Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Death Valley Days: Spring Rendezvous

With a horse full of fur from his time in the mountains, Kit Carson (James MacArthur) is headed to the Rendezvous at Green River in Wyoming.  He has decided he needs a wife and he knows just the one: Waa-Nibe (Brioni Farrell) of the Arapaho.  However, there is a Frenchman who also has eyes for Waa-Nibe.  Shugar is a giant of a man who is regularly seen trouncing other trappers with little difficulty.  By contrast, Kit is a smallish man, even called Little Man by the Arapaho.  Kit challenges Shugar and the pair mount horses at 200 paces and carry rifles.  Kit's crack shooting wins the day and he marries Waa-Nibe.

Though I cannot speak to the particulars, the gist is entirely true.  In 1836, Kit Carson attending the annual Rendezvous.  The Rendezvous was an opportunity for fur trading companies to purchase all the furs that the mountain men had collected since the previous year.  It was the annual county fair for those living in the wilderness.  Joseph Chouinard (Shugar in the show) was known as the Great Bully of the Mountains, threatening to beat Americans as he had beaten his fellow Frenchmen.  Kit Carson replied with threats of his own and the duel was on.  Though both are shown with rifles in the episode, Carson more likely had a horse pistol.  The two men were on horseback and practically face to face when they shot at each other.  Carson was a split second faster, shooting the Frenchman's hand and ruining his aim.  Even so, Carson had a slice under his right ear and powder burns on his face from the near miss.

Kit Carson was 27 at the time and Waa-Nibe was the first of his three wives.  She died shortly after their second daughter was born in 1841.  Though it was funny to see Hawaii Five-O's Danno as Kit Carson, the episode was an entertaining and reasonably accurate peak into the life and times of a mountain man.

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