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As the site of the fur trade’s 1830 rendezvous and 1838 rendezvous, Riverton played host to many of the legendary names of the mountain man era. Jim Bridger, William Sublette, Kit Carson, and Jedediah Smith are only a few of the legendary trappers and traders who met here in 1838. The most impressive of these was the 1838 event, which drew as many as 300 people including mountain men and traders, Native Americans and missionaries to a bench of cottonwood trees at the confluence of the Big Wind and the Little Wind. For several days, they traded and celebrated a season of trapping the mountains.
Riverton boasts the only rendezvous site that remains on original ground. The 1838 Rendezvous reenactment is held the third week of June. The event features men and women who demonstrate skills that were used by the mountain men that have otherwise been virtually lost through the decades. Events include live encampment, black powder shooting, beading, basket weaving, pow-wow, Indian dancing, and food. Later in July, the Riverton Rendezvous takes place at the same site. Both events bring in mountain men and women with historic food and crafts. The Riverton Rendezvous also features a car and bike show, rodeo, demolition derby, cowboy poetry, stock car races, and live music.
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