The Old Assateague Island Hunting Lodges
Known today as a national park, Assateague was once the premier duck hunting destination on the east coast. Many local hunters built lodges, some for profit, but mostly just to enjoy the awesome hunting and to get away from their wives..........one lodge was actually called "The Hen-Pecked Lodge" but was burned down many years ago. I have photographed the remaining buildings which are now sealed. Included are imags of some of the interiors which a previous superintendent gave permission (at my own risk) to photograph. When the island became a National Seashore, owners were paid for their properties and given up to 25 years to continue to use them, this time has long expired and the NPS is just letting them "naturally rot away"...seems a shame to me, but after talking to Carl Zimmerman about them I understand the impracticability of the situation.. But A lot of history lost here. My fishing mentor, Capt. Mac Simpson, now 90 worked at some of these lodges when he was sixteen as a guide. He was kind enough to spend most of several winters hiking to all the clubs and telling me many a story of the "good ole days." Since then I have hiked and explored pretty much of the 12 miles of "Oversand Vehicles" area and re-photographed much as digital cameras have come a long way since 2003...enjoy! P.S. I have attempted to be accurate in my captions but I am not an historian nor claim to be one.....One other thing, the photos are in sort of an order and the captions contain information that was verbaly given to me by folks who actually experienced these wonderful places......,THE CAPTIONS ARE THE GOLD IN THIS GALLERY! The captions,at times, flow into the next image so if you have the time or inclination run through them in order.......allen
So I'm talking to Blaine Bunting (Sr) few weeks ago and he passed on a small nugget of "treasure hunting history" that is kind of cool. Many are the tales of treasure being hidden on the west side of Assateague during the days of "Blackbeard" but I never gave them much thought........perhaps I should. It turns out the green Wagoneer at the Bunting lodge did not belong to Clayton or any of the Buntings. Its owner was Melvin Joseph, a local Delaware business man who was into financing treasure hunting, race cars, and race horses. He was Mel Fisher's financier when Mel found the Atocha with 40 tons of gold and silver. Mel and Melvin were good friends and hunted regularly at the Bunting's lodge......Blaine says they hunted ducks in the morning and then went "exploring" the rest of the day on the island and in its waters. The first photograph is from 2003. At that time only one window was broken in the building. It was a watertight and reasonably solid structure. Second image 2016.
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