Oil Tapper Cabins tell a story

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photos and article copyright by Snowbelt Parson

This is a place I call "Tapper Camp." I'm pretty sure it's on public land, but the ANF border runs a little crooked through this area, so I'm not certain. Also, I like having Tapper Camp to myself. For those two reasons, I'm not going to say where it's located. Surely hunters and bushwackers know about it, and yet, in three years, I've never found trace of another human there.

We used to call the guys who worked the oil fields "tappers." Hence the name Tapper Camp; it's where tappers used to bunk down when they got stuck out on the mountainside at night. As you'll see in the following post, it's a shack just big enough for a bed and a small gas stove. The thing that amazes me about Tapper Camp is that it's completely intact. The glass in the window is unbroken. The pane still opens. Despite a few leaks, the roof still holds. With some work, you might be able to close the door. In a pinch, you could still hold up there for the night, but the gas stove is long since disconnected.

Tapper Camp sits at the edge of a great rock city. I wonder if the boulders have protected this little shack from the elements? There was surely a time when these little cabins were all over the forest, but since the 1920s, most of them have collapsed. I wonder what keeps Tapper Camp standing. 

Comments

[nobodyspecial]

Love stuff like this, if you have any other pics please post. It reminds me of finding an old cabin in the woods when I was growing up.

[Snowbelt]

For more pics of Tapper Camp, go to http://alleghenyjournal.blogspot.com/

[editor]

I went there but I couldn't find anymore pics. Is the link above the full URL?

[editor]

Oh...I just found them. Look at http://alleghenyjournal.blogspot.com/2009/11/interior-design-at-tapper-camp.html for more photos