This was a hunting camp built by the former members and only a few remain. The camp was built in 1958 and camp dues were 50 cents per month. The name of the camp was taken from a large meadow nearby, Union Meadows. This camp is situated about a mile from the Mohawk/Gay Road, down an old logging road. Thayers lake is to the west about half a mile. This road has seen many repairs using manpower as well as a borrowed grader from one of the members work place. The entire building was elevated off the ground on posts. The site they choose to build this camp was near the location of a former logging camp. It is uncertain when this logging camp existed but the structure of it is gone. It was pretty easy to find large old pine stumps in logged off areas. There wasn’t any electronics at camp. We were not in that era of cell phones, or anything related. The many vehicles, cars and trucks, driven out there were parked haphazardly along the road nearby and some in the camp yard. The ground was often times too soft and rocky for the cars, one had to be careful where they parked. I remember coming out to the camp with some of the younger guys. They would drive fast like they were in the pro rally. The road, at that time, was in pretty good condition. They didn’t help maintain its condition by driving like that. It got torn up pretty good. Soon potholes filling with water got bigger and bigger. The road had to be graded again.
Inside the camp, was a large kitchen range wood stove. This also had propane gas used in the oven as well as burners on top. An old Jungers oil burner heated the camp. A very long pine plank table with cushioned benches against the wall. On the opposite side of the table were wood benches. This big table could accommodate many men. Over the table were shelves hanging from the ceiling painted white. To the left of the front door contained cupboards with cooking utensils and other odds and ends. The front entry contained a closed in porch. In the porch is where the hunters left their unloaded rifles on a rack on the wall. Keeping the rifles in the cold porch prevented the rifle from getting rusty. Warm air in the camp would make the rifles metal components sweat, thus causing rust. A refrigerator kept items cold using only the cold unheated environment. Once in the camp, boots were removed by the door. Wet items were hung over the oil heater to dry for the next day. Opposite the kitchen table was a long couch. The whole inside of the camp was lined with paneling. This paneling was very aged and dark from all the cooking, smoking cigarettes and wood stove smoke. The original camp housed many sleeping places. Above the kitchen ceiling is where 3 of them slept, someone on the couch, the rest of them on cushioned benches by the table or on the floor. The floor only had linoleum and was pretty cool down that low. The camp wasn’t insulated. On the wall by the entry was a bulletin board with many photos pinned on it. Also, there were posted camp bylaws and rules. With the elder members, it wasn’t hard to abide by them. Below this board was a small tin can for money hanging on the window frame. When you wanted to drink a pop, you paid for it first. I remember looking at the tin can and other things nearby when one of the members told me that I could have a pop if I wanted.
After many years and with more people staying here, an addition was added which was the only insulated portion but not paneled. This was a very large room with bunks. Up to 16 people could sleep in the bunk room but I don’t recall that many ever staying there at once. Each bunk sported double beds. They were fitted with old mattresses on top of springs. Sleeping on the top was not very comfortable because it was very hot. Once the camp cooled down, it wasn’t so bad then. The lower bunks were claimed by original members.
After the camp was built, the members were wondering about a source of water for drinking and cooking. One of the guys found a large concrete cap downhill from the camp. Looking closer they found that this was a large well-built and used by the former logging camp nearby. The cover on the well no longer existed so a steel plate served as the cap. The size of the well was about 10x12. The inside was lined with small stones that were only stacked. The earth piled around it and the way the rocks were stacked, was like trying to crush an egg length wise. They bailed it out to clean it of all the dead mice, lots of sticks and leaf debris. Bleach was poured in to sterilize. A trench was dug, and a plastic pipe was buried which ran up to the camp, to the kitchen sink. At the sink was a red hand pump which when the leather seal was dry, had to be primed by poured water. Periodically the leather seal had to be replaced because of age. After figuring out the water situation, they decided to build a sauna. This they built with logs. A wood stove was installed with a water tank plumbed in for hot water, benches built, and a partition constructed to separate the steam room from the changing room. A lantern or candle was on a small shelf below the little window in the partition to light up both changing room and steam room. Wood was fed to the sauna stove from the changing room. A small pile of firewood was piled next to the stove. Benches lined the walls of the changing room and a door to the outside was fitted in. The logs were chinked with pieces of cloth to seal the spaces between the logs. The floor drain piped the water out into the woods behind. The dim lighted atmosphere with a good dose of steam on a cold evening always felt so good. Taking steam with others, sitting there quietly in the dim light, it was time to reflect. Not much was said, each with their own thoughts and beside the air was too hot to even breath with the elders. They loved to throw steam. On the back wall of the steam room was a small trap door. This let in fresh air or let out too much heat. After heating up, it was time to go outside to cool off. Steam would billow out the door and the cool outside air always felt so good.
