Today one of my trail work partners (Busdriver John) mentioned this old Boy Scout Camp at Wahtum Lake, very close to where we were working. After we finished our trail work he led us to some of the remaining artifacts.Splintercat wrote:Paul, I had trouble relocating the link, but I found a history page related to Camp Meriwether (BSA) that described the old camp at Wahtum Lake as the precursor to Meriwether. The part that caught my eye was a section that talked about the kids hiking up the Eagle Creek Trail to reach camp (along with their exhausted parents), and pack stock bringing in all of the supplies along the Herman Creek Trail. I believe the lodge at the camp burned in about 1922, so it seems to pre-date the old road along Waucoma Ridge. In other words, the pack route along Herman Creek may have been the only supply route. I'll try to relocate the page, but it made me wonder if the old West Fork trail had any use for this purpose..?
BTW, the camp was not located at Scout Lake, which would seem logical, and was, indeed, based at Wahtum Lake. There are apparently some old artifacts still around, and I've often wondered if some of the waterworks on the north side of the lake are from the camp. Much more to research on this topic!
Tom
Before those pictures, however, I'd like to mention that many of us have seen one of the important artifacts of this camp. You know that pipe that runs along the trail between Wahtum and Chinidere? That was apparently the water supply for the Boy Scout Camp [hereafter referred to as Camp Chinidere].
This place was huge!
Ten days later this article appeared. More detail and photos!
Later that year...problems.
The Oregonian had roughly 25 articles about Camp Chinidere from 1920 to 1924. Then nothing. The camp burned in 1925. For some reason when they reported the fire, they never mentioned the camp by name, so I had to do some sleuthing to find it. August 22, 1925 was the date of the paper that reported the fire. The suicide haircut article that follows is also worth a read.
More here:
http://home.comcast.net/~kevinrudesill/ ... oregon.htm