History
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EARLY HISTORY: 1946 - 1959
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From early records, the original camp property (some 76 acres) was purchased by a group of district pastors in Northern California. The district family camp was held at Cazadero in 1944 and Mission Springs in 1945. There was only one building on the grounds when it was purchased. It was turned into a snack bar for the first summer camp. Other buildings that were built in the spring of 1946 were the Tabernacle, dining room, kitchen, and the first restrooms.
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Jack Branagh, a contractor from the Oakland Neighborhood church, brought some of his workers from the church and they, together with some preachers and church laymen, built the buildings. Lumber was furnished by Loren Berry from his sawmill at a very low price. Seats for the tabernacle were made by "driving stakes (donated by Rev. Walter Staub) in the ground and laying planks on them with no backs." The dirt floor was covered with shavings from the sawmill. On several occasions church people came for workdays. One day over eighty people came from the Oakland Neighborhood Church.
The first septic tank was built for the restrooms out of redwood lumber and installed next to the main restrooms. W. VanClief Yaggy recalls, "The septic system gave us almost endless trouble from year to year, usually right in the midst of the summer conference. Cesspools had to be dug by hand." Rev. Charles Dale was the master plumber who donated his time to this camp.
For water, the volunteers tapped into the spring up the hillside by building a dam and laying a two-inch pipe from it to a 500-gallon wooden tank located near the Tabernacle. Four preachers including Rev. Yaggy and the district superintendent, all inexperienced in tank building, struggled through the job to get water into the tank. Rev. Yaggy said, "If the tank had been two inches higher we could not have gotten a flow from the pipe into the tank." The first night of the first camp they realized the pressure in the water pipes was not sufficient to operate the restrooms facilities and the kitchen. By the next year's family camp the problem was brought up with the campers and they raised several hundred dollars for a pressure system that was in operation by the next evening. Being on a hillside, concrete pillars had to be poured to support the water tank. After the next rainy season two of the pillars began to slip. That summer (1947) Dr.A.W. Tozer was the summer conference speaker and was housed in a tent not far from the leaning water tank. Several times he was awakened in the night by the creaking tank and wondered just when the deluge might come.
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Electricity was supplied, for the first summer conference, by a mobile unit provided by the Peterson Tractor Co. of Oakland. Later, electrical wires were "temporarily" stretched from tree to tree on old wire provided by Art Lindmark of the Oakland church.
Many of those responsible for all the volunteer work were not able to attend many meetings as it was necessary to work sixteen hours a day just to keep things in operation. One of the workers wrote, "Those were busy days but happy days. We felt it was necessary to bring about the beautiful and relaxing camp and facilities we have today." The next few years, however, were a repeat of the first year. There was no paid help.
In the winter of 1946, Rev. W. VanClief Yaggy, Rev. Roy Peterson, and Rev. C.H. Erickson chose the sites for the Tabernacle, dining room, kitchen and restrooms. They also selected some lots to be leased to individuals for the building of cottages on the camp property.
By 1947 it was learned that three acres of land just south of the original camp property was for sale. This was fairly level property that the camp needed badly. They purchased it from a Mrs. Bottom. Also seventeen acres was available that comprised the ravine in which the unnamed creek flowed. It was purchased from some of the heirs of the Colonel Meeker estate. The total investment in real estate was up to $8,000 for just under 100 acres.
Just after the second summer session the "constituency was appealing for better housing." Several cottages were built by individuals in the early years. In the third summer, 1949, two dormitories were erected, and subsequently cabins were built. Later, $8,000 was borrowed to build the Madrone Lodge. This was the first place (besides the kitchen), according to Mr. Yaggy, "where anyone could get a little warmth in the chilly mornings and evenings."
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