The Teepee

(See teepee construction photos below)

Set in a small meadow surrounded by trees, the teepee is a beautiful addition to the ranch and a unique site for picnics and overnight camping.  Authentic in design, the teepee recalls the teepees built by the Indian families that visited the Vandeverts in the 1930’s and hunted the surrounding woods.

The twenty-one foot wide teepee interior has a wood floor, a comfortable chair and sofa, and a stone fire pit, four feet wide, with a spark arresting cover.  Out front are benches, a picnic table, and a separate stone fire pit surrounded by a stone patio.  When the teepee is up during the summer there is always a barrel full of water behind it with a bucket to assure that fires stay where they belong. 

Teepee Construction

The wooden platform floor was rebuilt in 2010 on a foundation of pressure-treated 4 x 6’s.  As shown in the photo at right, a grid of 2 x 12's were set vertically on the foundation to support the deck. One of the underlying 4 x 6's is visible near the right front of the photo.

The teepee deck is made of 2 x 6 cedar planks. The 15 poles supporting the canvas sit on the platform, not on the ground. The photo of the bare poles shows the deck that was replaced, not the new deck.

The poles are lashed together where they meet at the top of the canvas.  Each pole is approximately 23 feet long and is 4 inches thick at the bottom.  Two shorter free-standing poles support ropes going to the bottoms of the smoke flaps.  These poles and ropes allow the smoke flaps to be adjusted.

The current 20 foot canvas is a solid tan to resemble the hides that the Indians used.  Some past canvases have been painted with traditional designs.  Canvases are replaced about every five years.

It takes one or two two people a few hours to set up the teepee every spring.  The first pole is the hardest because it has the whole weight of the canvas attached to it.