Green River Rendezvous: 200 Years Of The Ultimate Wilderness Swap Meet 

PINEDALE — The people in this small western Wyoming town are suspiciously friendly. 

At least that's the impression you get from your one-and-only local acquaintance, a man named Marlon, who you know for the simple fact that he answered the phone at the Log Cabin Motel when you called to ask for a room.

He’s the kind of guy who gives bad news while sounding chipper.

“We’re completely booked up for the rest of the week. And you know what else? None of the hotels in town have any more rooms,” he said with the buoyant tone of a father revealing a baby name. 

The reason is the Green River Rendezvous, a multi-day celebration of the historic mountain men rendezvous that took place around the Rocky Mountain West between 1825 and 1840.

For Marlon, though, it’s better thought of as “Pinedale’s Super Bowl.” The Rendezvous Rodeo in particular is something you simply cannot miss, he said. 

You're in Pinedale on other business, but Marlon made a strong case.

“It’s fantastic. You’re going to love it, and you can totally hang out with us,” he said.

Your first thought is that you should never trust motel managers who hand out their personal numbers after a five minute conversation. 

The second thought is that this Marlon guy is freakin' awesome. 

He directs your stay to a nearby campground, then shoots you a text from his personal phone. 

“Let me know when you get into town."

Rendezvous Rodeo

Rendezvous Rodeo is the Goldilocks of Wyoming’s summer rodeo circuit. It’s big enough to draw serious talent and formidable roughstock, but not so large to have outgrown its uniquely local feel.

It's a venue where most can find a spectator spot close enough to smell the must of a bull in the chute, or reverse park on the railing and watch in a camp chair from the bed of your truck.

The Western cookout cuisine is locally sourced, traditionally made, and prepared before your eyes in a wood-fired caldron of beef tallow — where simmer onions, potatoes, corn, and baskets of Idaho trout. 

Then there’s the brisket, of course, made on 17 hours of woodsmoke.

“It’s simple, but it's good to boot. It’s being done the way it's been done for 100 years,” said owner of the Pitch Fork Fondue restaurant, Matt David, whose family homesteaded in the Pinedale area in the early 1900s.

Western traditions are strong here because they’re learned early, as with the kiddos lassoing tree stumps across the rodeo grounds.

“That’s just how it is here, the cowboy culture, they grow up doing all this stuff from the time they can walk,” said a woman named Lynn, referring to a pint-sized roper barely taller than his father’s boot.

You don’t have to be born into this culture to appreciate it, which you discover when you finally meet Marlon face-to-face.

From All Around the World

In wayfarer sunglasses and a resort-style shirt with palm tree print, Marlon’s look is more beachcomber than cowboy. Which makes sense, because he’s a native Floridian by way of Cuba — even if he no longer sees himself that way.

“This is my home now, and I never want to leave because I love the people,” he said, matching words with action. "They’re welcoming, everybody looks after each other. Community is the whole point of Pinedale.

“Let me introduce you to my friends.”

His friends come from even farther away; places like the Dominican Republic, Turkey, and Jamaica. Most are here as part of an employer-sponsored work program, and if Marlon has his way, they’ll not want to leave either. 

He gestured to the arena, where a cowgirl rounded a barrel and kicked a plume of dust our direction, then said, “A lot of people around the world don’t get to see these things. I want them to see that it’s amazing, and have a real Wyoming experience.”  

Some of his friends aren’t yet sold.

The Biggest Difference

With steer roping as a backdrop, you fall into conversation with a woman named Delia from Romania, who takes issue with how the rodeo animals are treated. 

“In Romania, cows are only for milking. And these cows are so cute, but they treat them so rough. I don’t like it,” she said.

Marlon, with his infectious perspective, flipped her opinion like a steer. Not only are the cows unharmed, he told her — over and over — they’re also having more fun than the ropers.

Whether she accepted this logic or not, Delia seemed to enjoy the rodeo, nosing the arena gate for a closer look. Although the biggest cultural difference is not the treatment of animals, it’s the treatment of people.

“In Pinedale, everyone is so nice. They ask, ‘How are you? Happy to meet you. Do you need anything?’” she said. “In Bucharest, that will never happen. You will never hear that from anyone.”

At that moment, it strikes you that Marlon’s eclectic group is something of a metaphor for the Green River Rendezvous, where disparate groups of trappers, traders, and Native Americans gathered to exchange goods as well as culture.

Clint Gilchrist, executive director of the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, said the 19th century meetups were more diverse still. 

“At those rendezvous, there were a lot of Frenchmen, Mexicans, Americans, Scottish people, African American ex-slaves, Eastern Indians like the Delaware and Iroquois came out. Even some Cherokee,” said Gilchrist.

“There’d be several thousand people, and they were all different nationalities. It was a very big cultural mix of people,” he added. 

Six of the original 16 rendezvous took place in what is today the nearby town of Daniel, Wyoming. 

It's a strange comfort to know that long-ago mountain men once watched dusk settle across this same serrated horizon, and you imagine the rosy twilight over Fremont Peak is just as wondrous today as it was back then.

Rodeos were never part of those historic meetups, but here in Pinedale, rodeo-goers are keen to integrate the ethos of rendezvous exchange. 

“These are really big in Florida. You got to try this,” said Marlon, handing you a tequila-based cocktail called Cayman Jack. 

It doesn’t look like your type of beverage. But in the spirit of rendezvous — bottoms up.  

“You're going to love it,” he said.

Contact Zakary Sonntag at zackary@cowboystatedaily.com

Zakary Sonntag can be reached at zakary@cowboystatedaily.com.