Chief Tom Matingly’s secret passion…………what could it be?

The answer is history! The Mountain Man Rendezvous is one of his favorite things. He is a member of the Fort Henry Buckskinner’s, and they gather every year, the second week in June, at Conant Creek to live the life of a mountain man. Tom also shares his love and knowledge of history with 4th graders as they learn about Idaho history doing presentations during the winter as well as participating in the Jr. Rendezvous every May at Krupp Scout Hollow. The Jr. Rendezvous starts on the first Wednesday of May and lasts through Friday.

The Buckskinner’s (approximately 20-25 members) arrive on Monday to clean and set up camp. They have half a dozen different stations including a trapper’s camp, tee pee etiquette camp, fire arms and flint knapping, knife & hawk stations, there is a fire starting station. The mountain men had to stay fit and healthy to survive so there is a nature station on nutrition education, they teach what plants were edible and which weren’t. Mountain Men also needed entertainment and there were always story tellers to tell the “big fish” stories. Ed Henry or better known as “Poor Devil”- tells stories at his station.

Tom or “Old Goat” helps at all of the stations when the guys need a break. He does a lot of the cooking as well. This is plain hard work, as he unpacks all the gear and helps set up the primitive camps, including 6 tee pees. The Fort Henry Buckskinners live there for a week and have over 1200 students to care for and teach. The kids each get a free necklace with a bear claw and a couple of beads. They learn history by living it and loving it!

The Boy Scouts schedule an event to come in on Saturday following the rendezvous to see the camp before they packup and leave for the year. The Fort Henry Buckskinners are generous volunteers who give up paying jobs to spend a week and live history and share it with our youth.

Tom Matingly Teaches Kids About the Way Things Used to Be.