Alafia River Rendezvous

The Alafia River Rendezvous is an annual gathering at which history buffs create and live in camps to re-enact what life was like before 1840 in America during one of the periodic gatherings for pioneers, hunters, Native Americans and merchants.

The participants, wearing period clothing, demonstrate the ways pioneers coped with the hardships of life in that era.

Re-enactors portray early inhabitants from various cultures, including Native American, British, Irish, Scottish, French and Spanish, as well as American.

In 2013 the event will take place Jan. 18 and 19 at the end of Azalea Street in Homeland, south of State Road 640, just west of U.S. 17-98.

The event is sponsored by Florida Frontiersmen Inc., a non-profit organization committed to "preserving the skills of our first settlers, pioneers and mountain men in their use of muzzle-loading firearms and the equipment and accouterments that accompanied such use," according to the club's website.

The event has become the largest privately operated rendezvous east of the Mississippi River.

Organizers bill the event as the largest pre-1840 historical interpretive encampment in the Southeast.