Camp Cone Camp ConeLast Updated: March 23, 1997
In the early 80's when my oldest son joined the Troop the cabin was off limits to our scouts because of it's condition. We did enter, with caution to reminisce at what it must have been like in those days when it was a fit building.
One Troop 2 scout wrote to me saying, One story I like to tell relates to the 'Eyeore' initiation at Camp Cone. There was a new scout that was 'captured' and held in the back room waiting his turn. He gradually grew more and more terrified as he heard the screams coming from the initiation area. Suddenly, someone ran outside the window yelling 'Bigfoot! Bigfoot!' This was simply too much. The scout fainted dead away. One of the older scouts, Jim Lee, carried him out holding him in his arms.
--Charlie Ringo, Eagle 72
The large rock fireplace always drew attention, especially on those days when the California Sunshine would drip through the trees. It must have been something when the scouts spent the evening circled on the floor in front of that great fireplace. Another Troop 2 scout wrote to me about the stories told by Scoutmaster Frank Gabler just before lights out in front of the fireplace. The scout said, "We went out looking for Boris. I wasn't sure I wanted to find him, the terrible gruesome things he did to kids if he caught them." The scoutmaster must have made those stories come alive.
--Robert Godard, from the 60's.
On occasion, we did use the shelter to set up a cozy kitchen. I can remember giving the Skunk Patrol the treat of jam filled Ableskivers on a wet Sunday morning. Mostly I remember just walking around the cabin and thinking about the hundreds of scouts that had looked up at those same trees. If you look carefully you can still see rungs nailed to some of the trees about 30 feet up. I wondered what their purpose might have been.
One time our troop used a high limb to string up a bucket that was used as a 'basket' to test the scouts skills at tossing a carved plug into the 'basket.' Each wooden plug had the carver's initials on it so that a tally could be made at the end of the campout. The scouts liked the competition.
The cabin seemed to get plenty of use right up to the end. We always found empty cans and broken glass around when we had been away for awhile. I am told that the neighbors down the road kept an eye on it for us. Occasionally a call would come that someone had taken up residence and someone would have to go out and do an eviction. In time it just became to much of a hassle, so the decision was made to pull it down and there by protect ourselves from a possible lawsuit.
We had quite a bit of discussion about replacing the cabin with an open structure that would provide some shelter but not so much that folks would want to squat there. Those plans never came to completion.
In the 80's there was a cable bridge across Wells Creek upstream from the cabin, but it also became a liability and was removed. The road bridge on the left fork past the cabin is still there and has been improved. That road is an access road for Starker Forests and has also been improved with some additional rock.
Once I found a basket ball in the creek and used it as an objective for a weekend, camp wide search. It proved too difficult for the boys and I had to show where it was before we left camp. If you know where to look, you can still find a small stone wall around a spring on the old Alsea road that passes through the camp. That road is now impassable to most vehicles, but the weekend motor cycles still make good use of it.
We now prefer to keep the area in a natural state and enjoy the streams, forest and solitude of a wilderness within minutes of Corvallis. Our Troop and other Troops still use Camp Cone on a fairly frequent basis. We always use low impact camping skills to lessen our impact on the area. Our favorite spot in recent years is at the base of a ridge where two streams join. The ridge has provided unending pleasure for scout games such as 'Capture the Flag,' 'Spies in the Woods,' and 'Flashlight Wars.' The evening campfire stories still touch on the gruesome, but there are also stories of high adventure and the lives of heroes, mountain men and explorers. Camp Cone is a special place that brings us closer to the American spirit.
--Bill Veley, Assistant Scout Master