My Lodge at the Yellow River

Welcome to "CHOCTAW'S" HOMEPAGE

My name is James Barrow Caton, better known around the campfire as "CHOCTAW". I hope to create several pages of my hobby "BuckSkinning" with my other hobby, the computer.

Choctaw is my "Mountain Man" name. "Buckskinner" is a term used for going back in time prior to 1840. This was a time in history that the Western part of the USA was opened up by the trappers or "Mountain Men" as they were called. St. Louis, Mo. was the jumping off place to the West. Men went to the Rocky Mountains to trap beaver, and then came back to St. Louis to trade their furs for the necessities of life and go back to the Rocky Mountains and live another year. Someone came up with the idea that it would be easier and very profitable to take the necessities of life by the wagon train to the Rocky Mountains. This was arranged in the early 1800s and the first "Rendezvous" was held. "Rendezvous" are held today on a national, regional, and local level. They last from two days to two weeks and take place most every week of the year .....somewhere.

Today there is a rapidly growing group of people that have resurrected the mountain man rendezvous and revitalized an entire area of historical research. These people--who commonly call themselves buckskinners, longhunters, and mountain men are continuing the ways of the original mountain men. The French and Indian War, Roger's Rangers,and the colonial experience are all represented, but the unifying factor is the system established by Ashley and Henry in an attempt to control the Rocky Mountain Fur trade. Early in their enterprise they stumbled on to the fact that it was cheaper to keep trapppers busy catching furs in the mountains than it was to bring them out to civilization each year. There was the added bonus of being the only supplier of goods to the trappers as well. Thus was born the mountain man, and the annual bacchanal in the Rockies....RENDEZVOUS!