A long, long time ago in galaxy far, far away; I was once in a spot that at least paralleled your description except the people were mostly deceased, not just missing.

The nasty little spot was south of the Central African Republic, southwest of Sudan, and north of Angola. A true garden spot. No, I was not on safari with Happy Miles or Ruark, but Col. Craig Boddington would have been a welcome sight. Particularly if he had been toting a very large caliber safari rifle capable of disabling a Land Rover filled with unfriendly folks.

Mr. P,
Your story about the Native Canadian who lost his eye reminded me of one morning in the 1960s in Kotzebue, Ak. At that time this was our base for polar bear hunts on the Chukchi Sea. I entered the only cafe for a breakfast before heading out on the ice with clients. The only place to sit was a stool at the counter and it was next to a local native whose head was flat on the counter - dead to the world. Gingerly, I sat next to him and tried to order, whereupon, he slowly raised his head and stared at me with bleery eyes and incanted, "I-I-I ddon't know.......I-I have one drink and mmmy mind fllly away! Obviously, that had happened - no doubt not for the first time.
But I strongly agree with your opening - that hunting is the best way to see the real country in any land you visit. I have far fewer world wide experiences than do you, but I have been a few places. You do not go to Schefferville to find a five star hotel - you go to hunt!! Because it is there! My opinion is that the hunting world is now getting too slanted to the need for the Lodge and hunt offering to be five star to qualify. I can still sleep in a tent in 'real hunting country' and not be pampered every minute. I thought that was what hunting was all about.

....I like to say places like that are right down the road from the sunshine pumping station.....I'll let that one sink in.

I can attest to many such places as everyone is describing. In a former life I played music for a living on the road. I've probably been in the house band in one of these hell-holes y'all are talking about. Many times I thought I was living out the bar scene in 'Star Wars' only with real aliens impersonating degenerate sub-humans. Truly a real live Quentin Tarantino flick.

I remember once flying into a place (not in the US) and while on final, seeing piles of aircraft wreckage pushed over to the sides of the runway. There were burnt spots on dirt strip itself. I asked one of the locals what happened. The guy says, "That's where the drug planes that are too overloaded crash on landing. We just push them out of the way."

Moral: There is no place like home.

FWIW,I won't be appearing in Schefferville ever. If I am so tempted I'll remind myself that Duck Creek Dick and Cyclops are there and I am here. Thank you Jesus.

WA Mtnhunter
Sounds like you were in the Congo. I was there once, and not under your trying circumstances. I did not feel happy to get out, I felt lucky to get out.

Speaking of my home town, it had one bar and no store, at least we had our priorities right. The next closest bar and one small store where you could buy everything from horse collars to groceries were 25 miles away. Our bar was adjacent to the volunteer fire house., we hardly ever saved a structure, but it was a chance to have a drink with your friends. The bar burned to the ground and this cultural center is now pretty much a ghost town

Uhm.....nothing to comment....but you can't buy that type of experience.....priceless....

crm3006

What tales old troopers could tell.........one day.

Maybe Obama will open all the files during his administation of 'transparency'.

Sounds like detroit.

sgaredneck,

I've played venues where I thought I needed a whip and a chair.

Oddly, nowadays the worse patrons drink themselves home by 11pm.

Mark-1,
That's the gospel truth there. But now there are less places to play and harsher DUI laws. There's still a bumper crop of drunken idiots out there. FREEBIRD!!!

Wa Mtnhunter,
You have that one right. Even though civilization has spread over this world it amazes me some of the places that defy belief. I'm thankful I only had to carry a guitar into some that were relatively tame. Thank you for your service and for carrying a weapon into unmentionable places for us.

Butterbean -- it could only make a bad place worse!

WA Mtnhunter-
I sincerely believe obummer will open the files, right after he discloses all of his campaign contributors, and a few other sealed
documents. LMAO

Picture that...PETZAL SCREAMING!
At least that Cyclops spoke English..trying being in the Middle East and running into vermin like that!!
I was screaming like a LITTLE GIRL!

Dave writes the truth! Northern Quebec is a scream.

The wildest place/time I had was in some bar on the Gatineau River above Maniwaki in the early '70's. I saw a bunch trappers, prospectors and road crews buy an old Indian a drink every time he shot a plastic cup off his grandson’s head with a bow n arrow…William tell style.

Towards the end of the night it was pretty touch and go for that young lad.

And duckcreekdick wins the first place award for Best Comment This Season.

