History of Pine Springs Ranch

1961-2011

Mountain Center, California

by Gerry Chudleigh

Revised January 4, 2012

If the Southeastern California Conference had asked 10 conference youth directors whether to conduct summer camps at Pine Springs Ranch in 1961, less than 90 days after buying the property, it is likely that at least nine of them would have answered with an emphatic "No! Wait until 1962." But Walt Blehm, the youth director in SECC, was that 10th person, and he decided to attempt the impossible. The conference still owned the old J.M.V. Pathfinder Camp in nearby Idyllwild, but the town of Idyllwild had banned all camps for the summer of 1961, due to a water shortage.

Still, the new property at PSR offered nothing but vacant land and lofty dreams. There were no camper cabins, no staff housing, no craft building, no dining hall, no kitchen, no restrooms, no showers, no medical clinic, no swimming pool, no lake, no laundry facilities, no electricity, no telephone, almost no water, and no plan or time to develop any of those things before July 2 when campers would arrive. The only sensible plan would be to suspend summer camp until 1962 when all the necessary facilities would be in place.

In fact, most parents and potential campers did skip 1961. While it is likely that about 500-600 kids attended the old J.M.V. Pathfinder Camp in Idyllwild in 1960, and about the same number attended PSR in 1962, only about 60 participated in the special work camps of 1961. Reports published in the Pacific Union Recorder in 1962 and 1963 referred to those summers as the first and second "official" summer camps at PSR, ignoring the adventure of 1961.

It is probably fair to note that while the 60 or so kids who attended camp in 1961 can rightfully claim to be the first campers at Pine Springs Ranch, those who attended camp in 1962 were the first to sleep in the PSR cabins, swim in the PSR pool, eat in the PSR dining room and take the regular PSR classes. Click Photos to Enlarge.

Early Adventist Camps

To understand and appreciate the innovative design of PSR, it is helpful to review the main features of the old J.M.V. Pathfinder Camp in Idyllwild that PSR replaced, and even some earlier history. ( J.M.V., which stood for Junior Missionary Volunteer, was the official name for all Adventist junior youth ministry before the middle 1970s.)

After World War One ended in late 1918, there was a burst of interest in outdoor camping, largely defined by the skills required for soldiers and armies to survive in the field while advancing through Europe. The East Michigan and West Michigan conferences jointly held the denomination's first J.M.V. camp in 1926 at Town Line Lake, and Adventist youth leaders in Illinois, Wisconsin, California, and a few other places, quickly followed.

As described in the book, "Camping With the JMVs," by Arthur Spalding (Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1930), camp leaders found a suitable campsite on undeveloped land and built a temporary camp. In careful military fashion, they erected tents in a perfect rectangle, then added a mess hall (dining room), staff tents, nurse's tent, latrines and other common facilities around the tents.

In the center of the square they erected a flagpole where kids learned to stand at attention, pass a military-style personal inspection, obey military marching commands and pledge allegiance to the flag. Usually they dragged logs into a circle to make a campfire bowl.

During the day, leaders taught campers outdoor survival skills, many of them the same skills soldiers had learned during the war: fire building, tent-pitching, knot-tying, lashing, camp cooking, edible wild plants, orienteering, first aid, etc. And they went on all-day, challenging hikes, swam, and studied birds and other nature classes. At the end of the summer, after one camp for boys and one for girls, all the tents and equipment were dismantled, removed from the property and put in storage until the next summer.

Spalding's description (below) of a typical camp morning gives an idea of the rigors of those early camps. (Though there was no lake at Julian or Idyllwild, campers swam in small ponds created by damming a creek.)

"The camp superintendent takes his place before the tents, watch in one hand: with the other he fingers the police whistle with which he is about to wake the echoes and the boys. Two minutes to six! One minute to six! Half a minute! Ten seconds! Now! Drawing a full breath, the superintendent puts it all into that signal; shrill, piercing, insistent. Once! Twice! Three Times! And then his stentorian voice follows it up:

'Three times and out! Roll over! Roll out! Roll in! Everybody up. Bathing suits! Plunge!'

