Vacation was AWESOME this year. Pics added!!!

[ebinmaine 72,706]

Once again Trina and I are headed up to the great North Maine Woods with our amazing friend.

 

No reservation. No set plans. Don't even know for sure what day we're coming back.

 

The first place we are going to head  is one of the German p o w camps that was located in Maine during World war II.

 

All three of us are the type of people that could spend hours at a salvage yard just looking around.

Our  friend has a decent quality metal detector and volumes of knowledge of World war 2 and later military. It's going to be a fascinating area.

 

After that? Maybe move camp and do a little hiking.

 

 

Edited August 10, 2019 by ebinmaine

[Blackhood Bill 722]

Sounds like a good time. Have fun and enjoy the time with the one your with, just don’t forget the 

[Mike'sHorseBarn 3,248]

Don't forget to plan a vacation to Arendtsville Pa in June sometime!  

[Pullstart 66,802]

Have fun, EB and BBT and friend!

[JoeM 8,347]

Some of our best vacations were impromptu. A tank of gas and a map! (back then maps were necessary).

[ebinmaine 72,706]

5 hours ago, Blackhood Bill said:

Sounds like a good time. Have fun and enjoy the time with the one your with, just don’t forget the 

Yeah Bill. Trina is going. They'll be pictures. LOTS of pictures.

 

5 hours ago, Mike'sHorseBarn said:

Don't forget to plan a vacation to Arendtsville Pa in June sometime!  

Definitely still up for discussion. We talk about it on a pretty regular basis.

Biggest issue right now is we have a special needs dog.

 

[953 nut 60,057]

9 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

spend hours at a salvage yard just looking around.

Our  friend has a decent quality metal detector

Any chance you will be able to find another .           Never know what will be lurking in the woods!

[ebinmaine 72,706]

15 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

Any chance you will be able to find another .           Never know what will be lurking in the woods!

Boy wouldn't that be something!!

[ebinmaine 72,706]

Finished filling the cooler with the important stuff

 

 

 

[Pullstart 66,802]

Hi Mirror!

[ebinmaine 72,706]

Well as it turns out we ended up spending five nights in the World War II German p o w camp. It was so interesting that we didn't bother to pick up and move to another location.

Here's a picture of the monument at the location. It sits in front of a very large oven that is the only structure left on the site. All of the other buildings and structures were bulldozed in 1946 and 1947.

 

 

We did do a hike of a medium sized mountain one of the days.  The rest of the time we spent poking around the site with or without a metal detector and... Wait for it... Relaxing.

 

I may have to do this in a couple of different posts because Trina took about 6472 pictures and shared a few with me so I can put them here for you folks.

 

@posifour11 I'm calling you into this so you can share all of these photos with your wonderful other half.

 

We'll start with a few photos of some very very old logging gear.

The main job of the pows was logging.

We found 3 axle setups buried in the woods.

One had metal wire wheels. Another one had wooden spoke wheels. Both of those were the front steer axle of old cars, adapted to logging.

 

The third one we found had a wagon axle. Here is a BEFORE picture which is how I found it in the woods. Two other pictures are AFTER I excavated the 75 years of leaves and dirt off the top of it. We buried it when done, so the next person can find it like I did.

 

 

 

These next few pictures are of pins and handles that were rotting away in the forest in piles of junk metal and other stuff.

In the bottom photo of this part you can see a hook from a cant hook or Peavey.

All of the items in these photos are blacksmith made. Nothing is machine-made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures from the camp area.

One of numerous barrel dumps.

 

this is a floor beam sitting rotting away in the forest.

 

The conical shaped item is one of many chimney flashing pieces that are still laying all over the camp. Each of the barrack buildings had several of them.

The other piece is of course, stove pipe.

 

Believe it or not this panel is one of the largest pieces of a building that is left. Most of it was quite crushed when the camp was bulldozed.

 

This is an ice box. Predecessor to the item we refer to as a refrigerator.

 

One of several dozen barrels on site. They held various items in their day. Gasoline. Grease. Motor oil. And creosote for coating buildings and poles.

 

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 72,706]

Here are a few pictures from the hike we did.

The mountains in the area are literally, numbered.

We went up Number Five Mountain.

At the top there is a very old fire tower.

Part of the ascent trail is the old Jeep trail that would have been used by the fire wardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 72,706]

A few other various pics from the trip and the hike.

 

They're a little difficult to see but note the row of windmills.

 

 

 

This is a portion of the dirt road that you travel off of route 201 to get to the p o w camp. 12 miles in the forest.

 

 

 

 

 

[posifour11 723]

Just plain amazing. Thank you!

[Pullstart 66,802]

Tell me, are you allowed to keep the small items, do you turn them in, hide them again?  I suppose this may sound ignorant, but I didn’t realize they were labor camps.  Thanks for the pictures and small glimpse of history!

[dells68 7,499]

Absolutely amazing @ebinmaine!  I love the pics of the POW camp and the view from the top of the mountain is amazing!!!!  Thanks for sharing.

[ebinmaine 72,706]

1 hour ago, pullstart said:

Tell me, are you allowed to keep the small items, do you turn them in, hide them again?  I suppose this may sound ignorant, but I didn’t realize they were labor camps.  Thanks for the pictures and small glimpse of history!

These pieces came from what is basically a junkyard. Maine had 3 or 4 camps during WWII.

This one was closed and destroyed in the 2 years following the end of the war.

It's now owned by one of the various paper producers here.

 

People have been scavenging the area since the 50s.

 

My intention is to assemble a display board and mount it to my own wall with the possibility of bringing it to shows as well.

 

[JC 1965 1,532]

WOW, great photos. Thanks for sharing.    

[The Tuul Crib 7,339]

 Absolutely beautiful Eric. What elevation are you at in these pictures ?

[ebinmaine 72,706]

1 hour ago, The Tool Crib said:

 Absolutely beautiful Eric. What elevation are you at in these pictures ?

Thanks Randy. Trina took most of those. elevation is just over 3,100 feet at that point.

 

 

[bigcreek 205]

good ole maine, where are the moose pics, i'd still live there if i could afford it,,, and yes great jeep country as well 

[ebinmaine 72,706]

52 minutes ago, bigcreek said:

moose

We saw tons of moose poo. And lots of their game trails and footprints. Even heard a couple close by snaps in the woods that was likely one of em.

Didn't see any to stare at this time through...

 

[WHNJ701 4,165]

1 hour ago, bigcreek said:

good ole maine, where are the moose pics, i'd still live there if i could afford it,,, and yes great jeep country as well 

I thought maine was cheap living 

[ebinmaine 72,706]

Just now, jabelman said:

I thought maine was cheap living 

Tough line to draw.

If you're close to a city it's VERY expensive.

If you're too far from a city you can't find work.

 

We have a good balance here.

 

[WHNJ701 4,165]

yeah that's what I thought, I know the lake house are expensive now.  but anything is cheaper than nj!

 

nice pics looked like a fun trip.  on you tube there is dude that goes into the European and Russian forests looking for ww2 stuff.  It's not in English but the videos are still cool watch.

Edited August 11, 2019 by jabelman