Nice Camps!

Red Lily wrote:Everytime you refer to a "camp" I think of tents and caravans and motorhomes all lined up.

What I see there are homes either primary homes, vacation homes or rental homes.   There's  some terminology that I will just never get used to!  LOL

Look up "Adirondack Great Camps." Find out how the Gilded Age millionaires "went camping."

I know little of the Mississippi River area's history; but I expect that the Southern planters and later successful businessmen also wanted their Great-Camp-style retreats. The term may also have carried down there. There was a lot of interplay, East to West, and North to South. City names, for example. Aspirations of the wealthy, in various regions. In the Seattle area, there's a handful of suburbs that are all named for small cities in Ohio - because one of the original settlers came from there.

There are some large, strikingly ornate estate homes along the Mississippi River that are slowly crumbling. Probably cost too much to rehabilitate, but people do live in them. Some of them are very impressive. That's true of Detroit too. You think, it would be nice to save that, but apparently that's about as far as anyone has ever taken it. The economics wouldn't make sense.

How would you like to live in a 200 year-old mansion overlooking 2-3 miles of the Mississippi?

Lummy wrote:There are some large, strikingly ornate estate homes along the Mississippi River that are slowly crumbling. Probably cost too much to rehabilitate, but people do live in them. Some of them are very impressive. That's true of Detroit too. You think, it would be nice to save that, but apparently that's about as far as anyone has ever taken it. The economics wouldn't make sense.

How would you like to live in a 200 year-old mansion overlooking 2-3 miles of the Mississippi?

If I lived in a huge mansion falling apart, that I couldn't afford to repair...I'd be going crazy.

Lummy wrote:There are some large, strikingly ornate estate homes along the Mississippi River that are slowly crumbling. Probably cost too much to rehabilitate, but people do live in them. Some of them are very impressive. That's true of Detroit too. You think, it would be nice to save that, but apparently that's about as far as anyone has ever taken it. The economics wouldn't make sense.

How would you like to live in a 200 year-old mansion overlooking 2-3 miles of the Mississippi?

It doesnt have to be anything fancy. Just on the river, high enough not to flood, and a hell of a lot more remote than those with all the comforts of home.

HawkTheSlayer wrote:

Lummy wrote:There are some large, strikingly ornate estate homes along the Mississippi River that are slowly crumbling. Probably cost too much to rehabilitate, but people do live in them. Some of them are very impressive. That's true of Detroit too. You think, it would be nice to save that, but apparently that's about as far as anyone has ever taken it. The economics wouldn't make sense.

How would you like to live in a 200 year-old mansion overlooking 2-3 miles of the Mississippi?

It doesnt have to be anything fancy. Just on the river, high enough not to flood, and a hell of a lot more remote than those with all the comforts of home.

The simple pleasures are hard to beat, a shotgun shack overlooking the great Mississippi would be just dandy for me ,

I could live without the alligators and swarms of bugs. I don't like either.

vege57 wrote:

HawkTheSlayer wrote:

Lummy wrote:There are some large, strikingly ornate estate homes along the Mississippi River that are slowly crumbling. Probably cost too much to rehabilitate, but people do live in them. Some of them are very impressive. That's true of Detroit too. You think, it would be nice to save that, but apparently that's about as far as anyone has ever taken it. The economics wouldn't make sense.

How would you like to live in a 200 year-old mansion overlooking 2-3 miles of the Mississippi?

It doesnt have to be anything fancy. Just on the river, high enough not to flood, and a hell of a lot more remote than those with all the comforts of home.

The simple pleasures are hard to beat,  a shotgun shack overlooking the great Mississippi would be just dandy  for me ,

When I was a kid, I camped at this building on an inside curve of the river on the higher river ridge. It had only a big kitchen and two small bedrooms with bunks. But it had a large screened porch facing the river and a smaller, open porch on the woods side.

Wood heater, wood stove, kerosene lanterns , block ice.
Took a whole day to go 10 miles through the woods to get there in 4 wheel drive whinching all the way cause the ruts in the road would never dry under the old growth canopy.

We kids loved it.
Our job was to get out in the mud and hook the cable to the tree and then make sure it was rolled back on the spool properly, only to do it all over again in 5 minutes while the men drank beer the whole way and stayed in the truck or jeep. Lol.

The camp being on the inside bend of the river, when the water was low there was about a 100 acre sandbar right outside the camp. Sometimes smaller. Sometimes larger.
We could fish, play in the sand, swim in the shallows as a sandbar is very predictable in slope with few drop offs.

When you went back there to hunt, it was I usually for 5-9days . You couldn't just come and go in a half hour on a limestone road like today.

Lord the stories from back there.

No propane, no generators, Coleman lanterns did replace kerosene. Peace and quiet. Some camps had 12 volt DC bulbs!  Just hook to a battery or truck.

The only noise was the occasional swish of the barges and then the diesel engines of the tug.

Good times.

I used to love sitting on that porch( winter and summer) at night watching the boats pass and looking at the stars on a clear, cold night.

HawkTheSlayer wrote:

vege57 wrote:

HawkTheSlayer wrote:

Lummy wrote:There are some large, strikingly ornate estate homes along the Mississippi River that are slowly crumbling. Probably cost too much to rehabilitate, but people do live in them. Some of them are very impressive. That's true of Detroit too. You think, it would be nice to save that, but apparently that's about as far as anyone has ever taken it. The economics wouldn't make sense.

How would you like to live in a 200 year-old mansion overlooking 2-3 miles of the Mississippi?

It doesnt have to be anything fancy. Just on the river, high enough not to flood, and a hell of a lot more remote than those with all the comforts of home.

The simple pleasures are hard to beat,  a shotgun shack overlooking the great Mississippi would be just dandy  for me ,

When I was a kid, I camped at this building on an inside curve of the river on the higher river ridge. It had only a big kitchen and two small bedrooms with bunks. But it had a large screened porch facing the river and a smaller, open porch on the woods side.

Wood heater, wood stove, kerosene lanterns , block ice.
Took a whole day to go 10 miles through the woods to get there in 4 wheel drive whinching all the way cause the ruts in the road would never dry under the old growth canopy.

We kids loved it.
Our job was to get out in the mud and hook the cable to the tree and then make sure it was rolled back on the spool properly, only to do it all over again in 5 minutes while the men drank beer the whole way and stayed in the truck or jeep. Lol.

The camp being on the inside bend of the river, when the water was low there was about a 100 acre sandbar right outside the camp. Sometimes smaller. Sometimes larger.
We could fish, play in the sand, swim in the shallows as a sandbar is very predictable in slope with few drop offs.

When you went back there to hunt, it was I usually for 5-9days . You couldn't just come and go in a half hour on a limestone road like today.

Lord the stories from back there.

No propane, no generators, Coleman lanterns did replace kerosene. Peace and quiet. Some camps had 12 volt DC bulbs!  Just hook to a battery or truck.

The only noise was the occasional swish of the barges and then the diesel engines of the tug.

Sounds like bliss , if only life were as simple these days , I have a week till my settlement and a real desire for a simple way of life, It might be nice to find someone to share it with , but if not, I will still be happy

Ahh the memories.  I guess we all have them and I look back on roughing it with a smile but I'm older now and prefer the comforts in life.

I can do without a lot of things in life but I like the basic comforts now and think I've earned them.