CAMPS 93 



and it is natural that the first developments toward forest recreation here 

 were inexpensive, simple hunting shelters. They make them better now than 

 they did at first. For at first they had no landscape and structural architects 

 to guide them, no appropriations whatsoever for materials, and no relief 

 labor to do the work. This shelter in a clearing by the creekbank, just com- 

 pleted, was planned by a Harvard graduate in landscape architecture, 

 traveling out from the Tallahassee office over all the Florida forests, and the 

 local ranger saw to the actual construction of the job. It is a good job. 

 It fits into the scene so completely that a visitor is well into the clearing 

 before he sees it. And when he does see it, he feels at once that it is all right 

 there; it belongs. 



Built of native timber by CCC labor, this shelter cost under $50, and 

 is so well and plainly constructed that the ranger figures there will be no 

 appreciable depreciation (short of fire or acts of vandalism) in its usefulness 

 to the public for the next 20 years or so. An adaptation of the Adirondack 

 type of open-front lean-to (no longer widely favored on most forests with 

 harsh climates), this low, dark-colored building is just about wide and deep 

 enough that six tall men may sleep in it if they all manage to turn over at 

 the same time. Before its open front is a fire mound, hip high, made of 

 logs and sand. Hunters are encouraged to build their fires on this mound. 



The wooden lean-to, a fire mound, a convenient toilet, a shallow-well 

 pump, a rack of firewood raised from the ground is all there is to this hunt- 

 ing camp, and it has been getting plenty of use. If more sportsmen show up 

 than the camp can carry, the others simply make throw-down beds and 

 build pit fires nearby. This is permitted on the Choctawhatchee by the 

 simple procedure of getting a campfire permit from the ranger. 



There has been some doubt among Florida foresters whether to install at 

 these small and isolated hunting shelters a combination bulletin board and 

 folding field desk, an all but standard piece of equipment at larger Forest 

 Service camps. Experience shows that many passing users of these hunters' 

 shelters do not like to register. They see some catch in it, or they are not in 

 the registering mood. They sign fantastic names and enter in the register 

 remarks often amusing but not always quotable in the presence of ladies. 



No sooner were these hunting camps set up, however, in the remoter 



