pictures from our past- our world-
Medina River camp (Part 1)
© Copyright 2000, All Rights Reserved
|
The location of the camp
In 1909 the family celebrated the Labor Day holiday with an end of summer camping trip on the Medina River. This stream is fed by springs running from a limestone aquifer near the town of Bandera, northwest of San Antonio. From its springs it meanders through the hill country in a generally southerly direction skirting the eastern side of Castorville to near La Coste where it makes a sharp left turn to the east before continuing to its nearby junction with the San Antonio River another 20 miles down stream. The entire linear length (ignoring crooks, bends, twists and turns, etc) of its course course is about 100 miles. Its junction with the San Antonio River is about 20 miles south of downtown San Antonio. The Ed Arnold family made this Labor Day trip in 1909 along with near 25 others. The album contains more than 15 pictures from the 1909 camp. Also there are other pictures from similar camps in other years . While there is no identification of the exact location of the camp I think the most likely location was the lower Medina quite near its junction with the San Antonio River. This conclusion is drawn from the appearance of the pictures that show an apparently slow running stream whose bed and banks appear to be the light sand colored clay that is characteristic of the lower area. Had the camp been on the upper Medina there would have been the appearance of a faster moving stream running over limestone with limestone outcropped banks. The real clincher, however, lies in the logistics of setting up a camp and transporting some 25 men woman and children a long distance for an extended weekend camping. In 1909 automobiles were just appearing in San Antonio and do not appear in the camp pictures. Horses, do appear. The 20 to 25 miles to the Medina near its junction with the San Antonio while requiring near a day was possible for determined campers. The picture in the right hand column is labeled, "On The Way To The Country. 1912." The seven rather well dressed men in the wagon were not on their way to our 1909 Medina River camp, but it seems quite likely that it was in buggies like this that our campers traveled to the site.
|
'
|
|
'
|
Camp facilities
The first picture is titled, "Dinner Time On The Medina, 1909." It shows that the site had a picnic table with benches. I count as many as 18 individual faces in this picture. In all probability the party had enjoyed a hot meal prepared over a wood fire in a pit. It is possible they had fried fish for dinner if they were lucky. Their odds would be better if they had set trout lines the night before that produced a number of 4 to 5 lb (or bigger) catfish. The second picture is from another camp in 1911 on the nearby San Antonio River. Here the cooks are doing their thing over an open fire. This camping party was a smaller group, all men and boys. Tents were used as a shelter from possible rain and for night time sleeping. The next two pictures are from the 1909 Medina River venture. In both of the pictures all the faces appear to be girls or women. Possibly this was a woman's tent. In the final picture all the faces are those of men and boys, but this picture was from the 1911 San Antonio River camp. Another primitive appearing camping picture is the one already shown on the initial page of this essay. This picture had become separated from its page in the album and it is now impossible to identify its time or location.
Click here to view this primitive camp.
|
|
'
|
|
|
'
|
|
|
' |
'
|
|
Continue With: Medina River Camp (Part 2) |
|
