PLAMONDON – On July 4 and 5, people from the Lac La Biche region and throughout Alberta were in Plamondon to participate in an event that was half a century in the making.
The Plamondon Festival Centre played host to the 50th annual Rendezvous and Outdoorsman Show. People who attended the two-day event had the opportunity to take in a variety of activities that included archery, axe throwing, fur handling, chainsaw carving, children’s activities, and a trapping demonstration on wooded trails next to the creek in Plamondon, which is located about 31 km from the hamlet of Lac La Biche.
A large event tent was set up on the grounds and featured a trade show with vendors selling an assortment of outdoor products that were trapping, fishing, and hunting-related, including furs, crafted items, scents for trapping baits, along with traps and equipment. There was also a smaller venue with the furs of wild animals on display which were trapped by members of the Lac La Biche Trappers Local 1120.
A silent auction and banquet were also part of the 50th annual Rendezvous and Outdoor Show, which was a collaborative effort between the Lac La Biche Trappers Local 1120 and the Alberta Trappers Association.
According to Vic Toutant, president of the Lac La Biche Trappers, the long-running event is held in a different Alberta community each year.
The organization hosted the 40th annual Rendezvous and Outdoorsman Show in 2015 and decided to bring it back to the community for its half-century celebration.
“Because the 50th is a big event, we put our names forward to host the 50th,” Toutant told Lakeland This Week.
Having the Rendezvous and Outdoorsman Show in the Lac La Biche area, Toutant said, is significant as the region has a strong fur trapping heritage.
“Lac La Biche is Alberta’s second-oldest community in the province, and a big part of it being established was to do with the fur trade back in the early David Thompson days,” he said. “So, Lac La Biche has a huge, very extremely rich history with trapping in the community.”
According to Bill Abercrombie, president of the Alberta Trappers Association, the Rendezvous and Outdoorsman Show has its beginnings in the northern Alberta community of Worsley.
Abercrombie explained that in 1975, trappers felt compelled to have an annual get together for the purposes of meeting with other trappers from different areas of the province.
“We just stuck with it through thick and thin, and it has turned into really what I think is one of the premier events in the trapping community in North America,” he said.
Unlike other outdoor enthusiasts such as hunters and fishers, Abercrombie continued, trappers are a strong community and therefore, it is important to host the Rendezvous and Outdoorsman Show in a different Alberta community each year so that people can gather and socialize.
“It’s part of our culture,” he said. “We’re a hunter-gatherer culture, and what we do is we get together, and we tell stories, we share experiences, we share knowledge, and we celebrate what we have.”
Plamondon is a great place to host the 50th anniversary of the popular annual trapping gathering, he said.
“This is where it all began…northeast Alberta 200 years ago,” he said. “The trapping community is very vibrant here, very strong, very closely tied with the Indigenous community…that’s the perfect location for this anniversary event.”
For Robin Marshall, a trapper from the Peace River area, attending the annual event is a great way to meet plenty of folks with likeminded interests while gaining more knowledge about trapping.
“You always get to learn some stuff…new tips and techniques,” Marshall said.
