Camp Defiance

Drove through Manning Park today on the way back home and stopped to take a picture of the old cabins near the highway. There were originally 3 buildings at this site, owned by a Bill Robinson in the early 1900's. I have only ever seen 2 buildings. One is collapsed and the other is in incredible condition with a stone fireplace.

Here is an excerpt from Province Sunday Magazine, August 30, 1931 of an article written by Bruce Hutchinson.

"We are descending now, but still by easy grades, and soon we are down beside the green waters of Sumallo. Here, on the boiling stream's edge, is the first house we have seen all day, the big log house of Bill Robinson, whom people call the old 'Flintlock of Sumallo.'

"Bill Robinson's well-named Camp Defiance is almost the farthest thrust of civilization into these mountains. His little garden of strawberries, of lettuce and potatoes, his six petunias and eight Sweet Williams, in the narrow gorge between the mountain and the stream, are a welcome sight to those who have just come out of the wilderness. And so are the big, firm trout that Bill caught at his back door last night, and the pie made from his late-ripening strawberries."