The 49er Encampment

We have come to Death Valley for two reasons
Firstly because we want to explore the area, but secondly because there is a festival going on, called the 49ers Encampment, visiting now means that we can combine both aims in one go.
So a bit about the 49ers then some stuff about Death Valley.
The Death Valley 49ers are a group of people who have a link to Death Valley and look for ways to  raise awareness of Death Valley history, culture and environment (check out their web site). Their Big Thing is an annual festival called the 49ers Encampment. We had wanted to attend this festival last year, but couldn’t fit it in, so we timed our visit to Death valley to make sure we could get to it this year. Although we were not quite sure what it was all about we knew it would be fun and we were right. Because it is so popular we arrived a week early to ensure a camping space, this also meant that we got to know our neighbours real well, they were lovely people. One side of us John and Jim, a couple of lads away from home and having fun – Horseshoes was their thing. Ruth and Ed on the other side were lovely and treated us like their own kids. We very quickly we met many other really nice people.

In the week before the Encampment there was the Pre-Encampment, with some music and activities. Every night a group of musicians would play in the centre of the Sunset Campground, it was mostly Country music, but fun any way. I managed to find a few people to jam with.

The festival proper seemed to focus on a music genre we knew little about – Western music, not Country and Western. This genre is all about cowboys, pioneers and the campfire culture. Many of the songs are story based, about pioneer days, wrangling or outlaws. They tend to be lyrical, often with minor chords and the guitar is the main accompaniment. In fact the festival itself seemed to be about cowboy culture. Every day they had demonstrations of horses, wagons, mules trains, pioneer dress, as well as Western art and crafts. In the evenings there was a concert featuring a number of Western style singers. Alongside this was a fiddle convention, which is basically a music competition for different stringed instruments, the main one being fiddle, as fiddle is the instrument of choice for square dance, which is the cowboy style of dancing. So there was plenty going on.
One of the features of the weekend was the demonstrations by the Twenty Mule Team, (see separate blog), which shipped the borax from the mines at Furnace Creek 167 miles to the railhead at Mohave.

The days start early, 7 and 8.00 for competitions, as afternoons tend to be hot and its siesta time. I was encouraged to enter the horseshoe competition by John and Jim, as they are somewhat fanatical about the game. It was fun, I was a novice, but managed to win my class, due to expert coaching from my support team.

In all it was a really good festival, we learned a lot about cowboy culture and had great fun. But sadly on Sunday farewells had to be said. Yes, tears again I am afraid. The truth of this is that when you are on the road, for every wonderful friend you make you must at some time make a sad parting. Made more poignant as although many of the friends we had made had been coming to the Encampment for many years, at least 2 people/couples mentioned that this would be their last one. We are left only with the memory of these people and our happy times to put in the treasure box of our journeys. This, I remind myself, is one of the reasons for recording our travels. We hope that these memories will stay fresh through our own remaining years.