camp history

[wolf-j]

Has anyone ever done an in-depth history of the land? Who owned it when, unusual/interesting events, that sort of thing? If someone has, is this information available anywhere?

Thanks
-j

[Cyricx]

That's something we have discussed several times and have tried to get a list together. I'm uncertain if we actually do have a compiled history in a format I can put up on the site or something :)

We have a board meeting tomorrow though, I'll bring it up then and ask if there is one :)

[mongo]

I've heard lots of tales from various people.

I sorta think it's fun to imagine some of the wilder ones being true, facts be damned. The one I particularly like is that the dam was built by gangsters in the 1920s as a place to entertain (read drink, gamble, cheat on their wives), with the ridge being flattened out as an airplane landing strip. I'd like to think Gaea had such romantic beginnings.

[Clarity]

Sorry to disappoint, but as far as we know there were no gangsters. The dam was built in about 1950. The county corps of engineers was involved. You're right about the ridge though. It was used for landing private planes when it was a naturist camp. That was before the Baptists bought it and made it a youth camp. Between the Baptists and Earth Rising, it was owned by a family who had their own church... pentecostal, I think.

Clarity

[mancow]

That's still pretty cool, Think we could land planes there now?

[segeimer]

Sorry to disappoint, but as far as we know there were no gangsters. They were Baptist gangsters. The worst kind. ;)

... either that or nude gangsters.... hmmm... the best kind!

[KC1]

The pavilion woud keep any planes from landing - in addition to tree's that have been allow to grow. Camp is getting back to nature.

[webgiant]

The pavilion woud keep any planes from landing - in addition to tree's that have been allow to grow. Camp is getting back to nature.

And I presume a ridge heliport would be out of the question too? :p

[shadow raven]

Gaea was a Mid America jamboree Boy Scout camp as well.
I attend a Boy Scout Jamboree there when I was a Cub Scout back in the late 70’s;)

[Cyricx]

Yep! This land has tons of history!! I'm excited to almost be to the point that we can start digging into the past and getting some of the even recent history documented.

Everytime I hear about things even from the time that Earth Rising was formed, I'm like a kid at story time :)

Like the story about how we started to call the lake, Lake Onessa :)

[shadow raven]

Tell the story
tell the story
plz plz PLz PLZ.....

[Jason]

Sorry to disappoint, but as far as we know there were no gangsters. The dam was built in about 1950. The county corps of engineers was involved. You're right about the ridge though. It was used for landing private planes when it was a naturist camp. That was before the Baptists bought it and made it a youth camp. Between the Baptists and Earth Rising, it was owned by a family who had their own church... pentecostal, I think.

Clarity

camp gaea was a nudist camp

clothes optional or nude only ?

[Cyricx]

Naturist. Nude only I believe. That was a LONG time ago, before the baptists bought it and it became a youth camp.

The land has alot of history.. that's for sure. :)

[meowwl]

I hope I'm not irritating anybody by performing necromancy on this thread...But I actually went there a few times when it was a christian camp, and still know one of the former owners.

It was a pentecostal christian camp in the late 70s and 80s...I attended several years when I was a preteen, and once as a cynical teenager. It was co-owned by the pastor of my parent's church (Glad Tidings Chapel...It's actually still around.) and my sunday school teacher. It went by the name "Camp Joy Haven" back then. There used to be a total of 12 cabins (12 I think, since half were on the "boy's side" and I never saw them...at least 2 of them were closed off the last couple of years I went, when they became too dangerous to live in.) and the caretaker's house, a dining hall, an enclosed air conditioned building with a basement, and a boathouse near the dam. Before 1988, there was a secondary dam at the inlet to the lake, made out of old oil drums, and creating a cascade that kept the lake oxygenated, clear and fresh, but in 88, the drought dropped the lake level and stream level so low that they had to remove it just to get water in...(There used to be a massive jungle of cattails and sweet bulrush in that entire end of the lake too...it died from the drought and lack of oxygen in the water, and what grew in the swamp it their place was what looked like water hyacinth.) Even so, it was foul from the algae turning over from the bottom that year. It actually dropped so low that you could walk around the outlet, high and dry. When the drought broke, the sudden influx of water did some damage and erosion, so the cascade was never replaced, and the outflow creek dug itself nearly 5 feet deeper.

The last year of camp Joy Haven I'd already decided that christianity wasn't for me, so I was the only one there not shying away from the lovely dream catchers and fetishes hanging from the trees.:rolleyes: I went swimming one day, and came up with a lovely orange daylily tangled in my hair, apparently tossed in sometime earlier, (had to have been at least a day before....) but looking just as lovely as fresh cut...I decided that since the lake had given it to me, I'd keep it. I tucked it behind my ear, and wore that flower in my hair all over the place for the better part of the day.:D

[Cyricx]

Thank you so much for posting, it's great to read some of this and get some more input from Gaea prior to Earth Rising purchasing it. :)

The caretaker's cabin burned down and one of the cabins was removed, but I think that's all for the building structure of what was there before.

One of the cabins right at the Y in the road was converted to the caretakers cabin. There still remainds 9 other cabins for use.

The air conditioned building still remains and is the "Main Hall". The Dining Hall remains as well.

Additionally, a Bath house was built between the Dining Hall and the first cabin to the south of the Y. That has 5 public showers, 2 private showers, 3 toilets and 4 sinks.

Also, a Pavilion was built on the top of the ridge that has a stage and full electricity. Safer stairs were also built going from just south of the dining hall up the hill.

You should definately come out and see all the changes. :)

Meanwhile, we remain on track with less then 50 payments left til the 2013 payoff of the mortgage! :D