Sweetwater Rendezvous

In Memoriam Classified Ads Last Month's Minutes Club Calendar Club Photos Constitution & Bi-Laws How do I... Rendezvous Rules Donors, Support and References Local Press Coverage

Older Pictures

2004 Pictures

2005 Pictures

2006 Pictures

2007 Pictures

2008 Pictures

2009 Pictures

Sweetwater had it's first rendezvous in 1982 on the north side of a small tree grove, across from the Bartell family farm. The rendezvous site snuggled right up to Sweetwater Lake. The event has relocated several times: once to the south side of the tree line, once out on a point south of the farm, back to the north side of the tree line, to the latest current location 1/2 mile northeast of the farm in a small wooded draw.

Over the years the rendezvous has had two of the locations overtaken by high water. The current location provides a wonderful mix of pine trees, high and low camp spots, beautiful sunsets, and a great 'little' 60 yard range. For you 'gadgeteers' with GPS units, the Latitude and Longitude are: Latitude 45.198792, Longitude -97.907667

Sweetwater Rendezvous, September 11-13, 2009

The 28th Sweetwater Rendezvous had incredibly beautiful weather throughout the weekend. If you weren't there, you missed a great one!

The rendezvous started [officially!] with Joe's Elimination shoot. Each shooter drew a card from the deck, then tried to have the last matching card (each person had 4 on the target board) on the board to win the shoot. Lots of secrecy surrounded the shooters, with John Graves prevailing.

Pete ran the second shoot, Blind Poker a couple "wild cards" thrown in for fun. With only 5 shots, every shot counted. Some were lucky enough to hit two cards with one well-placed shot. Mike Thelen proved to have the best hand, with Mark Hubsch coming in a close second. Both were lucky enough to hit two cards with one shot as well.

Having enough fun with cards, Mike had people shooting washers and drive pins in the Novelty Shoot. It was simple; hit a 1.5" washer, 3/4" washer, then a .5"x2" pin with the fewest shots at 20 yards. Richard Underwood hit all three in three shots, followed by Sue Graves in 4 shots. John Graves snatched third in 7 shots.

On Saturday, we chose to run archery all morning (after breakfast) to give more people a chance to shoot both bow and gun. New burlap targets hung loosely from a new stand. Luckily, there was no wind to make them moving targets. Nick Hubsch was first at the line and blistered the targets, getting a score of 17 (best possible was 18). John Graves placed second with 15 and Leon Kaiser and Mike Thelen tied for third with 14, where Leon won the coin toss to take third place.

Bob Carda started the shoots on Saturday with a little Apple Pie. Hit the apples hanging at about 30 yards. Hit and stay in, miss and be left waiting for pie. Mark Hubsch made apple juice quickly and consistently to take first place. Nick Hubsch and John Graves finished second and third.

Mike threw in an unplanned shoot, the Dartboard. With lots of opportunity for scoring, shooters discovered grouping wasn't an issue. John Graves took first, Leon Kaiser second, and Joe Carda third (with the worst grouping of any shooter!@#$)

Nick Hubsch taught everyone how to Whittle with guns in the next shoot. Eleven small pieces needed to be whittled away from an 18" stick, without destroying the stick itself. Accuracy was at a premium on this 10-yard shoot. Mark Hubsch, who was on a roll Saturday morning, had a nicely whittled stick for first. Mike Thelen and Kirk "Klatch" Redmond rounded out the placing. Nick, incidentally, destroyed his stick, showing how easily one could come in last place.

John Thelen started the afternoon with Love Your Neighbor. Each shooter took one shot at his or her target, trying to score well. Then he or she took one shot at each of the other shooter's targets, hoping to score poorly. Trick is, you had to hit the paper of the other shooters, or you gave them maximum score. Apparently, everyone felt a lot of love for John Graves, as he came in first. Mark Hubsch stole second (notice how even when these two don't control their destiny, they still manage to win!) Sue Graves wrapped up third place.

Joe and Bob Carda then gave everyone a little brain teaser in the final rifle shoot of the rendezvous. They had a picture of a milk can with the initials "MT" in the center. Trick was, figure out where to shoot (MT="empty" - as in empty the can with your shots). Those who caught on shot low, scoring high. Mark Hubsch again placed first, stealing it away from Mike Thelen (second). John Graves completed the event in third place.

The final event of the day was the Shotgun Shoot. Bob Carda was itching to try out his newly acquired, late 1800s original percussion shotgun. He may need a few more shoots to find the range, as John Graves edged him out for first place. Ralph Jescke rounded out the top three.

While the shooters enjoyed sun, sun and more sun, Pete ran the hawk and knife throw during the afternoon. He gave 3+ hours so people could work around shooting schedules. There were enough participants this year to award first through third in both men and women. Joe Carda claimed first, followed by Pete Mattson and Leon Kaiser for the men. Kimberly Ragels nabbed first in the women's group, followed by Julene Kaiser and Karen Keimig. Byron Gross conducted a special kids hawk and knife with some wooden weapons and a Styrofoam target, along with prizes for every kid who participated.

Shortly before the camp meeting, everyone gathered for a not-so-surprising 40th anniversary party for John and Toye Thelen. Cake was shared, along with some special gifts - especially a 4-foot long spatula for the 'old guy' who cooks.

At the camp meeting, many prizes were given away thanks to generous donations. A special thank-you to Joe DeLaRonde Forge for a fantastic spike-hawk celebrating the club's 30th anniversary. The winner was Tyler Carda (13 years old and VERY lucky) of Chelsea, SD. Alice Bartell once again provided a quilt for the Chinese auction and Frank Zahn furnished the traditional "Sweetwater Arrow" to George and Alice for allowing us to use their land. Campers sat around a large bonfire and enjoyed each other's company Saturday night (along with left-over anniversary cake, snacks and wine!) after the meeting.

Sweetwater continued to provide the camp-sponsored breakfast Saturday with sausage provided by Frohlings Meats, which is always a hit. Campers enjoyed their fill of sausage, eggs and pancakes with syrup and homemade jam (thanks to Jerry & Karen Keimig). Thank you to John Thelen, John & Sue Graves and Joe Carda for cooking. Amazingly, there was enough food left over to provide a camp breakfast on Sunday as well. There were no complaints!

So ended the 2009 Sweetwater Rendezvous. It was wonderful having new camps, sad missing some regular camps, and nice to have around 20 paid camps to 'enjoy' the sunny weather! Hope to see you all (and more!) in September 2010 for our 29th annual event. New pictures will be up soon

Top of Page