A River Runs Through It: Weekend event harkens back to Fur Trade Era 

Cody Cahill, 18, and his sister, Cora, 13, portrayed settlers from the 1750s during the 30th annual A River Thru History – The Des Plaines Valley Rendezvous.

By Kelly White 

The 30th annual A River Thru History – The Des Plaines Valley Rendezvous returned again this year to Columbia Woods Forest Preserve in Willow Springs for a weekend filled with historic facts, recreation and fun.

Taking place at the intersection of Archer Avenue and Willow Springs Road, the event focused on the re-creation of life in the Des Plaines Valley area during the Fur Trade Era attracted hundreds of people on Saturday, September 9, and Sunday, September 10.

“This event is unique because it gives you an opportunity to step back into the period for as authentically as people can make it,” re-enactor, Lynn Persico said.

Persico played a role as one of the French settlers who came to Illinois in 1750. The men were often referred to as Voyageurs, Persico explained, while the women tended to the families, cooking, doing laundry and entertaining children with games.

“Illinois was actually a part of France, and this is something that a lot of people don’t know,” Persico said.

The Fur Trade Era began after the first European explorers, Louis Jolliet and Father Marquette canoed up the Des Plaines River and passed through the Chicago Portage in 1673.

The Rendezvous was the high point of the year for traders who battered supplies for furs with local tribes because it celebrates early history when explorers and Voyageurs paddled the area waterways, and trappers and hunters lived near the river systems. During the Rendezvous, traders would get together to not only trade, but also to socialize, dance, sing, eat, drink, fight and race canoes.

Taking place in a beautiful wooded setting on the banks of the Des Plaines River, the event re-created what it was like when hunters and trappers came together with the Voyageurs each fall to trade for supplies, socialize, and compete in camp contests, demonstrating what a rendezvous might have been like along the banks of the Des Plaines River before Chicago became a city.

Attendees could also watch camp contests, like a skillet toss and historical fashion show. A colonial fife and drum corps marched through camp at various times to keep order. Anyone was welcome to a ride in a Voyageur canoe down the river, have a chat with Chicago’s first resident, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable or hear Father Jacques Marquette read from his early journals written while exploring Illinois country in 1673.

For children, there were games, storytelling and a trading post where kids could learn to barter with a fur trading company, throw a tomahawk and learn frontier skills from hunters, trappers, and Voyageurs.

Big Run Wolf Ranch showcased several animals on Sunday, as well.

“This is so fun,” re-enactor, Cora Cahill, 13, of Sycamore, said. “I’ve been a part of the re-enactment for the past 10 years and I look forward to it every year.”

Cora’s brother, Cody, also played a role as a 1750 settler.

“I want to work with children in the future and volunteering for this gives me plenty of experience,” Cody, 18, said.

The event was sponsored by the I&M Canal National Heritage Corridor Civic Center Authority, the Forest Preserves of Cook County and the Heritage Corridor Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Gabe Capouch, 11, of Joliet; his sister, Freya, 3; and mother, Monique, at the 30th annual A River Thru History – The Des Plaines Valley Rendezvous on September 9.