Conclusion

By the fall of 2011, a stranger could walk by the former site of Camp 52 on the old fading logging road and wouldn’t suspect that a hunting camp had been situated on Sawyer County forestlands at this location for fifty-five years. All the debris is gone and nature has reclaimed the site. There is no evidence left to indicate that this was once the home of the hunting camp known as Blue Heaven, occupied by a group of men for at least nine days out of the year who called themselves the Jolly Boys. If one continued to walk down this old logging road for about a quarter mile to the east, they would come across a relatively new hunting camp with a Schlitz beer sign hanging by the buck pole with the name Blue Heaven on it. If they entered the hunting camp now known as New Blue, they would find an almost exact replica of the old hunting shack. All of the furnishings on the interior were salvaged and remain the same. The pots, pans, and dishes are the same. The walls, windows, doors, and flooring are all the same, and the interior design of the camp remains the same. Any one of the Jolly Boys of old could walk through the door of the new hunting shack and swear that he was in the Blue Heaven of old. He would find the same traditions, the same rules, the same menu items being prepared on and in a similar wood-burning cookstove. He would hear the same old stories that have been told time and time again. Everything would be completely familiar to him. He would be proud that the Jolly Boys’ legacy continues.

Except for the new cookstove and a new sink countertop, the kitchen area of New Blue is an exact replica of the kitchen in Old Blue.

This is the end of my story, but it’s not the end of our story. My hope is that it’s just the beginning. My dream is that the traditions of the Jolly Boys and their hunting camp will continue on through the generations for my sons, their children, and their grandchildren.