Saturday, September 6, 2008

A Meal at Red Rock


I was honored to be invited to dinner at Red Rock yesterday by Elaine and John Nissley. We had baked potato, meat loaf, a vinegar tomato salad followed by ice cream with peaches. The three of us sat at a long table that looked used to having a larger number of people for dinner. Elaine told me to look at how many table cloths there were on the table numbering around six. It appeared when the camp needed a new table cloth they just covered over the old one. As Elaine looked at the different colored table cloths I could see her being transported to the memories of different times at the camp.

We talked about the history of the area, some fact, some speculation. Where is the wild man's cave? Where exactly is the Indian Post Office? Elaine showed me an old map with indications of both on it. So there may be a hike in it for me to look for the wild man's cave on a cooler day.

Now you are probably wondering why the only picture of the camp is this water heater? Being a carpenter, plumber, electrician and all-around handy-woman, I found this interesting. And by the time we finished talking it was too dark to get outside pictures. I couldn't find a date on the water heater, my guess is sometime in the 50's or early 60's, since there wasn't power up here before then. The camp has no running water, but this heater allows you to fill it with buckets from above and then draw the hot water out from below. It heats the water with an electric coil. The camp water comes from a spring on the other side of Cedar Run Creek high atop the mountain giving it enough pressure to flow into the kitchen sink on its own.

The other option is to go out to a free flowing end of the pipe and draw the water into buckets to haul inside. The camp is also equipped with a nice outhouse. What more could you ask? Elaine has a nice account of her experiences at camp, which I will copy and post later, but for now thanks to the Nissleys for a nice dinner and conversation. Mountain girl, Paula logging out.

1 comment:

Bill said...

Paula - I have been looking (casually) at old maps of the Indian Post Office since I read about years ago (perhaps in a book "Black Forest Stories" or something like that).

One description I read seemed to suggest that it was near the convergence of Cedar Run and Red Rock Run (perhaps along the lower stretches of the latter). But another recent Delorme mapping software I saw suggests it may be on Flying Pan Run (along Francis Leetonia Road) about half way between the Leetonia Road and Bear Run Road junction. Two streams (one from the north and one from the south) join Frying Pan near the head of a trail that leads up to Gleason Hill (Reynolds Spring trail extension?).

That's the next place I intend to look, as I didn't get a chance this past June.

As for the Wild Man's Cave? I'd love to have you give me some ideas where to look. The area just doesn't strike me as good caving territory, but I'd love to hunt for one with some legitimate clues.

As always, thanks for your blog.

- Bill