by James C. Fulmer | Past President, NMLRA
“We are a muzzleloading club with a strong love of our country’s history, its historical skills, and crafts. As such, we are united in a common bond and united we shall stand so that this wonderful club will be enjoyed by our children and their children. It is with great pleasure that I serve the Florida Frontiersmen to this end.”
–Marty Betts, President | Florida Frontiersmen
With the month of January comes a new 2017 calendar. This calendar is where the year-long schedule of shooting, rendezvous, re-enactments, gun shows, hunting, fishing, and everything else will be marked down. You can still only be at one place at a time and many of the things I love to do fall on the same weekend. This is where I need a calendar to keep track of all the events.
What I do is I place all the known events on the calendar, mark events you will never miss and then the ones I would like go to if I am able. Some weekends I will place two to four events that I would like to go to and hope my work schedule will allow me to go to one of them. My calendar is always changing, so I need a road map of potential events I can attend. Make your map for the coming year starting now.
Ava has traveled the country with Lazarus and Rembrandt— her large antique plate cameras.
One thing that has always been on my calendar and I never have made it to is the Alafia River Rendezvous” in Florida. The Florida Frontiersmen host the Alafia River Rendezvous every year and this year it will be Jan. 14-21, with early set up Jan. 11-13. The Florida Frontiersmen is a charter club of the NMLRA and Marty Betts is their current president. The title of this year’s Alafia River Rendezvous is “Sharing What We Love.” Check out the Florida Frontiersmen’s website for more information about the exact location and all the different events and programs they will put on to make this event great.
The NMLRA has many Charter Clubs. Some are very successful in “sharing what we love;” others, well, not so much. At the present time 268 Charter Clubs in 46 different states belong to the NMLRA Charter Club list. The Charter Clubs are the heart and soul of the NMLRA. It is here where NMLRA members can be regularly found. It is at the local level that muzzleloading can be used to introduce shooters to the NMLRA and our rich muzzleloading heritage. If we cannot promote and grow on the Charter Club level, the NMLRA won’t grow on a National level. Many of our potential members have never heard of the NMLRA other than by word of mouth from a local muzzleloading shoot or a flyer in a gun shop, or maybe a rendezvous or a living history event in their area. At worst, it is also a reason why our membership is averaging 70 years old.
Like it or not, the internet is a part of people’s lives now. The primary means of communication for about the last 20 years has become the internet. People who are thirty-something use the internet to do their business and for their personal communication. People search the internet looking for places where they can participate in activities they like, from going to movies to going to a rendezvous. The world is literally held in the palm of their hand, and if a gun club or an event wants to be successful it needs to have a good website or a serious internet presence.
Ava can shoot both pictures with her camera and targets with her muzzleloader.
A good example that I can give is the Fort Roberdeau event held at Altoona, PA, in November every year. One of the best advertisements they have is a series of You Tube videos made by Mike Beliveau. He has covered the event every year the event has been held. Many spectators and participants have shown up to the event through these videos on You Tube. Many are young people, from college students to young couples, who wanted something to do on the weekend and search the internet for something unique to do. One couple I know had just moved from Montana to Pennsylvania, and missed going to rendezvous like they attended out west. So, all they did was type in “Rendezvous Living History October Pennsylvania” and Fort Roberdeau came up under NMLRA.org and You Tube. The internet has become the most powerful way of “sharing what we love.” Make a good website, keep it up to date, and share links. It will help in getting the word out and the next generation to your events.
As I am writing here, I spied a book on my shelf and pulled it off for a look. It’s a book full of photographs taken by Ava Franchesca titled “Keeping the Spirit Alive.” It’s full of photos of rendezvous encampments east of the Mississippi. The book is hard bound and is 176 pages full of photographs of modern day rendezvous. It was published in 1996, twenty years ago. There are hundreds and hundreds of photos of rendezvous from the early 1990s to when the book was published. Ava dedicated this book twenty years ago to “The Grey Beards who walked before us, to the friends who walk with us, and to the those unborn who will walk beyond us,” and to her parents “Who have kept the spirit burning bright.” The book is divided into chapters with photos and names of the people from the following rendezvous: Lancaster, Woodbury, Vincennes, Friendship, Prairie du Chien, Old North West, White Oak, The Eastern, Caleb J. Hall, Virginia Primitive, and the Alafia.
Not everybody is pictured in the book which I can attest. Ava came running up to me talking about the book after it was first published in 1996. She told me that I should have a copy.
I said, “I am not in it.”
Ava said, “Yes you are.”
So she searched and searched, but I wasn’t in it.
I said “Remember I’m always the guy you asked to get out of the way when you were taking a picture!” For the last 20 years we have laughed about that and she has taken many great photographs of me and my family since then at rendezvous.
I know Ava will be at the Alafia River Rendezvous this year. So if you get a chance, look her up and page through the book; I know she has a few copies left. If you attended any of those rendezvous back then it is a great book to bring back memories. Many people in the book are gone now, but I can find their picture in the book and it is really a great way to remember them and “keep the spirit alive.”
