1930's offset smoker found in the "field".

[Chasdev]

The wife and I took a short vacation to Lake Brownwood state park in Texas, we booked an old stone cabin that was orginally the blacksmiths shop used when the CCC built the state park starting in the early 30's.
The surprise (outside of the fantastic stone buildings and pavilion the boys built out of local rock) was the BBQ pit the blacksmiths cobbled together for to do BBQ.
Starting with the smoker (and some random guy in the picture...me) and then some of the CCC stone work and some plaques talking about the CCC and showing the boys.
Also of interest was the fact that there was a military training base near there and the GI's used the pavilion and lake while on leave.
Not shown here but there were pictures of the ballroom packed tight with soldiers and local gals dancing and making woopie!

 

[Hockeydudde]

Very cool!
Looks good as new.

 

[chopsaw]

Nice !

 

[Chasdev]

No one working at the state park offices knew anything about it but to me, since it has no wheels, I believe it's been sitting there since the CCC was camped there.
Also the cook grate was mounted in the upper 2/3rds of the chamber, way far away from the firebox opening to the cook chamber.
Wonder what the oldtimers were up to with the relationship between the exhaust port and the cook grate above that point?

 

[Hockeydudde]

No one working at the state park offices knew anything about it but to me, since it has no wheels, I believe it's been sitting there since the CCC was camped there.
Also the cook grate was mounted in the upper 2/3rds of the chamber, way far away from the firebox opening to the cook chamber.
Wonder what the oldtimers were up to with the relationship between the exhaust port and the cook grate above that point?

Ahh! I was wondering why the lid was so high. I assumed the great was low and food got "dropped in".

 

[Chasdev]

Funny, I've been wrastlin with radiant heating overcook syndrome and raising the cook grate in my cheap offset smoker is on my mind, so I guess they knew back then how to deal with it.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Appears to me, they were ahead of their time.

I looked that lake up on Google Maps. It has a bunch boat houses. Most of the banks are lined with them. But what's really unusual is the boat houses on the islands. Only access by boat. Are those just boat houses or are they cabins with a dock attached ?

Is the water very clear ? It looks to be. I'd bet on a summer Saturday afternoon its very crowded.

Hows the fishing ? Do you fish there ?

 

[Chasdev]

The state park part of the lake is boathouse free but we did see lots of comercial activity everywhere around the parts of the lake we saw.
Normal lake water, not cloudy but not perfectly clear.
We did a little fishing but the piers were fished heavily and we mostly scared small sunfish and a few edible crappie but we released them.
If I had been on a fishing trip I would call it a fail but we just walked in cold, no info on hot spots or guide help so who knows, maybe we were one green grasshopper lure away from a fish fry...

 

[Smokin Okie]

I've fished most of the large lakes in eastern Oklahoma, and followed the Bassmaster tournaments all across the southeast. I've never seen boat docks on islands like that.

There can't be any utilities. I wonder if people buy lots on the island or rent the docks. I would guess, they would have to camp if there's no cabin involved.

If I were fishing that lake, I would be casting all around the docks. Find the creek channels, then fish the docks nearest the channel. Then fish the docks on the points. After that, find the docks on steep banks. Owners throw brush out around docks. Always fish around the brush.

On Google Maps, the lake water level is way down, looks like boat ramps aren't even in the water. There must be large water fluctuations ?

 

[Chasdev]

We visited when it was full, but there's been 0.0 rainfall for more than a month in Austin so I would venture to guess being no more than 100 miles from here, that they too are dry dry dry.