Island Artifacts

The Comm System

When it was installed, the Island had a state-of-the-art private phone system. From the features describes, this was very likely a Merlin. Not only did this system run the Island-wide phones , it connected the phones to the radios and even the satalite phone, ran the alarms, bells and even the public address system.  Quite impressive for its time.  From one former Head Pod parent, we were able to get a copy of the comm system info sheet they gave staff.  We changed names and titles to match book names, but we still think it's interesting to see.  

For any radio buffs, you may notice that they seem to have used the USA's VHF DOT frequencies in half duplex. 

The Embroidery Disk

While we can't share the actual file with you (it would give away the Church), we got our hands on a copy of the embroidery template they used to make the armbands (on floppy disk no less!).  What we can tell you is that the file is from an early Tajima computrized embroidery machine.  We found a 1989 date in the file.  

Here is a rendering of an armband.  We replaced both the Church's cross and sect symbol with generic ones and took a guess at the font (these files use the font in the machine, which we do not have).

Rubbing Stone

Many of the girls left the Island with their rubbing stones.  While very few of them have survived the last 30 years, Jess kept hers.  Here is a picture of her rubbing stone, held by our co-author Steven.  You can see the groove made by years of Jess rubbing it with her thumb.  We think the stone is Gabbro, but we are not really sure of that and we have no idea what was poured on it to turn it from its natural gray to this jet-black color.   Both Jess and Vanessa are sure the grove has gotten a lot deeper over the last 30 years, meaning whatever they did, it affected the entire stone and not just the surface.

The Headmaster House and Bunk 1

One of the more common questions we have had asked is what did the Headmasters house and Bunk 1 look like.  One of the girls that left the Island on the ship with Ericka now works in realestate and she was not only able to identify the style of the house, but tell us that it was a kit house known as The Kelsey by Montgomery Ward and got us a sketch of it.  The Headmasters house had some slight differences from the stock house shown here.  Those include:

• I​t did not have the round white pillars and had all stone instead.  
• It had a bay window in place of the standard window on the porch.  
• It had a porch swing.
• It had a breezeway to Bunk 1 that came off the side door.  
• The HM's house didn't have a basement, as was standard for this house.
• It had a small addition off the back of the house with an office, utility room and pantry.
• It had a fireplace in the livingroom and another in the bedroom right above it.

While we do not have an actual picture of Bunk 1 (we are working on a rendering of the HM house and Bunk  1), we did find a photo from a camp in Alabama that is really close to what Bunk 1 looked like.  

While it is very close, here are the differences between the cabin in the picture and the actual Bunk 1:

• Bunk 1 was a little taller, the shed roof was about 8 feet at the outside.
• Bunk 1 had a second shed roof addition the back where the bathroom, showers and wood stove were.
• Bunk 1 was about 20 feet wide by about 24 feet long, so about the size of the first floor of the house, minus the porch. 
• Bunk 1 ​had its doors on the two ends - one leading to the breezeway to the HM house, the other where the two windows in this picture are.