Researching for Hobo Campsites........sorta a ghost town.....

[gitterdug]

On my bucket list, I would like to find a genuine hobo nickel......

Here is the thing.......How does one locate old hobo campsites? They were called Jungles back in the day, and they were off of the train lines.......mainly.

I have never seen this topic on here, ie specifically researching to find hobo jungles.

I hunt old ghost towns a lot. But I would really like to locate some old hobo campsites. They existed, and for all we know, still exist.

I have tried googling, google books, maps, all sorts of things....but nada......

So, imho, it is related to ghost town hunting....as a hobo jungle is like a ghost town.....I think it probable that they hid what little wealth they had at night sometimes......

Comments?

 

[Charles B]

Hello gitterdug,

Good Topic.....
Hobo nickels are really cool and authentic ones are quite collectible.
Hobo-ing has really changed over the years. Around the depression era it was at its height and hobos even had homes that they could stop at for a meal or shelter; many times in exchange for a little work. Today Hobo-ing is down right dangerous. There is a Hobo gang that is murderous. Jumping a train today will land you in jail.

I had never given much thought to Hobo camps but while we are at it we should throw in Gypsy camps and maybe Carnivals as well. All of these individuals typically travelled a circuit and stayed in the same places time and again. Old newspapers and police records may provide some clues to where they were.

This is going to be more of a challenge.

 

[Charles B]

Hobo (sign) code
HOHO LIFE


To cope with the difficulty of hobo life, hobos developed a system of symbols, or a code. Hobos would write this code with chalk or coal to provide directions, information, and warnings to other hobos. Some signs included "turn right here", "beware of hostile railroad police", "dangerous dog", "food available here", and so on. For instance:

A cross signifies "angel food", that is, food served to the hobos after a sermon.
A triangle with hands signifies that the homeowner has a gun.
A horizontal zigzag signifies a barking dog.
A square missing its top line signifies it is safe to camp in that location.
A top hat and a triangle signify wealth.
A spearhead signifies a warning to defend oneself.
A circle with two parallel arrows means to get out fast, as hobos are not welcome in the area.[9]
Two interlocked circles signify handcuffs. (i.e. hobos are hauled off to jail).
A Caduceus symbol signifies the house has a doctor living in it.
A cross with a smiley face in one of the corners means the doctor at this office will treat hobos for free.
A cat signifies that a kind lady lives here.
A wavy line (signifying water) above an X means fresh water and a campsite.
Three diagonal lines mean it's not a safe place.
A square with a slanted roof (signifying a house) with an X through it means that the house has already been "burned" or "tricked" by another hobo and is not a trusting house.
Two shovels, signifying work was available (shovels, because most hobos performed manual labor).

Another version of the Hobo Code exists as a display in the Steamtown National Historic Site at Scranton, Pennsylvania, operated by the National Park Service.

 

[Charles B]

UTAH HOBO JUNGLE

There in Ogden, Utah, I got off a train at the river under the 20th Street viaduct, and among those trees is a jungle that I think has been there a real long time. It was littered with beer cans, broken glass, water-soaked porn magazines and dirty underwear. I didn't even think about all the litter because that's what I'm used to. I don't think it's pretty or nothing, but of all the jungles I've been in, none of them have been very clean.

UTAH HOBO JUNGLE

 

[Charles B]

Allan Pinkerton made one of the first descriptions of a hobo jungle back in 1877. While he doesn't use the term hobo (it doesn't come into custom until the 1890s), he does describe a scene which would become all too common along the railroad lines in the coming decades. This scene was reported as repeatedly occuring along the line of the Boston and Albany railroad.

It is night, and in a deep gorge near the railroad, where the trains are constantly passing and repassing, a collection of some twenty or thirty of these outcasts, who have been driven from a neighboring village, are gathered. At the bottom of the gorge, where a stream of water leaps down from the hills through the stone archway sustaining the tracks, are sleeping or dozing, about a fire which has been kindled for warmth and to cook what little the wanderers may have stolen or begged for their supper, a large number of the poor fellows, exhausted from their day's march; for, like "Joe" in Dickens's "Bleak House," it is their destiny to be kept "moving on" and on. In different places are seen old and young men who have retired from the companionship of their fellows, to brood over their misfortunes, regret lost opportunities in the past, or possibly to resolve upon better things for the future..

hobo

National Hobo Convention
CONVENTION

 

[mudpuppy]

Yes a genuine hobo nickle would be a great find! Somebody post some pictures of them wouldja? We have a hobo sign on the front of our house, it means "good people live here" (its a horizontal line over a horizontal oval) I'd imagine any just out of town creek bottom would be a good place to start looking...the modern hobo jungles are off the exits of the interstates in the brush behind the hotels and restaurants...theres a big one here in Grand Rapids Mich on an island in the middle of the river right now! Good topic, and something to reflect upon what has happened in our history in hard times...now, instead of train tracks, the modern hobos use the interstates... I remember my mother talking about Gypsies, she lived way up in Maine, Calais to be exact, and her father would let them camp in his apple orchard. The modern gypsies really have a good life! working for cash off the books, blacktopping, painting, selling equipment out of the back of F150's...I was staying at some motel once off an exit, the parking lot was full of white F150's, in the evening, a semi pulled in and started unloading all sorts of engine hoists, cheap hydraulic presses, saws, etc...I sort of threw in and helped, since I like to lift anyway, well, these fellows travel around in an area stopping at every little farm or shop and selling the stuff...then move on to another town. I know theres a lot of different clans, just dont know the details.
Mud