The 28th annual Carson City Rendezvous, the area’s largest special event, returns June 10–12 to celebrate the Wild West and Civil War era history.

The 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s presidential inauguration is one of many new events for the free three-day Civil War-era living history set at Mills Park.

The opening ceremony will be a special re-enactment of the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th president, at Mills Park that Saturday at 10am.

To commemorate the Lincoln presidency, Rendezvous participants and encampments will join in a pageant of costume and theater, followed by a special swearing in of U.S. citizens by the U.S. Naturalization and Immigration Department. The opening ceremony will feature a special re-enactment of the inauguration Abraham Lincoln.

The Rendezvous is noted for portraying the lifestyle of early Nevada settlers, complete with gun skirmishes, mountain man encampments and trapping demonstrations. Organizers this year have moved the famous Civil War-era gun battles from afternoon to dusk, to capture the backdrop of live-fire, flash-bang rounds exploded from muskets.

The event is where the authentic and re-enactment collide, whether it’s the lingering smell of gunpowder after musket battle demonstrations, the boom of Civil War-era cannons or the taste of beans and bacon cooked in cast-iron dutch ovens over an open fire.

The all-ages event runs Friday from noon-9pm, Saturday from 10am-9pm and Sunday, 10am-5pm.

For more information, go online or call (775) 687.7410.