wall tents

[Brian Heap]

My son had a used boy scout wall tent at our family reunion a few weeks ago. It is a boy scout green color. I'd like to know why only white tents are allowed at ronde's ? In reading journals of the old mountain men, they did their best to hide their camps from the Indians who wanted their scalps. Had they used white tents, they'd have been found quickly and killed. We all know the price of white wall tents, expensive, yet a used boy scout tent is $80.00, and $160.00 for a frame set. So why White tents?

 

[Black Hand]

Period linen or hemp fabric was not usually white, rather a greenish-gray. Army or Boy Scout green is right out....

Also, it is unlikely that a "mountain man" would have had a tent (though some are mentioned in literature), rather some improvised shelter using blankets, skins and/or boughs/natural materials or no shelter at all.

 

[Brian Heap]

In other words, a real mountain man didn't use anything white. Yet reenactors insist on white tents. Still don't understand why.

 

[Black Hand]

In other words, a real mountain man didn't use anything white.

I didn't say that. I essentially said tentage was rare/absent. When used, tentage was made from linen or hemp cloth while cotton canvas became popular later. I'd guess white ensures no one shows up with a neon-colored tent or some other absurdity.

 

[Coot]

The cost or availability of something in today's world is no indication of cost or availability back in time. Today dye and fabric are cheap and army tents are dyed to camouflage them. Two hundred years ago fabric & dyes were not cheap & no one saw any reason to pay for dyed fabric for a tent - no aerial observation units to worry about. So an olive drab tent announces that it is a modern thing & out of place in a "period" camp. Just as synthetic fabrics are cheaper & more available today than wool or linen but nylon makes a bold "out of place" statement when used in "period" clothes.

PS - I have never heard of an event that would not welcome a natural hemp canvas tent. White cotton canvas is not required - it is just the cheapest readily available accepted tent fabric.

 

[Brian Heap]

ok, thanks, I give up.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Yet reenactors insist on white tents. Still don't understand why.

Says who? :haha:

At military reenactments, the soldier's tents would have been made of linen..., and when it bleaches in the sun, it goes much lighter in color, sort of like a manila folder or even lighter, sometimes it's a very very light gray. We have lots and lots of artwork that shows this as the color of the military tents. Hence the use of white canvas, though when new it's probably too white.

Now at non-military events, or when civilians are present at military events, I've seen lots of tan and brown oil cloth. The folks are not forbidden from these colors.

Why not green? Well prior to chemical green dye, and the airplane as an attack platform....using linen or hemp or canvas, you would need to dye the cloth with indigo, THEN you would need to dye the cloth with yellow. IF you were lucky, the sun wouldn't bleach out the yellow, and give you a medium blue tent as it was bleaching the indigo at a slower rate. :shocked2: Not to mention the expense of the cloth after being dyed with two dyes.

LD

 

[coloradoclyde]

The Boy Scouts didn't come along until 1910.
Even if you were reenacting being an early boy scout, green wouldn't be the appropriate color either.......early tents were white....

 

[Brian Heap]

I thought I'd done well, found a wall tent I can afford, but I was wrong I guess. The Indians painted their tipi's but didn't dye them. White is definitely not period correct. No mountain man ever carried a white wall tent and set it up. An indian war party could see that white from miles away, and would come for scalps. Canvas wall tents and poles are heavy so were not used, yet I can't camp at a ronde without a period incorrect tent in white. Makes no sense to me. I've been alone all my life, so I'll take my not white wall tent and camp as a one man mountain man ronde.

 

[Black Hand]

Why do you need a wall tent?
Other options are available or one could do without...

Personally, I prefer a white tent - the inside is much brighter.

 

[Coot]

Cooler in the summer as well.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I've NEVER heard of a Rondezvous where they would turn you away when you used brown oil cloth. Are you sure they said only white? Three or four pieces of oil cloth with ties on the edges, plus five poles lashed together, and you have a basic, walled lean-to, or a "baker" without sewn seams. A Diamond Shelter needs one or two poles, or none, depending on whether you're in the woods, or a meadow. Get a piece of canvas, dye it brown, and treat it with Thompsons for a quick and easy covering over the front of the diamond if you need a fully enclosed space.

LD

 

[Black Hand]

I've NEVER heard of a Rondezvous where they would turn you away when you used brown oil cloth. Are you sure they said only white?

Except the OP is referring to a Boy Scout green wall tent...

 

[tenngun]

About 1985 the museum of the fur trade quarterly published an article on tents In the end the writer stressed the need for white, as color wasn't invented until 1840.

 

[coloradoclyde]

You've got a great tent....go camping....put a stove jack in it and go winter camping ....Use it for deer camp...go to a scout jamboree...

It's just not a rendezvous tent....period correct or otherwise....even if "white isn't period correct, ( and white is more correct than green) neither is a green boy scout tent.

There is probably more wrong with the boy scout tent than just the color....Button, grommets, snaps, zippers, insignia, etc....

Two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[necchi]

My son had a used boy scout wall tent at our family reunion a few weeks ago. It is a boy scout green color.

I wasn't aware that the Boy Scouts made tents.
The green tents we used were military surplus.
So here's the gig, If they allow green tents because their inexpensive why not the striped 70's canvas awnings too? Or used Circus canvas? Or Yurt's, after all they have lot's of usable space inside?
Why didn't the Imperial navy use "sky blue" sails on their ship's?

It's all about presentation to the public, even at a relatively informal event they want some kind of similarity.
You simply can't kid anyone, even ignorant public, that a green tent isn't a thing available long after the time period.
You can use your Mil surplus tent. Most `vous have an area outside yet near the main camp for non-typical and modern camping. It's only a minor inconvenience to walk an extra 100yrds.
My first couple rendezvous were "outside" in my old nylon tent.

 

[Brian Heap]

To Colorado Clyde, you're absolutely right, the stove will allow me to camp after the crowds are gone for the winter. I cold and snow is fine with me. I wanted a wall tent so I could set up a cot inside as getting up off the ground in the middle of the night is a problem for me. Also, my guns are a big concern for me, I can't afford to replace stolen rifles, three, that I have. They're used except for one, but they're mine.
Anyway, I'm tired of all the politics involved in rendezvous camping. My 1955 Shasta camp trailer is older than about every white wall tent I've seen. That makes my camp trailer more period correct than all those wall tents. ha ha ha
No one has to worry about me anymore, enough is enough. I'll enjoy the highlonesome alone and I'll be smiling every minute I'm there, adios folks.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Glad that you've decided to let your tent be a Launchpad to happiness, instead of a hindrance.... :thumbsup:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Loyalist Dave Said:
I've NEVER heard of a Rondezvous where they would turn you away when you used brown oil cloth. Are you sure they said only white?

Except the OP is referring to a Boy Scout green wall tent...

Ah but again, the OP says they told him "only white".

canyon wrote:
Anyway, I'm tired of all the politics involved in rendezvous camping. My 1955 Shasta camp trailer is older than about every white wall tent I've seen. That makes my camp trailer more period correct than all those wall tents. ha ha ha

Not sure how the tent color is "politics", or that the age of the shelter has any bearing.

LD

 

[Black Hand]

Ah but again, the OP says they told him "only white".

From the context, one could strongly infer that "only white" applies to tentage as that was the topic of the poster's comment. After all, he was wanting to take a green tent to rendezvous.

People rarely address oil-cloth, and when they do, they refer to it as "oil-cloth". If oilcloth was the topic, then I would say that I'd found references in the literature for a myriad of colors including blue, yellow, red and green...