This business of getting up in the morning instanter, right now, no cringing, and no whines, is an index of a boy's character. Every Volunteer volunteers when the whistle blows. Just you get up smack on the signal, rustle into bathing suit, plunge, get out, dry and dress, and air your bedding, all in twenty-five minutes, and you'll see!

It can be done and it was done. It just takes three things: first, a will to do; second, power to control one's own desires; and third, lively work. Two minutes from cot to plunge, four minutes in the water, one minute to tent, two minutes to rub dry, ten minutes to dress, one minute to comb hair, two minutes to brush teeth -- and there are three minutes leeway left for even the slow poke."

After this rigorous beginning, the morning worship, personal inspection and tent inspection followed in similar military fashion. Of course, for Christian organizations, camping was not for the purpose of preparing kids for war, but for the purpose of teaching character lessons and leading kids to make life-time commitments to God. In the early camps, directors and story-tellers told campers that the skills and discipline they were learning would prepare them for mission service in distant jungles.

But at Julian, Calif. in 1928, the longest story around the campfire was Guy Mann's story about the difficulties encountered by Adventist soldiers during the war. In Spalding's book it is clear that preparing for the physical and spiritual challenges of military service was never far from the minds of campers or staff.

Early Southeastern Camps

The Southeastern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, with headquarters in Riverside, joined the camping movement in 1928 with their first "Camp Pathfinders" beside a rocky stream on the Cluff (or Cuff) Ranch, four miles from Julian, Calif., in east San Diego County. They swam in a pond that had been created by damming the stream they camped beside. They planned a ten day camp for 35 boys, followed by a ten day camp for 35 girls. Fifty-five boys showed up, but the actual number of girls was never reported. It is clear that the name "Pathfinders" did not emerge from the stories told around the campfire in Julian, because in the Pacific Union Recorder, one week before the camp started, it was advertised as "Camp Pathfinders," and the address where parents could send letters from home was listed in those announcements as: Julian, California, c/o Camp Pathfinders. But Southeastern's leaders had helped at the Southern California Conference summer camps only three weeks earlier and had apparently heard Spalding talk there about the 19th century American explorer and mapmaker, John C. Fremont, known in American history as "The Pathfinder." David Livingston, the famous Christian missionary to Africa, who was also known as "The Pathfinder" made it easy for Spalding to challenge every camper to be a Pathfinder for God. Guy Mann, Southeastern's camp director had just enough time to pick up that name at the Southern California camp and use it in his ad for the Julian camp in Southeastern. The summer camp at Julian in 1928 was the first Adventist church event anywhere in the world to be designated a Pathfinders event -- that is, an event for "Pathfinders."

In 1929, 1930 and 1931, Southeastern held "Pathfinders' Summer Training Camps" in Idyllwild, beside Strawberry Creek. Though the location was described as about 15 acres, next to a stream, with a large meadow, this was not the same piece of property the conference bought in Idyllwild in 1932. During these summers before the conference owned property in Idyllwild, the "Pathfinders" began making overnight hikes to the tops of Mt. San Jacinto and Tahquitz Peak. Their reports never failed to mention that the Adventist kids made it to the top of the mountains much quicker and in higher numbers than the kids from other camps in Idyllwild, a fact which they attributed to the Adventist diet and other health practices.

