Generally a family would have a permanent house - a home base camp,
often a single room log home. In addition, they would have one or more
temporary camps to use while fishing, hunting and trapping at some
distance from the home.
A person living in the bush on traplines referred to his or her home as
a "camp," as in "come to my
camp," "stay at my
camp," or "tie your dogs at my camp." Thus, a bush person
commonly used the term "camp" to describe a place of residence. A
traditional bush person living in a modern urban home may still refer to
an overnight visitor as someone who has "come to camp with
me."
[Read about trapline homes, cabins and traditional camps]
Reprinted from Bush Land People with the permission of the author.
Copyright Terry Garvin, 1992-2002. |