In a Cabin in the Middle of the Woods

In 1937 the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) built Grassy Lake Dam. They also built several cabins on the constructoin site. In 1961, Jed Stringham moved three of those cabins to Camp Loll. The logs were numbered, the buildings disasembled, and then rebuilt at Loll. For years they served a host of duties. With an addition Jed built from trees felled on site, the one to the north served as the kitchen and dining hall, the center building has served as a trading post, nature lodge, and commissary, the south building was the office up front and later the trading post in the back. In 1977, Jolene Darrington, Camp Cook, lived in the back of the office. When her family visited, it was wall to wall Darringtons. In 1986, Wade Cox and his family lived in the back of the cabin. In 2001 Janice and I lived in the "Old Office", while the Barlow/Wadman Lodge was being built; we had the camp office in the new lodge basement. Since then the buildings have been used as staff housing. Karlo Mustonen lived in the "Old Office" then Bryan Purdie took over. Tim and Laura Moser also spent a summer there. In 2010 it was home to Dan and Emma Mauchley.

The "Old Office" cabin has had a rough life. The roof was sway backed and broken for years, held up by scabs along the center beam, steel cables, and luck. The logs on the top of the walls on either side were rolled and the trusses dangling. So this year, it was decided to rebuild the roof after camp, and before the winter could take it down. As usual, Bill Wangsgard took the lead in organizing the materials and a crew to put them up. The amazingly talented and hard working crew that Bill assembled included: Kent Clawson, Keith Welch, Brent Christensen, Junior Shupe, Earl, and Lamar Capner.

The first order of business was to get the old roof off. First all the tin had to be removed then the wooden understructure. No plywood in this construction; the trusses were logs, the roof made of rufcut boards. Kent assesses the situation.


The planking was pulled off with hammers, pried off with shovels, and at the last battered down by a 2/6 battering ram. Below, Kent is hard at work.


Once the tin and planking were gone, the old cabin looked rather naked.

Inside things long in the dark, saw the light of day. This is the inner dividing wall.


This book case and cabinet were once the Camp Loll office and First Aid station.


Then the ridge beam came down. It was splintered and split by years of heavy snow. Kieth pulls down the final boards.

Meanwhile, out in the parking lot the crew was building new trusses for the new roof. To the left is Dr. Steve Johnson. Steve was on staff that first year, 1959. He is a great supporter of Loll, his gifts to the camp make life better for staffers and campers, and he was one of the alumni who answered Camp Loll Committee Chairman, Lynn Hinrich's, call for help. Earl directs, while Lamar puts on the glue, Brent stands by to haul the finished truss into place.

Another great alumni supporter is Kara Hollingshead Jones. Here she is with her daughter, Brady, Bryce, her husband, was hard at work rebuilding the roof.

Brent Christensen, Kieth Welch and Lamar Capner were among the extremely hard working and talented supporters that Bill marshalled to make this project work.

As the old timber came down the mess had to be cleaned up. Most of the tin would go home in Kent Clawson's trailer, along with the rest of the garbage, but all burnable wood was cut up into campfire size chunks and stacked for next summer's use. The "Old Office" will go on serving scouts for some time to come. We were lucky to have members of two camp staffs working on the project. Here Kyle Neville, Loll waterfront staffer, assists Shaun Conner, Program Director from Camp Cherry Valley in California.

Shaun and his crew from CCV were a great support.

Here Rachel Erickson, CCV's Camp Cook, lends a hand. That's CCV and former Loll staffer Riley Davis in the background.

Every nail had to be pulled and disposed of, and the lumber cut and hauled to an out-of-sight pile for future service. Here CCV's business maneger, Stephanie Johnson, Kitchen Staffer, Katie Shurtleff and Rachel Erickson, brandish the tools of their service.

Meanwhile the new trusses, built on site with nail gun and glue, and a lot of skill and care, are hoisted into place.

Little by litte, the cabin seems to take on new life.

These new trusses are strong and straight.

Then a shell of plywood covers them. Kieth risks life and limb to get it right.

It is hard and dangerous work to put so much lumber up so high without a lift or scaffold, but no one complained.

Once the plywood was in place the steel roofing was put on. They did it so fast I didn't even get a picture of the process.


There wasn't quite enough steel to finish the job, but this will give us an excuse to come back again. Once the nails and scraps were cleaned up the "Old Office" is looking mighty new.

There is still painting and finish work to do, but what a weekend wonder we had. Our hard working crew was out of camp by dinner time.

Camp Loll is able to grow stronger and better all the time through the labor of so many friends, not just friends of Camp Loll, but friends of Scouting and of the many it serves. It was a wonderful weekend, to see such difficult problems tackled and dealt with by the efforts of so many is a testament to the goodness of people in general and evidence of what makes a free nation great.

Building Bridges

At the north end of Camp Loll Marsh, the trail crosses from Camp Crow and the Gros Ventur cut off to cross a bridge to the Piute and Sagwitch campsites. The bridge below was built by Lafe Conner some years ago and although rustic, served our campers well. However in compliance with the Forest Service's request and for the overall improvement of Loll, it was decided to put in a new bridge, similar to the one built at the end of the summer of 2009.

