Buckskinners share their own tales

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Turner Hall, which for one weekend was an 1830s traders' Mecca, returned Sunday afternoon to its normal duties in the 21st century.

Its tables are no longer crammed full with all manner of items that traders would be hawking along the banks of the Minnesota River in the early 1800s.

No longer are men and women dressed like they just stepped out of a period movie set lining the second-floor bar.

Guys like "Mad Jack" and "Nobudy" have packed their vehicles tight and skedaddled for another traders' rendezvous or "ron-dee-voo" if you're a true "buckskinner."

The New Ulm Trade Fair had closed its doors until next year at this time.

Each and every one of these "traders" from the past has his or her own tale to tell.

Take Nobudy, for example.

"We sell sweets, treats and sharp pointy things," said Nobudy, "and this is my wife Broken Wing."

Standing behind jars of stick candy of various colors and spirals and knives and hatchets, Nobudy denies he has a given name but later admits to living "around Brainerd."

He's more interested in telling how he met his wife and why he calls her Broken Wing.

"When we met, she had a broken arm -- Broken Wing, get it? -- and our first date last a week long. But I was a gentleman; we didn't sleep together."

Oh, yes, how did this man become Nobudy?

"When we went to our first rendezvous, a guy asked me what my name was. I told him Jerry, and he said, 'No, I mean your ron-dee-voo handle.' I told him, I don't have one; I guess I'm just a nobody."

Now, this buckskinner couple take to the road 50 weeks a year to be at shows like the New Ulm Trade Fair all over the country.

Then, there are Wally and Katie Hunter of Windom.

Wally's a blacksmith and operates Windy Hills Forge just outside of Windom. He's been a full-time smithy since 1991 when he decided blacksmithing beat being a farmer.

"He had been coming to this show since 1983, but it's only been the last six years that we've been in the show," Katie explained. "Someone has to die to get a table here, literally!"

More than half the rendezvous they take part in involve Wally doing demonstrations of his blacksmithing skills. They'll do about "eight to 12 shows" a year.

"If it's made from iron, Wally can make it for you," Katie said.

He can make firearms or parts for them, cooking utensils for use over an open fire, tomahawks, candle sticks and sconces, curtain rods and even toilet-paper holders.

"Ninety percent of what he makes is made custom for people," Katie said.

For the past two years, Bob Lange of Hector was the show's Booshway (director). Now, he mans a table with his son, Jason, where they display guns, gun barrels and knives that are made in the Lange's Machine Shop in Hector.

A cloud of sadness surrounds Lange (the "e" is silent) during this show, however. A color photo of Alan Lueck, a retired truck driver from Hector who had for several years helped Bob run Lange's booth, lies on the table's flat surface. Lueck, 59, died of a heart attack last May.

But, that hasn't dimmed Lange's enthusiasm for being a buckskinner or the New Ulm show that he has been coming to for years.

"There are a lot of other places with more space, but no one treats you like (Manager) Richard (Runck) and Turner Hall."