By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
LITTLE VALLEY — The three-day Sportsmen’s Rendezvous sponsored by the Cattaraugus County Trappers Association opened Friday at the Cattaraugus County Fairgrounds.
There are indoor booths and outdoor displays under tents with a wide variety of trapping, hunting and fishing equipment for sale as well as furs, lures and clothing. The displays in tents stretched along the midway from the grandstand to the Domestic Building.
A Mayville man, Bill Blanchard, had his outdoor booth featuring dozens of steel traps set up at the entrance to the rendezvous grounds. “I’ve been coming here since 1981 and I’ve set up in this spot for the last 20 years.”
The traps hanging from Blanchard’s display are for muskrats, mink, raccoons, beaver, fox and coyote. He even had one rabbit trap from Australia.
Blanchard, 80, has been trapping since 1956. He’s speaking to Jim Colosimo of Slippery Rock, Pa., who’s been coming to the rendezvous in Little Valley for the past 20 years.
“I’m a trapper and a tailgater,” he said, referring to the vendors who were unloading merchandise from their pickup trucks. He’s also someone who likes a good story, as is Blanchard.
“I hear a lot of stories,” Blanchard told the Olean Star between rain showers over the fairgrounds. “Anyone who buys something has a story. I hear stories and tell them.”
Blanchard’s current “go-to” story occurred July 13, in Butler Pa., where he and his wife, Sandra, were attending their first rally for Donald Trump.
“We were sitting behind President Trump in a VIP area,” Blanchard said. All of the sudden he heard shots and then saw Secret Service agents rushing to cover the former president. He and his wife were yards away from two of the shooting victims, one who died.
“People were crazy mad” that Trump had been shot, Blanchard said. People were shouting out all kinds of explanations of who was involved including those charged with protecting the former president.
Trump and the others were shot with an AR-style rifle fired by a 20-year-old who lived near Pittsburgh, who was then shot by Secret Service snipers.
“I think I’ll go to the rally when he (Trump) comes back to Butler” as he has promised, Blanchard said. “I had never been to a political rally before.”
Back to Blanchard’s booth. He goes to four sportsmen’s shows a year in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio with his traps and deer horn wind catchers his wife makes.
“I enjoy the people,” he said.
This is likely his last trip to Little Valley, Blanchard said. He’s been cutting back on his inventory. “What I don’t sell here, I’ll probably donate to the auction.”
He added: “I’ve kept all my traps I use for trapping.” Last year he trapped 118 beaver and 75 muskrats. He has enjoyed trapping with his grandson Bo Blanchard, 21 for the past 10 years. “He trapped 66 coyotes and foxes last year.”
The Sportsmen’s Rendezvous, established in 1980, is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 per person. Camping is also available.
