If you’ve ever been in a camping store, you’ve most definitely seen products from Coghlan’s. The “outdoor accessory people” started 50 years ago in 1959 while Norm Coghlan was running Coghlan’s Gas Appliances in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Campers would come in for repairs on their camp stoves and lanterns, so Norm started selling tents, sleeping bags and air mattresses.

Customers wanted a way to make toast on their pump-up gas camping stove, and since Norm’s store carried such an item, he found out the U.S. based company that manufactured the toaster was discontinuing it. He bought the entire inventory, rented a storage facility and began Coghlan’s distribution of camping accessories. The Camp Stove Toaster has been made in Winnipeg, Manitoba since the mid-1960s. Coghlan’s has assembled and packaged over 7 million 504D Toasters.

Coghlan’s now sells over 450 accessories including bear bells, whistles, squeeze tubes, hammocks, fire starters, hot dog skewers, signal mirrors and compasses. All Coghlan’s gear comes in those green and yellow packages above that make them look like they were made in the 50s – the reason they’re so damn cool (and unreliable).

Do y’all ever buy Coghlan’s stuff when you’re at the camping store?

Posted: October 12th, 2009 under Camping.
Comments: 5

I was back in the burbs of Chicago this weekend, taking a driving tour of the enormous houses, farms, and prairie preserves that I grew up around. As a kid, it’s a bit of challenge to be real interested in your natural surroundings when all you have is flat land and tall grasses, but seeing bits and pieces of the prairie again for the first time in five years sure made me regret not spending more time getting burrs stuck in my sweatpants. The fact that there are still places in Barrington like the Flint Creek Savanna or Bigsby Prairie is largely because of the

Citizens For Conservation:

Since about 1987, Citizens for Conservation volunteers have worked with developers and others to locate sites where impending construction activity will bring about the destruction of native, spring woodland wildflowers. Once located, CFC seeks the owner’s permission to rescue the plants. If permission is received, volunteers carefully dig out and move these previous, evermore scarce spring gems to the protected sanctuary of preserves such as Grigsby Prairie or Flint Creek Savanna.

Today, thousands of spring widlflowers thrive as a result of the efforts of CFC volunteers. Not only do these wildflowers brighten the spring woods, their seed is then available for still other restorations.

The photos of the CFC are from Barrington Area Library’s Flickr Page. Many more after the jump..

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Posted: October 12th, 2009 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1