Yesterday, while preparing an area for our recycling dumpsters, I exposed an old resort dump. How ironic that while we commit and prepare for a recycling plan, I uncover evidence of how early resorts typically handled their garbage; landfills, either public or private, were the norm. We have found other areas nearby where we have discoverd old bottles, broken pots and pans, plus lots of rusty cans. Some things were interesting enough to save, for no better reason than to connect us with the early resort days. One of our best “finds”
includes an original cedar strip boat used during the 1950s. We know it is a resort boat because there is a red, half moon shape still visible in spite of the faded and chipped paint. The wooden bow now sits proudly to the left of the fireplace in the lodge, reminding us of a time when people vacationed on Boot Lake primarily for fishing and a simple cabin.
The featured photo above is one Michaela took in one of these abandoned dump sites. As the old relics rust and decay, they sink ever deeper into the duff. We are fortunate that nature can sometimes reclaim a site and add its own touch of beauty.
Here are a couple of old bottles I uncovered yesterday while leveling a site for the new recycling bins. The top one has embossed letters which read “Old Log Cabin”, and it looks like it contained something significantly stronger than maple syrup. The other bottle is an old shampoo bottle, Castile Shampoo.
This will be our last blog post until after Memorial Weekend. We are kicking it into high gear and will be concentrating all of our energy into getting the resort ready.