428 
FOREST AND STREAM 
August, 1920 
A UNITSYSTEM PERMANENT CAMP 
EVERY PART OF THE OUTFIT CONTRIBUTES SOMETHING TOWARD STAYING UP 
EVERY OTHER PART AND NO UNSYMMETRICAL STRESSES ARE APT TO DEVELOP 
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W ITH summer here many who have 
never lived out-of-doors before, 
and all those who have done so, 
will be considering ways and means for 
the probable record season of 1920. 
Are you going to camp? If so, what 
sort of equipment is best adapted to the 
number of persons and their tastes; to 
the locality; to the length of time; your 
activities, etc.? These questions and 
others must be an- 
swered. 
If it is possible 
to remain afield a 
month or more; if 
the family or a 
number of friends 
can be persuaded to 
remain in camp, 
while you drive out 
each evening or 
week-end ; if the 
crowd prefers some 
degree of comfort 
to a prolonged per- 
iod of roughing it, 
then the following 
lines may have 
some direct or in- 
direct pertinence 
in your case. 
The camp de- 
scribed below is 
the result of some 
four years’ evolution, 
been developed to its 
it has been used another fqjir sum- 
mers with little further change. Hence 
it is no longer in the experimental stage. 
The detailed description is given, not 
with any thought of finality, or of im- 
posing these specifications upon the 
credulous. On the contrary it is hoped 
and expected that the scheme will appeal 
rather to the experienced than to the 
tyro — that it will fall upon the most fer- 
tile soil in the minds of those who can 
modify it to meet their own requirements 
and facilities. 
Even though the plan as a whole 
should not be applicable to your case, 
some of the details are new and may be 
useful. 
Let us leave to the professional or 
semi-professional camper the technical 
phraseology of camps, and, as an ama- 
teur speaking to amateurs outline in 
some detail the construction of this one. 
Three tents are employed. All are 
made to face a common center, so that 
by the use of a large fly overlapping 
them a common central living-room is 
added. 
The two larger tents (Fig. 1, A AAA 
and BBBB) are 9%' x 12', and spaced 
14 feet apart. The third, CCCC, which 
is the kitchen, is 7' x 7'; and its front is 
in direct line with the side walls of the 
others, forming thus the third side of 
a quadrangle. All are of the three-foot 
present state, 
By W. R. ALLEN 
wall type, each having a single door. 
They are of ten-ounce white duck, which 
has been found sufficiently heavy to live 
up under the most trying weather. In 
fact for several seasons they were used 
without flies. Now the larger tents are 
equipped with flies of 12-ounce material. 
On the whole it will be wiser to employ 
them from the first, though while the 
outfit is new they may be dispensed with 
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Fig. 1. — Ground-plan of camp. 
AAAA and BBBB, sleeping- 
tents; CCCC, Cook-tent; DDDD, 
living-room. 
Dimensions: bh, 38'; bd and ( h, 
12'; df, 14'; eg, 16'; jl, 14'; vi„ 
7'; ek, 4%'. 
Dotted lines are overhead ropes. 
1, dining-table; 2, washstand; 
3, kitchen-cabinet of packing box- 
es; 4, oil-stove; 5, camping-box as 
cupboard; 6, same as linen-chest; 
i, half-floor; 8, beds; 9, trunks; 
10, large trunk as dressing-table; 
11, rack for clothing; 12, half- 
front of mosquito netting; 13, 
window. 
readily, especially if care is taken to 
keep the roof free of debris, and to keep 
all objects inside the tent from coming 
into contact with the canvas. Of course 
such precautions should be lived up to, 
even when flies are used. Only in case 
of urgent economy will it be well to 
omit the flies. The central fly (Fig. 1, 
DDDD) so overlaps the kitchen that an 
individual fly has never bee - , found 
necessary for it. 
The fly of the living-room is also of 
12-ounce duck, and had been built for a 
14' x 16' tent. Thus, spanning a 14-foot 
space, it overlaps tents A and B one foot 
each, tent C more, and receives support 
from all three. Furthermore six 6%' 
spiked poles are used to hold it up. One 
of these stands at each corner and is in- 
clined considerably, so as to allow the 
corners to dip sufficiently for drainage. 
Another pole, standing erect, holds up 
the front in the middle (Fig. 1, j) while 
the sixth is placed 
in the center, upon 
the table. This 
raises the center 
considerably. The 
door is at j, where 
its elevation of 6%' 
is sufficient. The 
fly is held in place 
by extra long guys 
from each of the 
B corners, and from 
the center of each 
side. In Figure 1 
^ they are shown at 
1 ac, gi, a n d In 
(which pass length- 
g wise over the ridg- 
es of the tents and 
are pegged down 
beyond) and Dt 
and Ds (which are 
staked down be- 
tween the tents). 
In front, however, Dq, Dr and ju are not 
pegged. This would interfere with 
ingress and egress. They are lashed 
instead to the rope op, which is passed 
between the trunks of convenient trees. 
In lieu of ridge-poles for this fly 
stout ropes are used. One such, def, 
loops over the spikes of tents A and B and 
over the spike of the center-pole at e. The 
other line loops over the spike in the pole 
k, at the door of the cook-tent, engages 
the center-pole at e, pole j, and is lashed 
to the cable op. Broken lines in Fig. 1 
represent overhead ropes which support 
the central fly. Thus it is seen that on 
the front the ground is free of ropes and 
stakes. • The camp site is chosen with re- 
lation to trees which may be used with 
this end in view. It is important while 
pitching camp to true up the lines ai and 
jn and to have the tent poles perpendicu- 
lar, with their bases resting on these 
lines. Thus every part of the outfit con- 
tributes something toward staying up 
every other part, and no unsymmetrical 
stresses develop. Never have I experi- 
enced any difficulty in this respect, nor 
due to weather, simply through having 
taken this initial precaution. 
It is well to provide a supply of rope 
not only sufficient to carry out your plan,, 
but also to meet unlooked-for contin- 
gencies. This is of importance directly 
proportional to your distance from a 
hardware-store. The same may be said 
of your supply of stout cotton cord andi 