J.M.V. Pathfinders Camp, Idyllwild, 1932-1960

In 1932, during the Great Depression, when conferences were making drastic cuts in salaries and automobile allowances, Southeastern California "secured" 16 acres in Idyllwild, "up the creek a few hundred yards from where we were last year," said M.V. leader, Guy Mann. A popular timeline for the Pathfinder organization says: "1932: First J.M.V. Pathfinder Camp, Idyllwild, purchased." This does not mean Idyllwild was the first property purchased for an Adventist summer camp, which it was not. Wawona, Central California Conference's youth camp, was "founded" in 1929. The 1931 Wawona summer camp announcement mentioned that "we own five acres" on the border of Yosemite National Park. Nor was 1932 the first time an Adventist camp was called a Pathfinder camp. 1932 was the fifth year in a row that Southeastern's camps were designated as "Pathfinders' camps." But the J.M.V. Pathfinders Camp in Idyllwild was the first property owned by the church to be given the Pathfinder name.

Permanent buildings on owned property not only eliminated the need to transport, build and dismantle a new camp each summer, but would, after enough buildings were erected, provided a place for training institutes and Bible conferences during the winter.

Though the campers stayed in tents for several more years, the Recorder reported in May, 1932 that "Last Sunday we practically finished the large twenty-four by sixty building on our new campsite." The structure, whatever it was, was built in three days.

Not surprisingly, the permanent camps followed the same layout as the temporary, military-style camps of previous summers. Idyllwild was typical of the way church camps were organized and run from the 1920s to the 1950s and beyond. Pine Springs Ranch set a new course that became the standard for most Adventist camps for several decades.

The old Pathfinders Camp in Idyllwild sat on 16 acres not far from the center of town. (In 2012 it is called Camp Gilboa and is part of Idyllwild Pines.) In the Sept. 3, 1943 Recorder, conference youth director J.C. Nixon reported that campers were living in tents, sleeping on cots with mattresses, and that they were able to house overflow campers in the old dining room because the new dining room had just been completed (no doubt the dining room in use in the late 1950s and early 1960s and known today as Gilboa Hall). He also mentions that they were hoping to build nurse's quarters and "another" shower room before the next summer.

By the 1950s, the J.M.V. Pathfinders' Camp was surrounded by sometimes noisy neighbors: a Riverside County campground on one side, another Christian camp (Idyllwild Pines) on the opposite side, and private summer homes on the other two sides. On Sabbath mornings, the Adventist campers held church services in an open-air "chapel" located, under the pines on the property line next to the county park. On the other side of that property line was a trail used by a nearby stable. During many of the church services, during prayer or special music or a spiritual appeal by the camp pastor, a string of horses would pass close enough that people on the platform could almost touch them. Usually at least one teen rider had a "transistor radio" tuned to a rock station. I suspect that every time a church service was interrupted by the latest song by Elvis Presley, Little Richard or Pat Boone, the camp director strengthened his determination to find a new camp in a more remote location.

Some have suggested that the nearness of downtown Idyllwild was also an unwanted distraction, and this may be true. But I don't know that this ever detracted from the camp program. Idyllwild did offer a large and busy outdoor skating rink — full of kids on vacation — plus real hamburgers, cokes, malts and a chance for non-counseling staff to get away from the camp whenever there were a few free moments.

The unheated cabins in the camp, with front panels that opened, were erected in a square (or horseshoe), perhaps 40 yards across, with a flagpole in the center of the square. The cabins were about three feet apart from each other.

By the 1970s, counselors at accredited camps had to be at least 18, but in 1959 I started counseling at Idyllwild a few weeks before my 16th birthday. Actually, most of the counselors were in college, and most of the campers and other staff thought I was, too. In the 1950s and early 1960s, camps were conducted four weeks every summer, usually in this order: Junior Boys (ages 10-11), Tweenage Boys (ages 12-15), Junior Girls (ages 10-11), and Tweenage Girls (ages 12-15). In 1954, camp director Charles Martin introduced coed Adventurers Camp for age 9. Later, Walt Blehm added a coed senior youth (16-30) camp before or after the others.