Dave, I've been there twice, and I can't think of a worse 'town' anywhere. But if you're going caribou hunting, with a chance of hunting black bear too, you have to grin and bare it. Well, maybe not grin. Accommodations, just for the night of arrival, were a cut above a cardboard box for the homeless on a New York street...but not as clean. We (our mutual friend Jay W. and I) braved a second journey because we were skunked on the first trip.

I had taken along an Irish-made under-lever .450 BP Express double rifle, handloaded with 300-grain lead bullets in front of 50 grains of 4198 smokeless powder. A most knowledgeable friend who owns several such old black powder Express rifles provided me the data for the handloading of perfectly safe SMOKELESS cartridges for the .450. Because the case is over 3 inches in length, a carefully weighed amount of wadding fills the gap between powder and projectile. The external ballistics--my having chronographed the load--is about the same as that of a .45-70, and the rifle is 'accurate enough'. MUCH fun to shoot. A word of caution: Don't try working up loads for such a gun yourself--my friend is an expert ballistician. I don't deviate from his recipe. But, alas...no chance to shoot it at caribou--or bear--that first time around.

The only delay in the drive up to Montreal is the requirement to stop at the border and register the gun(s) to be taken in to Canada. I brought along a left-handed 7MM Mag the second time around. Good thing I did too, because that flat-shooting, hard-hitting 160-grain Nosler did its job perfectly on the bull I took at a distance of AT LEAST...75 yards!

Moishe

I've been real drunk before, but not drunk enuf for 'yards...

WOW-- I'm With BuckHunter all the way!! P. S. Did ya piss yer panties or don't ya want to tell? I think I might a wooda!!!!

Sounds like a place south of brownsville texas. People visit but they dont come back.

.....and they call him "Tater Salad"

LMAO

Schefferville probably isn't the 'End Of The Earth', but I'll bet you can see it from there. Sort of like Neah Bay and Ozette, WA.

I'd picture Dave telling him to leave if he wants to keep the other one before running off screaming!

I watched the interview with Dave. It was most entertaining. I am a longtime reloader (50+ years). If I lost my reloading data log I too would be lost.

Silvertip

As my name suggests, I have been in a place such as that. It was not on a pleasure trip but a safari of sorts. I did run into plenty of one eyed and one armed, one legged locals. They did ask for money or bullets. They were generally nice honest people if you did not turn your back on them. Also, the food was what I could scrounge up, but to my liking. I thinkk I would like to visit Schefferville as it sounds pleasant. unning into Moishe would be an added plus !

Jersey Pig, Now bringin up Willie Boy's worst nightmare was just too brutal, I am feeling traumatized. And I have beeded down with some Mountagnards in nam.!

How we got from worst staging place for a hunting trip to worst tw@t I'll never know........

I was headed out on a hunting trip once; my buddy made a wrong exit off IH-10,and we ended up in the fifth ward of Houston, Texas at night. Piss on a deer rifle, I was wishing for a Thompson 45 with a 100 round drum magazine.
I would have traded for Schefferville (or any other place except NY's Central Park) at that moment.

The truth is, you can get used to anything. I spent a couple of years in the Darien Jungle of Panama. The first week I hated everything about my living arrangements (not the hardship, but filth and incompitence). But when I resigned myself to "this is life for a while", I was able to get beyond it and be my normal self. I did however, make building a new outhouse the first priority -- which is probably why the second week I was in much better spirits!

Anyone ever been to Jarbidge, Nevada?

Spent a week in Schefferville one night. Even with one eye it looks better on Google Earth. Check it out.

To Del in KS,
Sumterville now has 2 traffic lights, a Federal Corrections facility and a gigantic concrete processing facility! Still considered rural though.

Yohan,

That's where I used to live in Panama'. The area you are speaking of is (was?) rife with Colombian rebels who would flee into the Darien Jungle to hide from the gov't forces. Many "walkers" down the pan-am highway went into the jungle and were never heard from again...

Yaw Yaw ,..wel if your all talkin about nasty places quite a few moons ago
if you keep going south from Panama Panama ,.accross the Americas Bridge then down the Americas Hiway ( like two laner in the 50's) Past Panonomae past all the almost civilized lookin villages until sooner or later you pass into the G0d dam stone age ,..

Where one eyed one eared flyin purple people eaters live and eat gringos with a few beans and a fried rice ,.. after they drag em into the jungle and do unimaginable sh!t to them,..
Very scary place that >
There aint enough coin (anywhere) to get me back there
That as worse than Huey city,. and I never smelled anythg so bad as the perfume river full of dead people