History
Rendezvous was founded in 1985 by Robert Slack, Jr., Stephen "Snow Bear" Taylor and Darry Wood. They began the gathering to preserve and promote indigenous primitive skills like making white oak baskets, foraging for wild food, starting fire by friction and tanning deer skins with brains and smoke. The three founders eventually invited their Cherokee friends to come share their living traditions of baskets and pottery, weapons and music. From these elders they learned many wonderful things, not the least of which is about being both humble and good-humored.
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Check out this PBS video from 1998 about Earthskills
Folkways Season 200, Episode 203
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Check out this PBS video from 1998 about Traditions of the Cherokee
Traditional Cherokee teachers Amanda Swimmer, Eva Bigwitch, and Walker Calhoun are featured, along with Rendezvous founders Darry Wood and Bob Slack Jr. Some of the filming was at a Rendezvous!
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Timeline (working draft)
1985-2001
Unicoi State Park
Bob Slack Jr. Darry Wood Snow Bear Taylor
October of 1985 the first "Earthskills Workshops" weekend was held at Unicoi State Park, GA with about a dozen participants.
Bob Slack Jr. was the Program Director at Unicoi, and was in charge of creating programs to bring people to the park. Someone pointed him in the direction of Darry Wood. So he went and visited. They did friction fire. Darry put Bob to work scraping a hide. And Bob thought, “I bet there are lots of folks around who would be interested in learning these skills.” Darry said, “I know someone who’s good on plants and primitive cooking.” That was Snow Bear. ​ And Bob thought, “Well shoot, let’s just do something!” So the three of them found a good weekend and Bob put the word out and they had their first event.
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Originally, just Bob, Darry, and Snow Bear were the instructors. Then they brought on some Cherokee elders to teach.
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Spring of 1990 they decided to expand the event to Wednesday-Sunday and call the spring event the "Rivercane Rendezvous" in honor of the nice stand of rivercane on the property and of the rivercane basketry taught by Cherokee Elder Eva Bigwitch. The fall event became longer as well and became "Falling Leaves."
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Rendezvous lived at Unicoi for 16 years.​​
2001-2005
Hot House
Darry Wood
Snow Bear Taylor
Unicoi State Park got privatized and expensive, so Rendezvous had to move.
Bob Slack Jr. retired from working at Unicoi and organizing Rendezvous.
The event moved closer to Hayesville, NC, where Darry lived.
The Hot House site was also known as the Horse Pasture (because that's what it was).​
Kahlisa Taylor joined the team to run the kitchen. ​
"Rain-de-Vous" occurs (the whole field flooded)
2005-2007
Gorges Music Park
Snow Bear Taylor
Russell Cutts
Fuz Sanderson
Seamus Trostle
Vered Kleinberger
Rendezvous found another temporary home at Gorges State/Music Park near Lake Toxaway, NC.
Darry Wood stepped down from leadership and Russell Cutts stepped up.
In 2005, Russell initiated the transition to nonprofit status and drafted the mission and bylaws.
Russell eventually talked Fuz, Seamus, and Vered into coordinating
Alice and Rich took over running the kitchen
​Snow Bear stepped down from leadership.
Worktraders hauled gear endlessly in trailers across winding mountain roads
2007-2015
Smokey's
Cherokee Farms
Fuz Sanderson
Seamus Trostle
Vered Kleinberger
Clint Corley
Rendezvous found a long-term home at Smokey's (and on-site storage for all our gear!) near Lafayette, GA
2009 - Rendezvous became Earthskills Rendezvous Incorporated (ERI), an official Non-Profit
Russell Cutts stepped down from leadership.
Fuz, Seamus, and Vered co-run the event.
Spring event expanded to be Monday-Sunday, Fall event stayed Wednesday-Sunday
2010 - 25th Anniversary Celebration - biggest event yet!
Eventually they decided to have a Worktrade Manager separate from the site manager.
Worktrade eventually got a cook, but had no budget for food, so it was all donations and dumpster food and cardboard cutting boards under a tarp in the dirt.
Alchemy, the GA Burn, happened right before fall Rendezvous a couple of times - "Shock & Awe!"
Fuz stepped down from leadership
Clint Corley stepped up
​First teen program happened
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Rendezvous lived at Smokey's for 8 years.
Eventually, there were double booking issues with Alchemy and Rendezvous had to find another site.
2015-2025
Avalon
Seamus Trostle
Clint Corley
Aura Morris
Sara Callaway
Rendezvous moved to Avalon near Westminster, SC and found a new home.
Clint developed Youth Programs for Rendezvous.
Seamus stepped down from leadership.
Aura Morris stepped up.
Clint left to run Forest Floor (a Youth Nature Connection Program).
Aura expanded the staff to include new positions - Instructor Coordinator, Youth Program Coordinator, Registration Coordinator, Promotions, Marketing & Social Media, Scholarship/Equity Fund Manager.
Registration moved online.
Fall event expanded to be Monday-Sunday (now both events are Monday-Sunday)
Sara Callaway stepped into leadership
Rivercane 2019 - The Flood!! Putting the "river" back in Rivercane.​
2025 - Celebrating 10 years at Avalon! and 40 years of Rendezvous!!