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Colton White

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The RCMP in Pullman City Harz

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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police on a visit in Pullman City in the Harz Mountains

Monday, October 26, 2020

From the 16th to 18th of October the regular autumn rendezvous took place in Pullman City Harz. The Two Rivers Privity was also on site - with a small unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Together with our host Sam Endres, the owner of the General Trading Company, we took some great photos, which we do not want to withhold from you!

Previously known as the "North West Mounted Police", the unit was created in 1873 by the Canadian government to deal with all the outlaws, illegal distilleries and "troubled Indians" - as it was called at the time - along the Canadian border. With a target strength of 300 men on a border length of about 5525 miles, this was certainly an almost impossible task.

This was also stated in an edition of the Toronto Mail in 1874:

Sharp may be the steel, concise the blow and short the pain,
which they must endure.

And yet the red uniform of the "Mounties" became a symbol of trustworthiness for many indigenous tribes near the border. The troops earned a name for themselves, especially in the early days, because many of the conflicts could be settled without violence and bloodshed.

Sam Endres, Pullman City (left) and Chet McCay, Two Rivers Privity (right)

Die Darstellung der NWMP erweist sich als kompliziert

However, our representation (unfortunately) does not go back to the time of the North West Mounted Police. Although the clothing of the RCMP has hardly changed since about 1900, we are wearing uniforms in these photos that date back to about 1980. Originals from the time of the former law enforcement officers are very hard to get and are quite expensive.

Colton White, Sam Endres & ChetMcCay (left to right)

The red of the uniform was already the identifying feature of the unit back in the days of the North West Mounted Police. The RCMP's dress uniform of today is brown.

RCMP in Pullman City Harz

Since we have been asked several times: Alone with these original uniforms the acquisition costs are in the four-digit dollar range. Another problem, which is especially apparent for reenactors outside of Canada, is the continuing export stop of the uniform.

We would like to thank Gill McCay very much for the great photos and will be there again in 2021 to present "living history" in Pullman City Harz.

Of course we are also looking forward to the opportunity to bring our hobby closer to others. Don't be afraid to contact us or leave a comment below the post!

Get in contact with the RCMP of the Two Rivers Privity

Contact
Colton White & Gill McCay

Colton White & Gill McCay

Further reading

For those who are interested in the subject, we can highly recommend the book "The Canadians" from the TIME LIFE series "The Wild West"! Among other things, the book deals with the development of the North West Mounted Police and the challenges the aspiring police officers had to face.

Here are three more books, which offer a very good insight into the North West Mounted Police, as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Happy Reading!

These Amazon links are affiliate products. If you purchase via the link, we receive up to 10% of the purchase price as commission. The actual price of the product remains unchanged. We do this in order to keep our website free from other advertisements. More information in our data privacy statement.

See you next time!

Colton White & Chet McCay – Beaver Creek Pioneer

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Corona doesn't even stop before the Wild West!

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Not enough "Wild West" in 2020 - Corona is to blame

Reading time: approx. 4 minutes.

October 12th, 2020


Autumn has now arrived in the valley of the beavers and the leaves are changing their color in the most beautiful tones. Usually this is the perfect time to meet on the premises, take photos in authentic outfits, cook together, hold workshops or make music with one another.



But the Corona year 2020 has so far put a big crimp in our plans. Already in the middle of the year we were faced with the big question whether the Authentic Camp 2020 should have taken place. We decided against it at that time and cancelled it - to the great sorrow of our guests and members. However, we met with a lot of understanding, because the responsibility would have been simply too high for us as organizers. In such an exceptional situation, the health of all involved is clearly at stake.

Of course we regretted this decision at the time it was made. After all, there has not been a single year without the Authentic Camp since our establishment in 2006. The camps were always well attended, you could meet good friends you hadn't seen all year round, you could celebrate extensively and exchange news. We therefore understand why the pain is especially severe this year, but we also hope that the corona situation will improve as early as 2021.

What about Thanksgiving and the Christmas celebration?

Now we are facing tough decisions again. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the preparations for the TRP Christmas celebration should be initiated in the coming days. But with the currently unfortunately increasing cases, we are forced to cancel these events as well.


Our position on this matter is quite clearly oriented:

We'd rather skip it this year before we have to register even a single person getting infected with Corona at one of our events! We could never forgive ourselves for the potential consequences, which can also be very dramatic...

What happens during the Corona time?

At this point, it is not apparent to anyone when normality will return. In the meantime, the TRP committee is working on ways how we can stay in touch without endangering each other. Online platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Discord offer great potential, but are of course no substitute for face-to-face gatherings.

Facebook and Instagram should help us to stay in touch with the world and share our wonderful hobby. We have collected tons of photos over the last few years, of which we want to show some selected ones. Our hobby is something special and we are happy to share it!

Discord is currently being tested by the committee in order to maintain better online contact. This would give us the opportunity not only to communicate via text, but also to talk to each other via video calls. This makes things a lot easier because we don't have to meet on site and can meet quite spontaneously when the need arises. If everything works out and the solution seems to make sense, we want to open the TRP Discord to our members and guests as well, so that there is the opportunity to exchange information in the group.

But we also think about our personal meetings - even if the "all-in-one solution" for this is not so easy to find and we have to work on a concept.

Beaver Creek Valley should not become a ghost town. We'll ensure that!

Furthermore, we want to promote the "Beaver Creek Valley Pioneer" here on our homepage. We will initially publish current information and news through our "newspaper" online format, so that no one is left behind and stays up to date.

How will things continue in 2021?

We really do hope that from 2021 on we will be able to pursue our hobby again, at least without the massive restrictions. Of course, there is no guarantee for this, at least we can't assume that yet. When we see improvement on the horizon and the contact restrictions are reduced, we plan to reestablish the Authentic Sundays.

As before, we will meet internally once a month to pursue various historical activities in which everyone can participate at their own pleasure. It is not without reason that the motto of our hobby is "living history" and "history you can experience". We want to share knowledge and experiences, to educate one another and to try out new things.

We will announce here when this will be possible, how we will start and how interested people can participate, once we are able to evaluate the general Covid situation more accurately.

Stay safe and keep your powder dry!

Chet McCay & Colton White – Beaver Creek Pioneer