A Tale of Some Tipi Poles

A couple of days ago I gathered together some of my old makeshift poles I used to have for my tipi building as a kid. They weren't made from lodgepole pine, like authentic tipi lodge poles should be. I gathered mine from what was available from my yard and the then nearby railroad right-of-way. Elm, maple or any dead stand that was tall and fairly straight was used. Maybe not things of beauty, but with a covering made from any cloth I could beg from Mom, for us kids they did the job just fine.

Many years later, after Junior was old enough I'd show him how to build a makeshift tipi just like I used to make. And this past summer, while expressing my utter admiration for one particular tipi camper we passed by during our travels, Junior asked me "Why don't we do that?" "Can't we make our own real lodge?"...

And that's what got me thinking. I didn't honestly have a good answer "why not?", but instead every excuse why I should actually do it. Tipis have always been in the back of my head since kidhood. I'd even gone so far as to price out canvas covers seen on Ebay. But buying one isn't nearly so appealing to me as making one myself, only this time making it the way I'd always dreamed of, done the right way, the authentic way. I always knew how to make one correctly - a half disc at least 10' tall, with smoke flaps, pin hole strips and a central tie - but never did I have the resources to make one like I do now.

But first - a lodge has to have some poles to start with. It's the framework to build on.

What I have - it's not alot, they aren't perfect, but it's a beginning...