Canvas & frame packboard - not plywood

[UNCLE SAM]

Craig,

Sorry about showing the one marked France, what would the value be on the U.S. Yukon pack board?

Thanks, Dave

[kowalski]

I was browsing through this thread and had forgotten I posted way back when when I was a guest lol. Since then I really haven't been able to find any more information about these mysterious packboards. No references, no photos, nothing. So I am still 50/50 on whether they are actually military or something post war, surplus store made. If they are surplus store made, then they would all have had to have been done by the same store or business because of the consistency of how they are constructed. Since I haven't found any references to these, I am 50 percent towards the surplus store option. However, by the same token, it doesn't make sense to me why surplus stores would make packboards since so many legit packboards from the military were around. Furthermore, when surplus stores did make equipment, they would take items that served no purpose to the civilian population, such as haversacks, GP bags, medic bags, etc. that were not proper packs in of themselves, and combine them or sew extra material onto them to make them into packs. I have a haversack that has essentially what amounts to a bag sewn onto it to make it into a regular pack. But in the case of these packboards, you really don't have something that is any more use-able. Packboards make sense if you are carrying ammo cans, gas/water jerry cans, mortars, machine guns, etc. but don't really serve a purpose as far as carrying camping gear. A regular pack serves that purpose way better. So that is why I am also 50 percent towards the early/experimental military manufacture origin.

['Flage Guy]

Here's the only photo I know of with one of these weird packboards in use: me, around '61 or '62, heading for a big campout...

 

[kowalski]

Nice picture, finally get to see a pic of it in use, even though it is a post war pic lol. Well we definitely know this pack was used by the Boy Scouts now but still doesn't tell us whether or not it was made during the war or was a post war surplus store made item. The only thing I can figure now from looking at that pic is perhaps this item is a post war thing because the frame is much smaller than a military packboard or the yukon packboard and as such might have been made for smaller or younger Scouts to use. Since the legit packboards were sized for grown adults, this possibility makes more sense.

[kowalski]

Here's the only photo I know of with one of these weird packboards in use: me, around '61 or '62, heading for a big campout...

 

 

Just noticed from your personal info you're from Simi Valley. I'm live in Ventura. Small world.

['Flage Guy]

LOL- it is indeed!! :thumbsup: If you're an original Venturan, I'll bet you remember a killer surplus store in Montalvo called "Korb's Trading Post"; the camo Shelter Half just visible at the bottom of my pack was scored from there I remember having a good visit with a guy from Ventura (interested in 4thMarDiv stuff) while waiting in line to get in at 8:00 AM at the old Great Western Show- could that have been you?

 

My belief is that these packboards were made for youngsters' use, because of their obviously hasty construction and small size. I remember seeing a lot of Rucksacks of all variations in the Scout campgrounds, but almost none of these.

[kowalski]

LOL- it is indeed!! :thumbsup: If you're an original Venturan, I'll bet you remember a killer surplus store in Montalvo called "Korb's Trading Post"; the camo Shelter Half just visible at the bottom of my pack was scored from there I remember having a good visit with a guy from Ventura (interested in 4thMarDiv stuff) while waiting in line to get in at 8:00 AM at the old Great Western Show- could that have been you?

 

My belief is that these packboards were made for youngsters' use, because of their obviously hasty construction and small size. I remember seeing a lot of Rucksacks of all variations in the Scout campgrounds, but almost none of these.

 

Well I'm 23 so I wasn't around when Korb's was unfortunately, however I've heard many stories from some of the older guys I know about that place that make sick; wine barrels full of M1 Garands and Carbines for sale for $15 and $20 each respectively, M1 bayonets for .50, WW2 helmets for $1, etc.. One guy I was talking with who I know through WW2 reenacting who has lived in the area since he was born in the 50s told me about how he and his friends would go to Korbs and buy a bunch of WW2 stuff with their allowance money and then go play with it and loose it in the Santa Clara River bottom. That was way back when when an 11 year old boy could ride his bike across town to the Ventura River with his 22 on his lap and no one would care.

 

I'm also a former Boy Scout and an Eagle Scout so I've talked with a lot of older guys who were in Scouting around the same time you were and they all tell me about all the surplus WW2 stuff they used for camping. A former Scoutmaster of mine who is a doctor in town, grew up in the area, and was in the same troop I used to be in, was telling me that there was an old barn behind their Scout house that was full of original WW2 surplus gear that the boy were allowed to take and use for camping. He recently gave me a mid war gasmask bag that he got when he was a Scout and used for camping.

 

I think I was born in the wrong era lol. But now that I think more about it the whole Boy Scout explanation makes more sense.

['Flage Guy]

Well I'm 23 so I wasn't around when Korb's was unfortunately, however I've heard many stories from some of the older guys I know about that place that make sick; wine barrels full of M1 Garands and Carbines for sale for $15 and $20 each respectively, M1 bayonets for .50, WW2 helmets for $1, etc.. One guy I was talking with who I know through WW2 reenacting who has lived in the area since he was born in the 50s told me about how he and his friends would go to Korbs and buy a bunch of WW2 stuff with their allowance money and then go play with it and loose it in the Santa Clara River bottom. That was way back when when an 11 year old boy could ride his bike across town to the Ventura River with his 22 on his lap and no one would care.

 

I'm also a former Boy Scout and an Eagle Scout so I've talked with a lot of older guys who were in Scouting around the same time you were and they all tell me about all the surplus WW2 stuff they used for camping. A former Scoutmaster of mine who is a doctor in town, grew up in the area, and was in the same troop I used to be in, was telling me that there was an old barn behind their Scout house that was full of original WW2 surplus gear that the boy were allowed to take and use for camping. He recently gave me a mid war gasmask bag that he got when he was a Scout and used for camping.

 

I think I was born in the wrong era lol. But now that I think more about it the whole Boy Scout explanation makes more sense.

 

Boy, talk about "speaking the language"...them old "war surplus stores" are one of the fondest memories of my growing-up years (still haven't out-grown the "SMELL" fever :w00t: ). I scrimped and saved my allowance for over a month to get that 'flage Shelter Half (between 3 and 5 bucks); it was near new when I took it home, but after all the "War"-playing, camping and washing, 50 years later it ain't cherry no more :crying: As I remember, they had 2 big boxes full of them, along with a bunch of the Mitchell "Leaf" Pattern Halves. To a screwball like me, one of the best things about the big Camporees, summer camps, etc. was walking around and checking out all the old surplus stuff (where I saw my first Rucksack- had a weak place for 'em ever since)

 

And like you said, it's pretty sad about what's happened in our culture, when gun ownership is often looked upon as a "bad" thing. Not even the Ventura Sheriffs gave a darn about us going out shooting around here- as long as we weren't trespassing.

 

What a load of great memories!!