Gogebic Photography Guild

Sixty years ago when I was 10, would go visit a couple hunters who built these cabins. They would stay there for two weeks during deer season. Being a young boy, loved to listen to them tell stories of when they were young. About 35 years ago, they quit coming up to the wilds of Northern California. Guess, like me, the years finally caught up with them. Now all that lives in the cabins are wood (pack) rats. Don't think the cabins will last much longer. When I was looking at the lumber, thought of Jon. You would have loved to get your hands on some of this old stuff, Jon. Lots of it is aged redwood lumber going to waste.

And I thought just Michigan had shacks! Yes, I would love to have some of the wood.

My folks had a cottage on Lake Gogebic in the far north of Michigan. We would spend the whole summers there, with my dad coming in for the weekends, and vacation. It only had a large stone fireplace and a kitchen wood stove for heat, and a kerosene stove for additional cooking. There was one large front room, the kitchen, something that may have been a bathroom in someones dreams, and a bedroom for my parents on the first floor. The second floor was a loft over the kitchen/bathroom/parents bedroom. This loft went the whole length of the building, and had six old beds in it. Our actual bathroom, was an outhouse, with a two-holer! We did not have running water, and we had an old 'ice' box. To take a bath, we brought our Ivory Soap to the lake, and jumped in!

Well, that place went the way of the images here. My father lacked the energy to keep the building in repair, and would not let us kids take it on. (My sibblings and I lived 600 or more miles away.) Anyway, with the average 280 inches of snow each year, requiring snow removal on the roof at times, the building could not take the weight. We went back one summer to find the roof caved in! So much for all of the fond memories.

Before we sold the property, we had to get rid of what was left. We had the county fire department come in and burn it out, as a training excersize. That did not cost us a dime. But, we did have to get a bulldozer in to fill in the hole, so that cost a few hundred dollars.

So thats where that name came from..........

Sparkey wrote:So thats where that name came from..........

Yup!