Sunday at American Camp

It’s Sunday morning. There are four of us here at the Visitor Center waiting for the first person to come through the door. Three of us have set up a guess as to when the first person will walk through the door.

RW 10:15

JB 10:25

JW 10:35 (ps RW won. It was 10:10)

Hopefully we will actually have some visitors today. Since the calendar has switched around to October and the weather has switched around to fall, our attendance has dropped off dramatically. September was still good. R& I were stationed at English Camp on Sat & Sun and had about a hundred visitors each day. I really enjoyed being there. It has a totally different “feel” there. It’s much more scenic and serene and more historic buildings (four). Building and keeping up the fire in the fireplace at the barracks was a highlight for me and visitors too. Many of them commented on seeing the smoke from the chimney and smelling the fire drew them in. When you think of it, open fires are becoming a thing of the past. Most fireplaces are being ignored or are converted to gas. Gas fires are ok but they don’t crackle or pop or smell like real wood fires.

Speaking of buildings, American Camp is about to increase its number of buildings by one. Currently there are two historic buildings on site. The laundress’ quarters and one of the officers quarters. The laundress was the wife of a soldier who was paid to do the laundry for the soldiers. A portion of each soldier’s salary was deducted from his salary to provide her pay. It was hard work but it provided a nice boost in income to the her family. She was required to be married. If her husband died she had 60 days to remarry or she would lose her position and her house. With all the unattached men on a military base finding a new husband would have not been a challenge.

Here you can see the officers quarters, the laundress house on the far left and the visitor center in the background.

The other building on site is one of the officer’s quarters. It is a duplex in design with a hallway in the middle and a couple of rooms on each side. The outside is has been restored and painted white. The interior waits for its time. An extensive white picket fence surrounds the entire camp area but the building sits by itself. But not forever. Soon, another building will be placed next to it. Currently named the Brown house because of the man who purchased it long ago, it sits on a corner in downtown Friday Harbor. Since being moved from American Camp in the 1870’s it has had many uses, being remodeled and added on to several times, finally ending up as an art gallery. The owner of the building wanted a new building so instead of just tearing the building down, contacted the NPS to see if they were interested in it. So the NPS is getting the historic building by moving it off the property and the landowner does not have to pay to have it demolished. It will sit right next to the existing officer building. It’s truly a win-win situation. The moving day has not been given, but it will be a momentous occasion.