This is the old bridge.

Among the problems it had, the cross runners were forever rotting out and breaking, as they were constantly replaced, the logs below become weakened and would not hold the nails well.

As before, our bridge was designed by our Camp Committee Chairman, Lynn Hinrich. It requires great support from other friends of Loll. The lumber, including the massive foot square beams were provided by Dave Stone. They were fashioned from lumber cut from the dead trees at Camp Bartlett.

One of the highlights of the project was watching Kent Clawson back these great beams into place with his pickup and trailer.

Meanwhile work proceeded at a steady pace. Scott Hinrichs, long time staffer at Loll and Lynn's big brother, started by digging out the footings. At this time Lynn's dream seemed a long way from fruition.


Lynn's plan not only called for timber but for footings built of massive piles of rocks. Kent Clawson provided a trailer full. All had to be hauled one by one to the bridge site.


As work progressed, it became obvious that even Kent's generous donation of stone would not suffice. Therefore Jody, Dallin, and Quinn took the camp truck to the Grassy Lake quarry to augment the supply. Three truck loads later, we had enough.

Here Lynn directs the exact placement and leveling of the piles of stones that will support the bridge. Each footing is encaged in a stainless steel basket that Lynn built on site. Running up through the stones from the galvanized chain link bottom of each basket are threaded steel rods which will be run through railroad ties and bolted into place.

Once in place the ties are carefully leveled to receive the beams.

The beams rest at their "bank" ends on logs carved to the purpose by our Director or Camping, Bill Wangsgard. Bill is our man with the chain saw.

Here I "supervise" as Lynn, Charles Bowker, Jody Orme, and Scott make everything perfect.

Next comes the muscle. We had a great crew of helpers arrive late Friday night. Not only Loll Staffers, but a crew from Camp Cherry Valley came to extend a helping hand. Here, Cherry Valley Camp Director, and my son, Lafe Conner starts the movement of the logs into place .

Everyone is on hand to lend a hand. Here Janice, and Cherry Valley Staffer, Rachel Erickson, Loll's own, Stephan Dansie, and CVC's Katie Shurtleff give encouragement. Although, they are off to pick huckleberries, a far more important mission this trip.

With a big lift from everyone the beams are in place.


It's not just people, it also takes equipment. Like everything that we have at Loll, this equipment is the kind gift from someone. This project was accompanied by the generous donation of two new extra heavy duty wheel barrows. They were presented to the Camp by Mrs. Hinrich, Scott and Lynn's mother. The two old barrows in the photo have given long and honored service. Karlo fixed them to last and last.

Once the beams are in place, they must be fitted, leveled, bolted together, and painted.

One day on Camp Loll Marsh.

The trimming was done by Bill; Lafe, also a "chain saw hound" got to do a little too. I just mostly supervise.

Jody does the painting, as usual; here with help from Dallin Slater.

The beams are bolted together with big lag bolts and steel strapping. Other lag bolts attach them to the railroad ties.

The crew surveys their accomplishment, but the work has just begun.

Now all the runners must be prepared. Originally they were hauled to the bridge site. But the generator was busy on another project. (A report on that building wonder will be posted soon right here at the Agora.) Therefore, we had to haul all the planking back up to the lodge and parking lot.

There is no use complaining; just get the work done. Back into the truck the lumber goes.

Once the ten plus foot boards were cut into perfect five foot lengths, they were hauled back to the bridge, painted and screwed into place. At last the completed bridge is created at Camp Loll.

The old bridge has yet to be removed, that will be a project of another day, but Lynn's new masterpiece is in place. As Bill quipped to me, it will be here longer than we will be.

Thanks to all who gave of their time and materials to make this bridge possible. In years to come, thousands of happy feet will cross it in comfort and safety.

We are grateful to the Camp Cherry Valley Staff who allowed us to build this bridge between our division; they reached out to us as we reached out to them.

That is the way it is with bridges, and with service to. One gives and gets at the same time, crossing from one to the other with perfect harmony.

Beautiful!

The crew was done with dinner and on the road home by six, Saturday evening. As I drove the road out, I thought of how deep into the wilderness Camp Loll is. Every turn of that long and wonderful road brings a new joy to behold. I was in the lead truck and, seeing the beauty of this wilderness for the first time through the eyes of our friends who had driven it only in the dark of night the evening before, I stopped at a few highlights to make sure they were enjoyed. Here is a view, and not the best, for Indian Lake through the trees.

Almost at the Forest boundary one can look back into our wilderness, and see the Teton Range above the Wilderness we all love. It is so huge, and Loll is so blessed to be deep in its heart. Well worth the drive.

I couldn't resist this one final photo: purple mountains majesty above the fruited plain. An Ashton wheat field with the wilderness behind and the mountains above. America, America, God shed His Grace on thee. He surely did!