Boyd Harrison Memorial Event
April 27-29, 2007
Texas Free Trappers
Grey Wolf, Booshwah
1488 Hallmark
Canyon Lake, Texas 78133
830-935-3121
wolfbear@gvtc.com
February 15, 2007
Fellow reenactors,
Some of us who knew Boyd Harrison have been discussing doing a historic event as a memorial to him.
I knew him from being in two groups, SALHA and the Fritztown Free Trappers.
He was not a member of the Texas Free Trappers, though he was invited to all of our past five rendezvous and the monthly shooting matches of my other group, the White Smoke Brigade.
He was always too busy to attend any of them.
We are planning our sixth rendezvous for the weekend of April 27-29. It will be held on an 800 acre "ranch" at La Vernia that belongs to a friend of our group.
It occurred to me that we should do our event as a memorial to Boyd for several reasons; he was a buckskinner, a Texian fighter for Texas independence and a history teacher at La Vernia elementary school. Our thought is to invite Boyd's family, fellow teachers and students to attend our event in order to show them how Boyd's love of history manifested itself in his life away from his professional duties.
Members of other groups have let it be known that they would like to take part in a memorial, so we are inviting those groups to join us at our rendezvous. Here are some preliminary ideas for your group's consideration.
Fritztown Free Trappers, Texas Association of Buckskinners, Society of Buckskinners and other similar groups will set up in rendezvous camp and take part in shooting, knife and hawk throwing and primitive archery matches. A flyer is being prepared to list all of the weekend's events.
SALHA, Texian Legacy Association and COTLHA Texians and Mexican soldados are invited to set up separate camps and can have marching drills and other appropriate typical camp activities. Notices to other reenacting groups would be welcome. All are not listed here for lack of knowledge of them.
Special shooting events can be held for Tex Rev groups who ordinarily don't get to send a ball downrange.
Hopefully, someone will bring a cannon or two for demonstration and a possible salute. I will have my 1 5/8" bore swivel gun there.
All groups will cook appropriate foods during the day as a demonstration and for the potluck supper.
Guests will be welcomed Saturday afternoon to see what all of us reenactors enjoy doing. They will visit the different camps and watch the competitive events. Guests can be entertained by our rendezvous Round Robin trading session and will be invited to have foods from the camps at the potluck dinner afterwards. We always cook more than we can eat and can put a little more in the pot for guests.
Guests can attend the council fire that will have our competition awards, historic story telling, the opportunity for eulogies and reminiscences, and possibly music afterwards.
Early setup day will be possible on Thursday the 26th. Events will take place on Friday and Saturday.
Rendezvous folks typically start packing up to leave early on Sunday morning, but we always have informal shooting matches for quarters for those who can stay a while. Other groups will be welcome to have events and leave later as well.
I need to get responses as soon as possible so I can revise our standard flyer and get it circulated and published in the March issue of the Rendezvous Calendar that has wide circulation in Texas and other nearby states.
Needless to say, this could be an annual event where all groups share their knowledge and enjoyment
and remember friends who have left this planet. I belonged to a buckskinner group in New Mexico that had a rendezvous each year on Memorial Day weekend. On the morning of the holiday we would line up and each of us would say a few words about a deceased family member who was a veteran. Then we fired a volley of blanks, a member's mountain howitzer fired a shot and a piper played Amazing Grace. I would like to start that custom here in Texas. Most of us prefer to keep the "atmosphere" of the period we reenact, so our events might not be open to the public, but family members of deceased reenactors might be invited.
An RSVP is requested so I can send out more information including a map to the site. You can either call or email me, my info is at the top of this page. In case of inclement weather leading up to the event, you can call for verification or cancellation, as my phone will be answered through Saturday morning.
I welcome your suggestions and recommendations.
Thanks for your help.
Gray Wolf - aka Joe Wolf in the real world
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