Abandoned hunting lodge: Bunting's Gunning Lodge - Assateague Island National Seashore

Before the federal takeover in the 1960’s, Assateague Island was home to some of the best waterfowl hunting in the country. There were at least 12 separate structures on the island at the time the government turned the island into a National Park, and the properties were taken through compensation after appraisals were done. In many cases, the families that owned them retained the right to use them for 25 years, but those privileges have long expired and the buildings are now being left to deteriorate.
In their heyday, the lodges and hunting clubs of Assateague saw hunters from all over the east coast and were a favorite activity of the rich and famous. People like Johnny Unitas, Presidents William Taft and Grover Cleveland, J.P. Morgan, Bing Crosby, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Al Decker ( of Black & Decker) are all said to have spent time on the barrier islands along the Maryland and Virginia coast, many of them to waterfowl hunt.
Today, I’m visiting one of those lodges, the Bunting’s Gunning Lodge.
Hunting was conducted here in the mid to late 1930s on a shantyboat before the lodge was built in 1942 by Noah Hudson. The lodge is built by wood frame and wood shingle siding resembling a Carolina beach house. It’s a one-story structure, with the addition of the 2nd story tower built around 1951. One account claims this structure was a Sears and Roebuck prefab kit house. The total property size was 375 acres.
In 1945, the property was then purchased by Clayton Bunting. Bunting entertained clients of his landscape nursery company located in Delaware, one of which was the owners of The Sears Roebuck Company. Eugene Bunting, Clayton Bunting's son, became the owner in 1964 when Clayton's widow sold it to Eugene for $ 1.00. Eugene was the owner at the time the US Government acquired the property in 1968. The Bunting’s rights to use the property expired in 1999.
The lodge, while still standing and in somewhat decent shape, had evidence of termites and is left to crumble.