NEW CASTLE — The Colorado Trappers Association will hold its 38th annual convention and rendezvous 8 miles south of New Castle at the Garfield Creek State Wildlife Area this Labor Day weekend.

Each year, association members hold their convention in a different location somewhere in Colorado in order to introduce residents to their fur trade heritage and efforts to conserve Colorado’s fur resources.

The association is one of Colorado’s oldest trapper societies with around 300 members. According to association vice president Dan Gates, the “level of interest has increased ten-fold in the last five or six years” in spite of increasingly difficult challenges the industry faces.

Varied educational and entertainment events are scheduled for the weekend, including: beaver-tail bobbing, interactive shooting and archery exhibits, coyote calling competition, a mountain man village, cowboy and Indian artifact auction and a barbecue dinner prepared and served by Boy Scout Troop 220.

Vendors related to the industry will be selling wares such as trapping and hunting supplies, and professional furriers will be on hand offering custom-fitted fur coats or sewn-to-suit bedspreads. Also available, Gates said, will be “modern day, contemporary mountain-man trapper-type stuff,” should area residents run low on such provisions.

Dunk tank proceeds will be donated to Hunt of a Lifetime, a charity that pairs terminally ill children with fishing and hunting expeditions of their choosing. Colorado Parks and Wildlife area wildlife manager Perry Wills has agreed to sit in the dunk tank from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday.

The CTA offers a scholarship each school year, with preference given to students interested in forestry, wildlife management, biology or agriculture. For information, visit coloradotrapper.com.

Camping sites are available for the duration of the weekend and vendor spots remain open. For more information call 719-275-4077. Exit 1-70 at New Castle and follow the signs south to Garfield Creek State Wildlife Park.