling out 'I don't care if you partied all night, it's time to get up,' " said Ken "Bald Eagle" Hoffman, describing Don "Rooster" Gaschel, one of several ordinary people who become personalities at Rendezvous.

Rendezvous is an annual re-enactment of life on the 18th century frontier, sponsored in part by the Illinois Historic Preservation Society and Les Courers de Bois, a blackpowder gun club that meets weekly at the 18th century Fort de Chartres.

With nearly 1,100 participants camped at the fort and at least 6,000 others making day trips over the weekend, Rendezvous has become the largest event of its genre in the Midwest, said Don Trambley, marking his 25th year at the gathering.

"The people who keep this going are mostly hard core history buffs," said Trambley, of Anna, dressed in a Scottish kilt and beret. "You have to love American history to do this."

Rendezvous takes place at the fort, a state historical site, much in the same way it would have over 200 years ago, Trambley said. In the mid-1700s, the fort was a center for activity as traders and others made their ways around the French-controlled territory. But at least once a year, they would have a "rendezvous," or gathering, to come out of the woods to barter for goods and share good times.

"They might spend a week or a month here letting off steam," Trambley said.

In his 20 years at Rendezvous, "Rooster" Gaschel of Percy has done his best to preserve tradition. As town crier, he has usually walked the tent rows in his buckskin moccasins shouting announcements, taking lost children back to their parents and eliminating unnecessary luxuries.

"Every once in a while someone tries to sneak a battery-powered TV into a tent," Gaschel said. "I've reminded them that this is primitive camping and there are rules to be followed."

Even though a foot injury keeps Gaschel from continuing as town crier, he does enforce frontier living in his own tent. If his wife Barbara wants to cool off, she can't get a fan. She gets a bucket of cold water, he said.

To Ed "Mountain Man" Cochran, this is a more natural lifestyle. In his 29 years of Rendezvous, he has built countless benches, trunks and stools from wood for his own use and for trading.

"About the only thing in this tent I didn't build was the frying pan," said Cochran, also of Percy.

Most Rendezvous regulars build up a cache of goods over the years, "Bald Eagle" Hoffman said. Leather boots, bone-handled knifes and a bearskin were spread out in front of his white canvas tent for traders or buyers. He has acquired his collection solely by selling and trading his own handcrafted leather pouches.

"He has one bedroom filled with this stuff at home," said Hoffman's wife, Sue Ann. "And now he doesn't have time to make pouches, so I'm trying to figure out what to do with 2,000 pounds of leather."

A member of the Colonial Fife and Drum Corps from Alton wanted to lose pounds at Rendezvous, too. Fourteen-year-old Doug Pride carries the flag for the corps, as well as wearing his weighty head-to-toe wool uniform.

"I look at this as a test of my stamina," Pride said. "And it helps me lose weight."

Wearing only a buckskin loincloth and silk headwrap, Bill Surman of Chester said he decided to dress down this year. As a member of the Fort de Chartres gun club, he typically wears 18th century military costumes to a weekly meeting at the fort. But for this Rendezvous, he wanted to dress for the weather and for himself.

"It gets rather somber when only the gun club meets here," Surman said, looking across the crowded grounds of the fort. "But when you put people in here, these stone walls come to life."