The life inside the camp after a hard day’s hunt was always interesting to watch. Me, being the youngest at an early age of 14, I found it fascinating to watch and listen to the elders. I listened to their stories. Each had their own unique laugh and their own way of telling a joke or something funny. With propane plumbed lanterns hissing here and there, deer heads on the wall, old pictures of past hunts and people, the smell of recently cooked food, we’d listen to Bill Isaacson who mostly liked Hank Williams. He played both the guitar and his battery powered tape player. Bill liked to sing while we sat around and listened while digesting a great supper made by Rudy Helminen or Arne Peterson. Both were great cooks. Rudy would cook a ham for the first night at the camp for the hunting season. When Eli came out, he’d bring gallons of Egg Nog. The members got their food from Oja’s market in Fulton on their way to camp. Some, while sitting listening to the music, some smoked cigarettes. It didn’t take long for the whole camp to have a blue haze that hung on the ceiling about 2 feet thick. Because it was cooler at floor level, this kept the smoke up higher. Others used to play a card game called Mille Bornes. It was a classic invented in 1954 and it was a French car racing game with distance, hazards, remedies, out of gas, speed limit, distance cards, safety cards, end of limit cards, spare tire, puncture proof, tank cards and many others This game got pretty lively with some hollering and exuberant “coup-fourres” meaning the player removed a hazard against him in the game.
For more information, look up Mille Bornes on how to play. It’s a fun game.
Some conversed about their days hunt, what they heard or saw. I remember Elmer Johnson telling of what he tried or what he experienced while hunting. He’d have that glint in his eyes with a big smile. His speech was real slow capturing my attention. This was an interesting for a 14-year-old. Planning on the next day’s hunt was important too. I do remember they did drives to steer the potential buck to the other waiting hunters. I was always told that while I hunted, to look behind me. They didn’t tell me why but in my young mind, I thought that an animal may be trying to sneak up on me. In later years it suddenly occurred to me why they told me to do this. It was because if I ever got lost and tried to navigate back to the camp, I’d recognize the many things I looked back at to help me find my way. As I got older, the outdoors got very interesting. I browsed a lot of information in books to learn more.
Because I was the youngest, it was my duty to do the dishes and make the cigarettes for the smokers. I was told to keep the coffee cup full of filter-less cigarettes. The 2 devices I used were cigarette rolling machines. One of them could make one at a time but the other one could make one long one. The long one had a final step where you’d push in the drawer that the fresh made cigarette fell into and the 4 sharp knives would cut it into 5 cigarettes. To wash the dishes, I had to heat water on the stove in a large kettle. There usually was a large amount to do plus pots and pans. Sometimes Arne Parks helped me. He’d do the drying of the pots and pans so there would be room for dishes in the dish rack. As the evening wore on, it wouldn’t take long to start getting tired with a full belly and lots of tired muscles from all the walking I did. With sauna’s all done, one by one the guys would start getting ready for bed. The smoke of all the smokers would start to disappear into each breath we took or out one of the many leaks to the outside of the camp. Lights would be turned off and the quiet descended on tired hunters. Only the flickering of the oil heater could be seen. Through the window over the sink, sometimes headlights would shine in to tell us that someone was coming to the camp late. It didn’t take long for the guys to fall into deep slumber. The snoring began in the dry camp air, bed springs and wood posts creaked while some found comfortable positions to lay and of course some farting too. All the while I’m listening to this, I hear mice coming out for the night, the oil heater clinking away hoping that a mouse doesn’t want to come into my sleeping bag. I lay awake for a long while before I realized that at some point, I fell asleep and now everyone is waking up. One of the 2 cooks had already started breakfast and it was smelling great. Sausage, eggs, bacon and sometimes sliced potatoes were being cooked. Of course, the coffee was brewing for everyone’s thermoses. The other odor that still brings me back to the camp is the smell of a cotton sleeping bag. Something about a musty sleeping bag or pillow revives memories. I guess we could all relate to an odor to remember our past.