Lester River Rendezvous Takes Lakeside Back in Time

If cannons and blacksmiths weren't your thing, there were also 30 vendors selling more modern handcrafted goods.

DULUTH, Minn.- A blast of a party and a blast from the past was back at Lester Park in Duluth with the return of the Lester River Rendezvous.

The event was back for its 22nd year with the Voyageur Village, taking folks back in time to check out the lifestyles and folkways of early settlers in Minnesota and Wisconsin history.

If cannons and blacksmiths weren’t your thing, there were also 30 vendors selling more modern handcrafted goods.

Organizers say the neighborhood was aching to get back to celebrating together again.

“It’s an important part of Lakeside because it brings everyone out into the community, everyone gets to know each other,” said Lindsey Whitlinger, Lester River Rendezvous Committee Member.

“To see an event like this taking place in the park itself along with all the great vendors that come together to make it possible and the live music everyone enjoys to get out,” she said. “And a beautiful day like this who can complain about that?”

Also back this year were the education day field trips where students from area schools like Wrenshall, Marshall, and more got a hands-on look at the ways of old.

From fur tanning to cast-iron cooking, reenactors say families were excited to see it all again.

“The interaction for one thing,” Keith Chesney said. “Y’know, you can sit and read in a book all you want but when you actually touch and feel that’s where I learn, that’s how I lean anyhow.”

“Not just physically but mentally, you get a grasp on how this really was done, why it was done,” he said.

While the live music and vendors wrapped up Saturday, the Voyageur Village will be camped out there through Sunday.