HISTORICAL RECOLLECTIONS BY Long Time Fish Creekers

Back in the 40's and early 50's, 'Terrible Terry' the park ranger was a handful. He would ride around the campground on his World War II old Harley motorcyble, which was painted a dull green. It was very common that after dark he would hide in the bushes near site 305 and wait for drivers returning from the drive-in theatre, just this side of Tupper Lake, as they re-entered the camp at the exit at site 305. (back then it was not closed to traffic at 8:00pm as it is now). But the drivers often would be going faster than the 5 mile an hour maximum. 'Terrible Terry' would take off after the speeding campers and really give them hell for speeding. You could hear him for several camp sites in both directions. This got to be a nightly event. (Glen Peters)

Back in the late 40's camp sites 250 and 251 had wooden platforms with tents erected upon them, and these sites were reserved for forest rangers or camp employees vacations. I believe these sites lasted well into the 50's before they were removed and became available to the general public. (Glen Peters)

When we first went to Fish Creek in the 40's there was no charge to camp. Boy, things sure have changed. (Glen Peters)

Until the mid 1980's there were other vendors that came around the campsites in the mornings hawking their wares. There was a Bakery woman in the 1950's and 1960's. She would holler "Pies, Cakes, Cookies, Donuts, Bread. We have fresh honeydips today!". (Kevin Kirsch)

There was the Crystal Springs dairy tuck that was a dump truck loaded with ice and various dairy products accompanied by boys that would run your requests to you. They would yell when travelling "Milk, Eggs, Butter, Cream, Cottage Cheese, Butter Milk, Orange Juice!". (Keven Kirsch)

There used to be newspaper boys that would go from site to site each morning. (Kevin Kirsch)

There used to be a converted school bus that was a miniature store on wheels. (Kevin Kirsch)

The ice you would purchase from Donaldson's (now know as Knapp's Trading Post), was ice cut from the ponds in the winter time and stored in saw dust in the building to the right of where the store is. (Kevin Kirsch)

Years ago the Donaldson's store had a restaurant attached to it (likely where the current cold storage is located). The restaurant had old fashioned stools and they served burgers and shakes. (Norma Young)

Before the days of reservations, campers would wait in line on Route 30 which formed after 9:00pm when the front gates would close to new campers. At times the line would be so long that it spanned all the way back to the Spider Creek conduit (Follensby Clear Pond). (Keven Kirsch)

The brown soft top “Montgomery Wards”  (yes, a camper from a department store) was my parents first “Camper” (see photo below).  We were really living !!   No more sleeping on the ground. The picture below was from Aug ’68. We would plan to be at Fish Creek right as the check in booth closed the day before we wanted a site. This would put us close to the front of the line so we would have a good choice of empty sites the next day. My brother and I used to sleep on top of the soft top camper the night we were in line. Packing rules were the camp stove and coffee pot were the last things packed so they so we could easily get to them roadside. You can’t believe how many people you meet when the aroma of fresh perked coffee hits the air at 6:00 AM after sleeping in your car all night !!!  The lines would go around the corner, up by the pizza place. (Randy Finley)

(photo above - Randy Finley)

There used to be a garbage dump located behind where the old trailer dumping station used to be. There are silll some remnants of old cars back in there, with old bottles and such.  (Kevin Kirsch)

The old dumping station was located across from site 137 where remains of the road can still be seen. Campers could watch the bears at night right from their campsite (unknown source)

The road to Rollins Pond was once the way you could get to Fish Creek via the train stop at Floodwood station. There was a small bridge over where the creek dumps into Rollins from Floodwood. (Kevin Kirsch)

In the 1960's and 1970's when there were no reservations, camping was on a first come, first serve basis. Many times we had to sleep in our car on Route 30 waiting to get in. There could be as many as 50-75 cars and trailers on Route 30 overnight. We used to have fun meeting people out there. (Jan Guzior)

The long standing tradition of campers shouting out 'Yoo Hoo's' across the pond to other campers was originally started to signal that quiet hour was approaching. In recent times Yoo Hoo's have simply become a tradition, and Yoo Hooing is often started much earlier than the 10pm 'quiet hour'. (Dale)

In the late 60's early 70's there was a guy who would water ski around the lake wearing a dress and carrying a fishing net. He would come in close enough to shore so you could toss cans of beer into his net. (Brian Burns)

In addition to the news paper boys and old school bus there was a guy that would sell ice out of a freezer in the back of his truck. To get  your attention he would sing "Nice Ice blocks and cubes..." (Brian Burns)

One fond memory with our 4 children were, in there early teen's, the baseball game's with Stan Giza as the umpire, there may have been 20 on each team, and there always was a tie. We had to make sure we ate early enough so the kids could be there. The game's were played around site 198-199, the taps that were played almost every night, Helmet from Mass. That was a super water skier and helped many-many kids learn how to ski, the old rattle trap truck that would ride around at night, to make sure we were quiet at night, but we could hear him, and then we'd whisper, the good old day's thank you for making this it is just perfect. I did forget to mention the old man that would come in his truck, selling "Worm's" and Wood',it would sound like "WOODEN/WORM". That was Mr.Weaver. (Linda & Tom Callaghan)