Jack and Susanne Guthrie Camp

Story

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Susanne Guthrie (78 y.o.)  Interview —August 9, 2022

We had no prior camp— this was our first.  The camp was built in 1961,  before we built our main home.  Jack’s cousin  was already there when we built our camp.   We, and the Hedrick Moore family, owned our site.

As we built our mainland house, we had left -over redwood siding—used that to seal in the camp.  We first put on pressed board, when it got wet- it bulged out , then  we put the redwood siding on it— giving it two layers.  The camp had insulation, gas lights and refrigerator, a nice place—

Houston Salter built the miniature skiff for this young Banker.

Outdoor shower facilities.

The screened porch was looking toward the sound.

We had a well and a hand pump—our water was good-not bad at all—we were back a ways  from the shoreline.

The camp had our porch facing the ocean side—eventually, we put a roof over it and an observation deck above the roof of porch.  The camp was  20×16-with porch— it had a little bath and gas can storage.

Our front yard was clear, we built way back from water—Jack wanted to be  more out of the way— “I don’t want people walking thru all the time”—he liked privacy—not like “Little Miami”. The yard was mostly cleared, we kept the grass cut—now overgrown.

We towed a skiff over with the three-wheeler and towed the sailboat (sunfish)—it was a lot of work—if  we went,  we stayed for the weekend or longer—a week in summer, going for Easter and, and similar holidays.  Sometimes, we put a tent up on the beachfront.

Geese weere often hunted over there —they often went flying over —ran out and shot geese—we also put a lot of blinds in winter.

In later days, new people were coming in—oft from Beaufort—more of them were buying camps over there from locals—you could see the outsiders (not HI locals) creeping in.

If the Park Service had not taken over,  then it would be somebody from Raleigh that would have eventually been buying the camps.  Somebody would have had a condo over there—the Guthries knew of the Reeve’s plans for the Cape.

I’ll have to say—it was the best thing that they took it, we hated to lose it, of course.  We knew  what was coming when we built it—the ending date was coming—now anybody can go over there and it can remsin the same.

Our boat—had it fixed for staying in it—1985—my grandmother’s name was Sunny and Jacks mom was Cary—we always joked we would name our kid Karosena— so we named the camp Karosena and  the boat Karosena 2—we knew the Banks stuff  (takeover) was coming up, so the boat was for us to be able to stay over there on the boat after we lost the camp.

We put a grill on boat since we had lost the camp.

It was the fellowship with every body, we were all together,  here-you’re off to the store or doing things—over there it was relaxing—we had a good time.

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CALO Oral History Project #014 December 17, 2010

SUSANNE GUTHRIE 9

SYG: Yeah, because we built ours in ’67 and there was already a good number when we built ours. 

CM: Show me where yours was built. 

SYG: See, my grandfather’s camp was down here well that blew away in Hazel. So, whenever Hazel was [1954] we didn’t go back and build it again, because Daddy said it was too much, because it would probably blow away. So then when I got married, I married Jack Guthrie whose family owned a stretch of Banks in there, we said, “Let’s go over there and build a camp.” So, since my father, they didn’t have any claim to the land then, even think they owned it, but the Moore’s actually did own a big space of this. So, I married Jack whose mother was a Moore, so we went over there and Allen Moore, the oldest one in the family left then, showed us where the land was and told us where we could pick out a place. And so we picked us out a little place and built a camp, which was more like a house from what the other ones were. 

CM: How different was yours from everybody else’s?

SYG: So we started that. It was probably about here. Our camp must have been right there. 

CM: Here’s where on the other–.
SYG: Yeah, maybe that might be better.
CM: Here’s Whale Creek, so you’re saying right in here? SYG: Well, it was right here. Bald Hill Bay.
CM: Bald Hill Bay. 

SYG: So we built ours there on the westward end of Bald Hill Bay. At that time Bill Moore had one by Sam Windsor’s Lump. That’s where Bill Moore’s camp was, just about right here. 

CM: It’s real interesting: on this map it says, “Sam Winter Lump.” That’s how messed up it can get. 

SYG: We built ours and then Holly and Don Davis already had one down here, Murlie Houston had one there. Staton’s was here. And then people started building
and it all built up. 

SYG: That’s ours. And this would be William Hill’s, was right there. And then Laurie Moore had one. 

CM: Dr. Moore? 

SYG: No, it was a relative of his. Laurie Moore was from Marshallberg. Laurie and Helen Moore. 

CM: Oh yeah, yeah. Gayle Piner’s relatives.
SYG: Yeah. And then Polly Davis and Houston Salter. You can’t read this. CM: Well, with the tape and this I can–.
SYG: And there were a bunch of houses in there. Staton Moore had one there. CM: Right beside Polly. 

SYG: Yeah, sort of in there. And then Lester Hamilton built one down here on the other side of us. Right there. Lester Hamilton, and then his daughter, Kay, built one beside him. So that ended up being a little, like a little community of houses because all these people I just mentioned are in the Moore family. So they knew, and had it on a deed, that they owned that way down here. 

CM: So, the people that built there, did they get kind of fancy like you did with yours? 

SYG: Yeah. In those days we got more fancy because our house–, I forgot the dimensions, but we had two rooms on the back and one big long one across the front which was a living room and a kitchen, and it had two bedrooms. And one bedroom had bunk beds built in and a single bed and then the other bedroom had a double bed. 

CM: And you used oil lamps? 

SYG: We used oil and gas lamps. We had a gas cook stove and a gas refrigerator and gas lights. And they were all piped in inside the wall and then we sheathed the inside. So it was just like a house you would have here. 

CM: Sounds nice. 

SYG: And the ceiling was redwood. It was redwood on the outside. It was plywood first, and then redwood on that. And it was sheathed on the inside in redwood and paneling. 

CM: Wow. 

SYG: And we had a little bathroom. We had a little commode in a room on the porch that was built in with a commode. We didn’t have to shower outside. 

CM: Did you go over there all year round? 

SYG: We had a porch on the Sound side and then we later built a porch on the ocean side and a top to that porch with steps you could go up and look out at the beach. 

CM: That’s nice, that’s nice. Kind of like a widow’s walk on top. SYG: Right.
CM: Wonderful. And you went there all year round? 

SYG: We didn’t go there as much in the winter because we were both working. We were school teachers so we were off in the summer and so we had more chance to go. But in the winter the weather gets bad. We’d go every once in a while, but 

SYG: not a whole lot. See, some of them other people, Bill Moore would go a lot in the winter. 

CM: Was he a hunter? 

SYG: He hunted and oystered and fished and stuff. I think Laurie and ( ) would go some in the winter, but we didn’t go that much in the winter. But we went every weekend in the summer. 

CM: And where did you teach? 

SYG: Harkers Island. 

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Credits

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1. NPS files and archives
2. Other references within text