I have a special surprise for you this Throwback Thursday/Friday the 13th! A trip down memory lane, back to the abandoned military base where I spent my idyllic youth hunting ghosts: Camp Claiborne! This is a photo-heavy post! Click here for the narrated video version, or read on!
Once upon a time as a teenager, I went through a proto-hipster phase where, instead of using a digital camera, I thought it was cooler to gamble on disposable cameras that you would drop off at the pharmacy to get developed.
While visiting family this past holiday, I recovered three batches of photos from this phase. One of the three happened to be genuine, vintage Glory Days photos of everyone’s favorite abandoned military base, Camp Claiborne.
Improper storage and humidity and age have been rough on them—and they weren’t the greatest to start with, because they were from disposable cameras. But here they are as a little bonus view into the Claiborne of my youth.
Let’s start at the beginning. Here’s the camp entrance. The weird thing on the side is damage to the photo, sadly not a spooky phenomenon. Back then, it wasn’t so respected as a historical site, so there’s the lovely “no dumping” sign on the brick.
For quick contrast, here’s the present-day google maps photo of the entrance, with the historic sign.
On the “Now and Then” note, I thought it would be fun to look back at a couple of friends—two of the most distinctive graffiti pieces in the camp!
There’s this cool guy then…
And in more recent pictures:
And, good ol’ Mr. Noodlehair the Zombie’s aging well!
As a reminder, this guy was in the little room with the ladder to the roof, and the pipe to the “battle arena.” This is that room now…
And this is that room then.
It’s kinda interesting that so much graffiti faded from this wall, while Mr. Noodles still looks fresh as a daisy!
Getting out of the building, here’s a vintage picture of the other end of that pipe, to the arena:
On the subject of oversized concrete structures, remember the big cylinders that have been busted open?
Let’s see what they were like back in the day!
From the trail we always took, here was the hole in the side of the one cylinder, that we’d always stop to look inside.
And here’s the view through the hole. (The red on the side isn’t anything creepy, just more damage to the photo.)
Water at Claiborne always makes me think of one of the main attractions, the GRID! While nothing remains of it and all that’s there today is a large, muddy clearing, these photos allow us a glimpse at its glory days.
Here’s another picture of a subterranean danger that I don’t even remember, but assume was likely close to the grid. Imagine carelessly walking here at night, tripping over the concealed base and falling in that hole!
I also found this picture—I have no earthly idea where in the camp it was. Bit with the red brick and tangling roots and vines, doesn’t it just look like something out of a dark fairy tale?
Getting back on track to the documentable and true, the entrance to the grid was located at the back door of the tavern. Here’s the tavern now…
and here’s as it was then, back when the graffiti was still fresh and new:
Going inside of the tavern brings us to my favorite find of this pack! You may remember from my stories that the tavern had an ill-advised basement, permanently flooded and the subject of one of my stories.
In the present, that basement has been “sealed off” as a hazard, but this photo shows where the stairs once were:
This vintage picture shows the stairs as they were!
You can see how quickly the stairs get moist and damp, and how you can barely get beyond the landing before you’re wading through water. (Please excuse the pixilation on the graffiti!)
There are some other photos that I didn’t include for various reasons—too dark and unclear, too gory (animals! Not people!), or too nondescript.
Not included in this surprise grab bag of vintage Camp Claiborne photos is the impossible one I told a story about, the one with the lantern and the red thing, whatever it was, crawling out of a pipe. That’s because that picture came from a real digital camera, not a cheapie disposable.
Good news on that front—I talked to my brother, and he knows where the PC that photo was stored on is! It’s safe, but in a somewhat difficult to get to place, which is why I haven’t dug into it to recover that photo (and the other photos taken at the same time)…yet.
That wraps up this Throwback Thursday, blast from the past, abandoned military base bonus! I hope you all have an absolutely lovely Friday the 13th! And remember, if a black cat crosses your path…check and see if it has a home and, if not, consider giving it to me!
Need a bigger creepy fix? Check out the series Table of Contents to revisit the fun!
