Skills Fair returns next week

CATALDO — After a two-year hiatus, the Historic Skills Fair and Mountain Man Encampment is making its way back to the Old Mission State Park.

Fans of dime store western novels or those who want to try their hands at living like such men as Jim Bridger, Kit Carson or John Colter will not want to miss this fun and educational event.

After being robbed of the event during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the event was set to make its triumphant return last year, but with exceptionally hot weather mixed with the recent East Mission Flats fire just a few days in the rear view mirror, it was decided that conditions were too risky for the event to happen and it was canceled just days before it was supposed to happen.

But now it’s back and Park Manager Will Niska is excited to be at the helm of the event for the first time.

“This year I think we’ve expanded our horizons a little bit,” Niska said. “After the fire forced us to cancel last year, we really took a step back to see how we could reintroduce the event to the area.”

The event is one of the many fun ways that the park helps people comprehend what life was like all those years ago when the Mission was one of the most vital and traversed areas in Idaho.

The Skills Fair is an event to showcase skills that were used by people during the early Mission years, including demonstrations of flint knapping, diverse techniques used to build the Mission, such as wattle and daub, and different clothes, food, and other basic needs that were either handmade or gathered.

At the skills fair the demonstrators and vendors wear period clothing and demonstrate skills from the time era of 1840-1920.

In the past, demonstrators showed guests the finer points of such skills as yarn spinning, knitting and lace tatters, Dutch oven cooking, flint knapping, quilting, basket making, blacksmithing, as well as kids activities for the time period and crafts, and music.

Over the years, the attendance for the event has dwindled, but still held over the hundreds each day over the course of the two-day event and Niska is hoping that with some of the tweaks they have made, including moving it from July to June, will encourage more people to come out and see what the Historic Skills Fair and Mountain Man Encampment is all about.

“It’s big for us, just being able to have it again and to get people back into our parks is such a big deal,” Niska said. “Over the years it’s kind of died and we’re looking to revive it since we’ve seen quite a bit of renewed interest in the event. Which is really exciting for us.”

Several vendors will be featured at the event, which will also include live music from Rusty Jackson each day from noon to 4 p.m.

The 2022 Historic Skills Fair and Mountain Man Encampment is June 18-19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, visit the Coeur d'Alenes Old Mission State Park Facebook page.