Celebration this weekend

People will be able to take a step back in time this weekend by celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Dow House in Dow City.

Tours of the 13-room country home built by Simeon E. Dow will show what life was like for a prominent upper middle-class family in the 1870s.

Outside the house, people can take a stride further back in time by taking in the buckskinners rendezvous. The south lawn of the Dow House will be dotted with white canvass teepees and wall tents where buckskinners will be waiting to share their skills of hide tanning, wood craft, jewelry making and tomahawk and knife throwing.

Among the buckskinners will be Richard Rose, of Dunlap, who has been at his craft since the early 1990s. His craft is the brain tanning of hides. He will have a hide available for people to see and perhaps try their hand at scraping.

Rose explained that the rendezvous history dates back to about 1823 as a way for the mountain men and the Native Americans to bring their beaver pelts to a central location where the bigger fur companies would bring goods out for trade. 

He added that the rendezvous started dropping off in the mid-1830s. Among the reasons were that the style had changed from beaver hats to silk hats, and the fact that much of the beaver population had been trapped out.

Rose explained a trapper’s lifespan in the mountains was one to two years.

“The idea was you go to the mountains and trap for two years, earning basically enough money to go buy a small farm in Missouri or Illinois or wherever,” he said.

He added that getting $4 or $5 for a pelt was a quicker way to get rich than for 50 cents or a dollar a day for labor.

Of course, life didn’t go smoothly for the mountain men. They were challenged by weather, dangers of living in the mountains and the possibility of getting robbed of their pelts.

Rose invited people to visit the buckskinner camps and learn more about that period in history.

“I’m hoping that basically they get kind of an idea of what things were like, as far as cooking over the fires, and that they get the idea of how these people survived,” he said.

He continued that when he demonstrates hide scraping and brain tanning, he tells kids that a buckskin was the basic everyday wear for those on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Their uniforms were kept packed away to preserve them for ceremonial days and for presentations made to the chiefs of Native American tribes.

“Usually, I’ll let the kids wear a garment so they can feel the weight of that,” said Rose. “And then I tell them to imagine that this is all you had to wear all the time.”

Last year the buckskinners rendezvous had about 14 camps on the south lawn of the Dow House. Rose hopes to have more camps this year.

“We’re hoping that people get that sense of the past when they come and visit us,” said Rose.

The buckskinners rendezvous will be set up from Friday, June 7, through Sunday, June 9.

Some of the camps have already been set up on the Dow House’s south lawn.

Here is the rest of the schedule of events for the Dow House 150th anniversary.

Pie and ice cream served from 1-4 p.m. for $5 on Saturday and tours of the Dow House from 12-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, June 15, a meal will be served for $10, accompanied by live entertainment by the Boyer River Band. The meal of BBQ pulled pork, chips, a drink and dessert will be served from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. People are welcome to bring their own alcoholic beverage. Pop and water will be for sale. In case of rain, the event will move to the Dow City Community Room. The Boyer River Band will play from 6 to 9 p.m.

Along with entertainment, education and fun, people will have a chance to take something else away from the Dow House 150th celebration. Tickets will be sold for a commemorative Henry Golden Boy rifle, a limited-edition Dow House print and over 40 baskets of interesting and unique items.

Steel 150th anniversary cups will be available for purchase both weekends.

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