I hope those in the U.S. had a wonderful 4th of July yesterday. We had a beautiful day and enjoyed going out on the high desert to watch the fireworks in Bend, Oregon this year.
I spotted the feature photo on the Ellis Canvas Tent Instagram page yesterday and wanted to share one of my favorite canvas tents with you.
Ellis Canvas Tents have been handmade in Durango, Colorado for the past 30 years by Dave Ellis.
I had the privilege a few years back of testing out one of their tents. The Torrent Tent and you can read the review here. It is a great tent. However, my wife is claustrophobic and the tent did not work for her so we no longer have it. My wife would like the Prairie Tent as it has a big window and door for light and fresh air.
The Prairie Tent is one of my two favorite canvas tents. The other one is the Springbar Vagabond.
One of the features I really like about the Prairie Tent is the ease and simplicity of setting it up. Here is a video showing the 10 x 10 setup. This is the size I would like to get when I am able to afford it.
A simple guide to setting up your Ellis Canvas Prairie Tent. The Prairie Tent pitch time is 7 minutes. That’s 7 minutes from standing around in the woods to being home-sweet-home camping. Featured here is the 10′ x 10′ Prairie Tent, but the set-up is the same for both the 8′ x 8′ and 12′ x 12′.
Dave Ellis was making Range tents for the cowboys when he realized that that old design had inherent problems that could be innovated and resolved. The goal was to maintain the speed and simplicity of a range tent while creating more usable interior space and keeping weather out. Dave spent thirty years refining this design and it led to many of the innovations found throughout our line of Canvas Tents.
Here is how Ellis Tents describe the Prairie Tent:
The simple set-up, spacious interior, and beautiful lines are derived from the Range Tents of old that have been employed by cowboys across the American West since the 1800’s. The Ellis approach brings this simple structure into a more functional and well-rounded tent.
In place of the original pyramid design, we have added front and rear dormers to allow the large front door and rear window to be opened even in a downpour while keeping the interior of the tent dry.
The two additional guy lines that make this possible add stability to the tent in high winds as well as more space to the interior. The high stove jack and vent allow for the majority of your stove pipe to remain inside of the tent and out of the wind for extremely efficient heating in the winter.
The large screen door and window provide ample ventilation in the summer months. This is a true American classic, redefined.
Visit Ellis Canvas Tents website here.
Photo Credits: Ellis Canvas Tents
