Camp here
A box open at the top, reported to mean that it was all right to camp at the place.
Meaning
The National Cryptologic Museum’s sample sheet draws a box open at the top for “OK to camp here”, and a crossed mark under a wavy line for “Fresh drinking water and safe to camp”. Dan Beard (1918) gave two other signs for the same idea: one for “you may camp here”, and a rough face with two staring eyes for a safe camp, “a camp where one will not be molested”. Our drawing follows the museum’s sheet.
How hobos really shared news of a camp
Some hobos said they did not use signs at all. In 1907 the Oregon Daily Journal answered A-No. 1 and the other “old-timers” directly: hobos told each other “whenever they meet just how conditions are in certain towns”. The Historic Graffiti Society, which quotes the article, concludes that word of mouth, not chalk, was the real language of the road.
Read next
- Next in Hobo symbolsHobo monikerA hobo’s road name, written with the date and an arrow for the direction of travel on water tanks, bridges and stations. Unlike the chalk signs, these marks survive in numbers.
- The same shape in Andean and Inca symbolsGateway of the Sun (the Staff God)A doorway cut from a single block of andesite at Tiwanaku, near Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, carved above the opening with a god holding a staff in each hand. Who the figure is remains open: Britannica lists a sun god, a thunder god and Viracocha among the readings.
See also
Gentleman lives here, Kind woman lives here, Food given here, Religious talk for a meal, Care if you are sick, Dog here.
Sources
- The American Boys’ Book of Signs, Signals and Symbols, Dan Beard, J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1918 (Cornell scan on the Internet Archive), Internet Archive, ch. IV, fig. 38; ch. VII, fig. 77
- Sample of Some Hobo Signs, National Cryptologic Museum, exhibit sheet (hobo-signs-definitions.pdf), National Security Agency, page 2
- Hobo Signs: Code of the Road?, 2 February 2020, updated 12 February 2022, The Historic Graffiti Society, Skeptics
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from lines or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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