For Immediate Release         Media Contact:  Pam Jones or Marjorie Beenders
August 24, 2009                                           Phone: 573-636-8282 « Email: pam@tbmg.net

Mountain Man Rendezvous Offers Loud Cannons,
Flying Anvils, Creative Storytellers
at Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks

 Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. – Three exciting performances will take place during the 22nd Annual Osage River Mountain Man Rendezvous and Muzzleloader Shoot, Sept. 18-20, at the Silver Star Campground below Bagnell Dam at Central Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks.  The first Mountain Man, ear-piercing anvil shoots and the famous French Artillery complete with booming cannons will thrill onlookers from 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, and 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20. The events will take place at the Mountain Man encampment, an authentic living-history re-enactment that brings together traders, trappers, gunsmiths, artisans, storytellers and others faithfully depicting frontier life circa 1800-1840.  Festival hours will be 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Sunday.

Historical re-enactor Clint Winn of New Bloomfield, Mo., will portray John Colter, a member of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery who stayed behind in the West when the Corps returned home in 1806.  “Colter was the first white man to see Yellowstone.  He lived there alone for 18 months,” Winn says.  “Although there were European trappers and traders in the West, Colter was the first American Mountain Man.  He later settled in New Haven, Missouri.”  Winn has portrayed Colter at numerous festivals, conventions and schools throughout Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma and beyond. 

Crowd-pleaser and World Anvil Shooting Champion Gay Wilkinson of Farmington, Mo., will be back to demonstrate anvil shooting, which consists of placing a large blacksmith’s anvil upside down on the ground, filling it with gunpowder, placing another anvil on top and lighting a line leading from the powder.  The resulting boom supposedly can be heard many miles away.

“In the early 19th century, towns without cannons shot anvils to alert people about emergencies or special gatherings,” says Geniece Tyler, festival co-chairman and owner of the Golden Door Motel in Osage Beach.  “Gay shoots his anvil so high, sometimes up to 100 feet into the air – it’s just incredible that a heavy hunk of lead can fly like that.” 

The third festival attraction will be re-enactors of the French Artillery.  “They add real flair with their colorful outfits and their cannons,” Tyler notes.  “They don’t use cannonballs but instead use gunpowder in a can and that makes a loud boom.”

The colorful Trader’s Row marketplace will be back, featuring a wide array of goods that a mountain man might have made or traded, including collectible guns and knives, woven blankets, fabric and clothing, beadwork, homemade soap and candles, leather goods, pottery and baskets, jams and jelly, arrowheads, pelts and much more.  “We’ll have up to 25 traders and many more items for sale on trading blankets in front of tents,” Tyler says.

As in previous years, mountain men and women will compete for prizes in black powder shoots, tomahawk and knife throwing and fire-starting contests.  Spectators are welcome to watch these impressive competitions.  In addition, the first annual Mountain Man Farmers Market is planned for Saturday morning just outside the encampment.

Tyler expects more than 100 re-enactors to participate and more than 3,000 visitors over the festival weekend.  More than 1,000 students will attend the event at no charge on Friday.  “Schools from all over the region bring their students here because it’s such a great learning experience,” she says.  Admission for the entire weekend will be $5 for adults; children age 15 and younger will be admitted free with a paid adult admission. 

“The Mountain Man Rendezvous is a great family event but also an important effort to keep alive this piece of American history that otherwise could be forgotten,” Tyler says.  “As you stroll through the area and see all the tents and lodges and people dressed in buckskin, smell the smoke from the campfires and hear the dulcimer and mandolin music in the background, it’s easy to believe you’ve been transported to another century.”

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