488-Lone Pine, Portagee Joe Campground
Vložit
- čas přidán 3. 11. 2017
- Hello everyone this is RVer Frank.
Today we are going to Portagee Joe Campground a local Lone Pine campground. Back in the day I spent a lot of time camping here.
But recently, political correctness met Inyo County at a town hall meeting in Lone Pine. Surprisingly, both appeared to come out the winner.
The initial topic was Inyo County’s Portagee Joe Campground off Tuttle Creek Road in Lone Pine. Not so much the camp itself, but the name.
Someone had e-mailed the County Supervisors his concern that Portagee was a pejorative term-as bad as spick or mick or kraut or the one word that need not be spoken.
“Not appropriate”, as the writer says, for a campground operated by tax-payer dollars. I lived in Modesto with a large Portuguese population.
Portagee was something they could call each other, but offensive out of the mouth of a non-Portuguese person.
This e-mail sent the County Supervisors on a search for Joe and the campground’s history. They didn’t have to look far.
The Chief Administrative Officer, also at the meeting, went to his father, a former parks guy for the county and then to his uncle who was present for the official christening.
His uncle was part of a crew sent to bulldoze an old facility in the area in the 1960s.
Joe’s campsite, or shack, that part wasn’t entirely clear, was just above the site. The guys decided to name the campground after Joe, AKA Portagee Joe.
“It was a bunch of blue-collar guys naming something after another working stiff,” they said.
Another long-time resident added to the story. “The man had a long history here,” he said “If you were in the cattle business, you knew all about him.” Apparently there are other Portagee things named after Joe.
And still, another long time Lone Pine resident brought up Skinny Gates and Hard Rock Jim, two more unique Lone-Pinesque residents.
But there were folks disturbed by the potential offensiveness of an ethnic slur attached to a campground.
So they came up with a compromise that seemed to settle the question: keep the name Portagee Joe, “out of respect to the man,” but add information at the site to explain Joe’s history and how his name became attached to the campground.
Another great video!
Thank you I appreciate the feedback.👍 👍 👍
Hey Frank, nice to meet you. My husband, Ken, and I are headed up to camp there tonight, hoping not crowded on a Monday in May😁
Thanks for the tour and the background/history of the campground...super interesting!
I was born and raised in Nor Cal and finally gave up snd moved to AZ due to just the kind of stuff you were talking about. It sounds like they actually came up with a good compromise though.
I am headed to your vid list to check out more. Ken and I have a channel, Life with Ken and Jane. We gold mine (hobby) in the winter and travel in small motorhome in the summer. Come check us out if that sounds interesting to you👍🏻
It is my pleasure to meet you, Jane and your husband, Ken.
Thank you for subscribing to my channel and I will be sure to sub to yours and watch your videos, I love Gold Rush, Bearing Sea Gold, I would love to do it sometime in the future myself. If you are in the Lone Pine area or anywhere in the Owens Valley I have many videos about the history of that place. Boulder Creek or Diaz Lake are nice if Portagee Joe Campground is too primitive. Enjoy and Happy Trails!
Just way too much political correctness, most times the people they are protecting shake their heads and ask WHAT? Ridiculous is what it is. Some people just like to get attention by "bringing up" things. I like that set up at the end, I haven't had my evening brew yet.... but I could swear I seen Festus, Matt and a transgendered Miss Kitty LOL I like Kathie's hat and yours was suitable for the event as well.
Oh yes we are a political correctness bunch as you can see, ignore the sidearms and the scantily clad, er-um, woman, and yes we kiss our horses! I didn't see that signage explaining the campground name(?). Things move along slowly in those parts, so the sign is yet to be made or already used for firewood.👍 👍 👍