Chapter Five: Memorable Moments
The trip to the top of Storm Castle Mountain for a
breath-taking view overlooking the Gallatin Valley provides a permanent memory
of God’s glorious creation for every camper who makes the journey. When the churches of Montana first purchased
the camp, there were several boys who didn’t realize that the CCC workers had
constructed a trail up the face of the mountain. They decided the best way up was to start
climbing right at the bridge that crosses Squaw Creek. The only problem with that approach is that
the two sheer cliffs that rise above that part of the stream had shed piles of
shale over the years. For every two feet
the boys climbed they slid back at least a foot making the task extremely
challenging and difficult. They finally
conquered the first five hundred feet of ascent only to discover the trail
running across the top of those two cliffs.
From there the rest of the climb seemed simple by comparison.
On
another occasion, two pastor’s wives carried fishing poles and tackle boxes all
the way up the long trail to the top because someone had told them there was a
great fishing stream at the peak.
Carrying
water up the trail was not unusual because the trek could get very hot on a
warm summer day. One year about seventy
junior campers started up the trail only to discover that just one boy had
thought to bring a canteen. Pretty soon
the requests for a drink of water from the canteen had turned into pleas and
even demands for “just a taste.”
Realizing there was not enough water to go around, the counselors solved
the problem by taking the canteen and pouring the water on the ground. From then on the campers were ready to move
forward without begging for water.
Many
records were made and broken on the Castle Rock trail. Some claimed to have climbed it in just under
and hour and come back down in less than thirty minutes. But one of the children of the original
owner, Mr. Beckman, remembered a day when they ran up to the top in fifteen
minutes. Other records were set for the
number of times individuals had climbed all the way to the top. One summer a counselor went up seven
times. But the overall record has to
belong to Jack Phillips who has probably led more campers up that trail than
any other living person.
Mrs.
Chuck Nichols, who often played the piano for different weeks of camp, opened
the cover on the upright down in the Runquist Chapel in order to allow more
sound to escape. Instead, she allowed a
mouse to escape. He came running out
from the innards of the piano when she struck the first chord.
Her son
Tim took upon himself the responsibility of seeing that things stayed lively
around the camp. Mrs. Frances Talmadge
was quietly eating her supper in the old dining hall when Tim approached her with
a platter of chicken wings, drumsticks and necks. He politely offered her the platter and said,
“Mrs. Talmadge, wanna neck?” Tim was
last seen flying out the door with Mrs. Talmadge wielding a broom with his head
as her target.
During
several camps plans were initiated to float down the Gallatin River on large
truck inner tubes. In order to preserve
this memory for posterity, Arthur Allen asked the Phillips to re-create it for
the camera. Taking inner tubes from in
front of the Snack Shack they jumped in near the meadow by their cabin,
planning to ride only down to the mouth of Squaw Creek. That was far enough. The tubes, inflated by the hot sun, hit the
cold water and promptly deflated causing the riders to hit every boulder in the
river on their way down. No reruns that
day.
The
water was higher than usual one year when Dick Dion, his son Rocky and youth
pastor Tim Shoepf decided to float the Gallatin. Dr. Dion hit a large pool of water, upended
with “no idea which way was up” and had to be rescued by Rocky and Tim.
The
first year Anita Pearson worked at the camp it rained almost every day and then
began to snow. Shoes were soaked, so
Mrs. Pearson carried all of the shoes from her girl’s cabin down to the old
dining hall and parked them around the wood stove. When they had dried she took them back to the
cabin, only to have the girl’s feet wet once again as soon as they stepped out
the door.
After
her first year as a counselor, Mrs. Pearson agreed to work in the kitchen and
served as camp cook for about ten years.
She became famous for her caramel rolls and also for the hobo lunches
she would pack to send along with the campers on their mountain hiking
adventures.
One day
in the old dining hall Norman Davidson had the family dog up in the attic when
the ceiling fell through and the dog landed on one of the tables already set
for supper. Someone suggested they serve
hot dogs that night.
Needless to say, everyone, including the cooks, was very
happy to see the kitchen and the dining hall completed in the Allen Lodge.
For many
years the weeks at camp have been Junior, Junior High, Senior High and Family
Camp with the addition of the Senior Citizens Camp in recent years. For several years, however, a Leadership Camp
was held in order to train volunteers to work as counselors in the younger
camps. Churches selected some of the
best of their youth and these were given special training in first-aid,
principles of Bible study, how to give devotions, effective soulwinning and
other classes. Paul and Deanna Leslie
played a major role in those camps.
A special
project during Senior Camp, the summer of 1985, was the production of a feature
film called “The Most Practical Joke of All.”
Bob and Dave Allen were in charge of Senior Week that year and all of
the campers became actors in the film.
Scenes were shot throughout the week with a premier performance on
Friday night. Then the video was made
available to the churches as a promotional tool for the next camping season.
