Indian Mound Camps exemplifies a once common but now-vanished style of lodging. It was a place where a traveler could stop for dinner and spend the night, or a family could enjoy a vacation of swimming and boating on the lake.
Ellery Briggs and his wife presided over the business, which sprawled over both sides of Route 16-B in the current location of Indian Mound Golf Club. In addition to cabins, there was a restaurant, gift shop, and filling station. The owners’ promotion of the eerie, if bogus, Indian Mound legend added to the attraction.
Indian Mound Camps was one of the lake’s most popular destinations in the 1920s and ’30s, with many vacationers returning year after year. But it declined in the 1940s, and there came a point when the owners simply walked away, allowing vandals and time to take their toll on the property.
As recently as the 1990s it was still possible to poke through the remains, a stone’s throw from the road but hidden by woods. The last traces were swept away in 2000 when a boat storage building was constructed at the site.
A longer article on Indian Mound Camps, with pictures, is at this link.