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McMurdo’s Camp – A Scion Society of the Baker Street Irregulars

THE LUMBER CAMPS OF MICHIGAN, ca. 1866

A team pulls a sleighload of timber down the haul road to the lake, where it will be left on the ice and floated over to the sawmill come Spring. As a young man, Birdy Edwards spent two seasons in the pineries of Charlevoix County, doing this sort of work. These experiences were useful to him later in his life as they provided an authentic but untraceable background for him to portray in his position with The Pinkertons.

During the summers of his Michigan days, Edwards found employment as a hand on a fishing boat in northern Lake Michigan. He later traveled down to Chicago, where he used his contacts from the North to find factory work in a lumber-related business.

He worked in a planing mill, and in less than a year rose to the position of superintendent of the spindle turning floor. Although it paid well, after a while it became obvious this job did not really suit him, so he applied for work with the Pinkerton detective agency in Chicago. With his gregarious nature, natural cleverness, and strong work ethic, he was a natural, and became an investigator who rose quickly to become a valuable agent, working both openly and under-cover on many important cases.

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To learn more about McMurdo’s Camp, explore the “PAGES” in the box at the upper right.  Here is what you will find:

Read How This Site Works:  Pretty simple.  This explains the blog format we use.

POSTS: Short articles presented chronologically  (newest on top) on various subjects related in some way to the British Detective, Sherlock Holmes.  One of the newest tells about Holmes the tough guy, in anticipation of the portrayal of a “modern” Holmes in the upcoming movie featuring Robert Downey as Holmes.  A St. Patrick’s Day special, detailing Irishness in the Canon, was Hibernian Holmes. Have you ever wondered what a stormy petrel was, and what it has to do with Sherlock Holmes?  (Warning:  contains literary reference to Russian poet.)  This is the place to find out.

McMurdo’s Camp – Join up: Who we are, where we are, how to join, either locally in northern Michigan, or as a cyber-member.  It’s free.  Information without obligation.

Activities (and sub-headings):  Members from time-to-time are given the chance to participate in Holmes-related activities.  Read what we have done.  Readers of the site are invited to add their own entries and comments.  The more the better.  A new activity was recently added, and is open to all, called Masonite titles.  Check it out.  Some knowledge of the plot and characters of at least one Sherlock Holmes story will be necessary to participate.

Trifling Monographs.  Articles written by campers or the home office writing staff.  The first is a scholarly piece by San Diego camper Kieth Albrandt exploring some the mysteries behind the J.F. Christ abbreviations, entitled “TAO ABBR”.  If you read it you will know how it got its name.  We have just added a link and explanation of how to download “Books on Tape” of the Canon, MP3 files of all the stories.

There are some articles originally entered under “POSTS” that have worked their way off the bottom of the list and into the archives.  A few of these are not unworthy of retention and will be resurrected in this section in the future.  “Decision on the Dover Train” is the first, for all you gamblers, followed by “That Train” and The Rascally Lascar.

The Scowrers: An introduction to a Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear.   Read about it here.  If you like it, there is a link to the entire work.  This story has some relationship to McMurdo’s Camp.

Baskerville Serial Challenge:  A challenge to readers to find the spots where The Hound of The Baskevilles was split up into episodes when it was first published in serial form.  A subordinate page called Break Points in Baskerville gives the answers.

Story Info Sheets:  Information sheets or summaries on the Holmes stories.  We began these about a year ago, and now have most of the 56 short stories written up and available. The latest: 3GAR.  Next up:  CREE.

Listed in alphabetic order of the J.F. Christ abbreviations.  Comments or suggested additions are welcome and encouraged.  If you find a misteak, we particularly want to find out about it.