In other
years musical groups traveled to the churches in the spring to promote Castle
Rock Baptist Camp. At least one year the
group was from Sheridan and included various members of the Sheehan and Grotzke
families. Other churches would hold a
special sign-up day and promote camp in that fashion. Usually, however, once a young person had
been to camp they were anxious to return the next year
In the
summer of 1984 the excitement at Castle Rock had nothing to do with the camping
season itself. On July 15th of that
year, Don Nichols and his son Dan kidnapped an Olympic runner by the name of
Kari Swenson. They quickly became known
as the “mountain men” because they lived in a cave in the Spanish Peaks
Wilderness Area. Apparently they were
looking for a wife for Dan.
When a
search party found the Nichols camp, Don Nichols shot and killed one of the
rescuers. Kari was also wounded, so the
two men left her behind and took off into the wilderness. Kari was taken to the hospital for treatment
and a full-scale manhunt began for the Nichols.
Warnings were posted throughout the Gallatin Valley and the leaders at
Intermediate Camp instituted a round-the-clock watch on the campground. Law enforcement officers scoured the Spanish
Peaks just across the river from the camp.
Nothing
happened that week. In fact, the Nichols
eluded search efforts for the next five months until they were finally captured
in the Madison River Valley the next December.
A rancher spotted their campfire in a remote area of his ranch and
alerted the authorities. Sheriff Johnny
France from Ennis hiked in and the made the arrest single-handedly.
The
closest the two came to camp was apparently some pilfering that took place just
across the river on Beckman Flats.
Several cabin owners in that area reported missing food and clothing
items during the fall of 1984. The camp
was never in any real danger, but it made for an exciting summer as the story
of the mountain men made national news.
Sheldon
Schearer experienced another exciting summer in 2000. During Junior Camp that year a black bear
began visiting the canteen at night. The
first night he forced open the walk-in cooler door and made a real mess of the
contents, so Sheldon called Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. They put him in contact with Kevin Frey of
Bear Management in Bozeman who brought out a culvert trap for the camp to
use.
During
the process of setting up the trip, David Sprunger, missionary to Barbados
thrilled the children by getting into the trap to see if it worked. To the delight of the junior campers, it
did. He pulled the trip wire and the
trap slammed shut. The excitement level
was high as the campers headed for bed that evening.
About
midnight, Cheri Ortiz, missionary to Tibet, knocked on the door of the
Schearer’s cabin to tell them the bear had returned. Sheldon and his wife watched the bear until
the early hours of the morning before finally giving up and getting some
sleep. About 5:30 a.m. another knock on
the door came as Cheri informed them the trap had just sprung shut. Sure enough, a black bear was inside the
culvert trap. When Kevin arrived he
found that the bear was tagged with the number 63. He provided a ride for the bear to an
isolated spot near Yellowstone Park and the canteen was safe for another year.
Meals at
Castle Rock were always a highlight of the week with many different cooks
taking part over the years. Some special
food memories include Weschenfelder beef,
Anita Pearson’s sweet rolls, Hal Schaible’s “matadors,” endless pizza
and Friday night turkey with all the trimmings.
In the old dining hall dishes were a part of camper
responsibilities during the week. Two or
three cabins would be assigned to wash and dry the dishes. Some of the greatest singspirations of the
entire week took place during those times of kitchen patrol.
With the
new dining hall came such conveniences as a commercial automatic dishwasher as
well as microwave stoves, convection ovens and a walk-in cooler. Campers no longer were as necessary a part of
dish cleanup, but help was still needed so at time various teens would
volunteer a week in the kitchen. Kathy
Knutson and Emily Allen were two of those who helped during a week of Caleb’s
Kin Camp.
Joyce
Nichols remembers well what a challenge it was to bake cake for over one
hundred campers, hope they would eat meatloaf, and keep plenty of bread and
peanut butter on hand. The cooks quickly learned that the appetites
of junior campers and senior campers were vastly different. She often cooked with Edith Davidson and Pat
Nelson. Once when she was cooking a
huge pan of chocolate pudding on the stove she remarked to Edith that it was
certainly setting up quickly. “It
should,” said Mrs. Davidson. “It’s instant
pudding.” On another occasion Edith made
apple pies for an entire camp and forgot to put in the sugar. They decided to go ahead and serve it anyway,
and it all disappeared. Paul Talmage was
particularly excited because he wasn't supposed to eat any sugar and here was
an entire supply of sugarless apple pie.
“Some
campers had never set a table in their lives, much less served food to so many
tables. Some would grumble at first, but
by the end of the week they were doing a fine job and probably went home to
tell their parents how much fun it was.
It was always a challenge to keep campers at the job of washing dishes
instead of having a dishwater fight.
That old kitchen needed mopping after every meal,” said Mrs. Nichols.
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