When you talk to a mountain man at a Mountain Man Rendezvous, you can't call them by their real names like Joe, or Bob, or John. You have to call them by their trapper name, such as White Buffalo, Dutch, Dogs Walker or Yaro.
So if you plan to attend the event at Fort Buenaventura State Park in West Ogden Sunday, be prepared to put new names on familiar faces.The event got under way Friday afternoon, with participants lining the park with tepees and tents. Men and women were walking around dressed in buckskin and fur clothing setting up goods to sell to each other and the public.
Some of the participants consider themselves mountain men all year around, while others are weekend trappers who hold contemporary jobs.
A.J. White, or White Buffalo from Shoshoni, Wyo., was selling beads, which he says he makes during the winter months. In a nearby box he had a stack of animal pelts.
"What are those," someone asked. White Buffalo chuckled and replied, "Why they're pelts off road kill rabbits."
White Buffalo said he goes to many rendezvous during the spring, summer and fall seasons and then strings beads in the winter. He said he buys most of his beads from Italy and Czechoslovakia. "This is how I make my living," he explained. "I sell and trade mountain man goods and supplies."
White Buffalo said he enjoys the free-living lifestyle of a mountain man, and selling his goods gives him a decent income. "It's a good way to relive history," he said of the rendezvous. "You can read history, or you can live history."
Cary Beckstead, or White Elk from Salt Lake City, said he considers his part-time mountain man lifestyle as a hobby. He said his whole family gets involved with the rendezvous.
And when his fashion isn't that of the 1800's, Beckstead said he works at a plant assembling guns.
Standing next to his coyote pelts, Beckstead said he buys raw pelts from trappers out of Canada and Alaska, then tans them before selling them to the public.
Next to Beckstead is another rack of animal pelts. Steve Dailey, or Dogs Walker from West Jordan, said he will sell the red and white fox, coyotes, muskrats and beaver pelts during the three-day rendezvous.
He said the white fox furs came from farms in Canada, but the other pelts he got by shooting and trapping the animals in Nevada and Utah.
Bill Keith, or Yaro, from Roy was just relaxing. "I like to participate in re-creating a little history," said Keith, an employee of the U.S. Forest Service. "I'm interested in the fur trade."
Besides selling goods, competition between the mountain men is also common at the rendezvous and includes black powder gun shoots, dutch oven cooking and tomahawk and knife throwing contests.