The Adventurers camp was the one I looked forward to the most because it was coed, meaning there were girls' counselors present in all the main camp activities. Besides, counselors were paid $21 per week and a third week would increase my summer earnings from $42 to $63. In 1959, I was hired to work only the two boys camps. "Elder Blehm" told me he might need me for the adventurers camp, but that this was unlikely because there would be only half as many boys that week, so they needed only half as many boys' counselors. As the youngest and least experienced counselor, I was not likely to be the first one asked to stay. But I was asked to come back for Adventurers camp, anyway, probably for two reasons.

I liked to think I was invited back because I was such a good counselor: I loved counseling, had an "honor cabin" both weeks, and was thrilled to see almost every boy in my cabins make a decision to follow Christ or be baptized, if they weren't already. All that probably played a part in my being asked to stay, but more important, the camp director assigned his 9 year old son, Randy Blehm, who was a handful, to my cabin the first week.

We got along great, and Randy asked to stay in my cabin the second week. Having me back the third week, meant Walt and Shirley Blehm didn't have to worry about what to do with their son while Walt directed camp and Shirley helped with the store and crafts.( I am grateful to Randy for many details in this history that I had forgotten.)

Campers were awakened in the morning by a recording of a bugle playing reveille, unless there was a live bugler in camp. Campers met at the flag pole before each of the three meals and before campfire in the evening. It seemed like a large number of trees had military surplus public address horns mounted in them, which blasted frequent, annoying announcements for various staff members to report to certain places. The speakers also blared "Sabbath music," mostly The Kings Heralds and Del Delker, Friday evenings and several hours on Saturdays.

This is probably a good place to note the connection between coed camps, pay and the quality of the staff. By making every week coed, as PSR began doing in 1966, the camp needed only half as many individuals to serve as counselors. That is because if you have 20 cabins and you fill them all with boys one week and all with girls the next, you will need at least 20 boys counselors one week and 20 girls counselors the next. But if both weeks are coed you will need only 10 girls counselors and 10 boys counselors and they will all work both weeks. With coed camps, all of the counselors stay for the whole summer, which means they get paid twice as much, which means the camp can expect to attract talented students looking for all-summer work. At Idyllwild, even with separate boys and girls camps, a few of the college students worked all summer as instructors, plus a week or two before and after camp to set up and put things away for the next summer, but most of the counselors were there only two weeks, sometimes three.

I don't know why Blehm built the perfect facility at PSR for coed camps, with two villages out of sight from each other, but never switched to all coed camps. He continued the coed Adventurers camp for nine-year-olds, and coed teen camps for ages 16-30. But it is apparent from the camp schedules and pictures published in the Recorder, that Bill Dopp, who followed Blehm as youth director in 1965, made the switch to all-coed camps his second summer, 1966.

I frequently heard Blehm talk about how happy he was with his innovation of hiring students to work as counselors. This may have been done elsewhere earlier, but Blehm introduced all-student staff in Southeastern California in 1958. Before Walt Blehm, all counselors, program directors and instructors were pastors or teachers. Most pastors and teachers resented being assigned to spend a week "babysitting" a cabin full of kids, and, of course, the kids were not always that excited about spending a week living with a pastor or teacher. Blehm found that academy and college students loved working at camp, they found it easy to gain the respect and admiration (and obedience) of kids only a few years younger than themselves, and were much more effective at leading campers to make decisions for Christ. And most student staff were eager to meet the expectations of the camp director. Blehm took all this very seriously. He required staff to read camp counselor training textbooks and manuals, conducted intensive training before camp began, and continued counselor training at the early morning staff worship sessions. Again, this was much easier to do with students than with teachers and pastors.

At the old camp in Idyllwild all the service buildings and areas -- craft house, nature building, dining room, restrooms, swimming pool, a horse corral and two outdoor worship areas — surrounded the cabins. This is the way most camps were built before PSR, and is the opposite of the PSR plan. I suspect the old plan was based largely on military field camps, where the solders slept in the middle of the camp, surrounded by guard posts and anything else that would put distance and obstacles between the solders and an attacking enemy.

The program at the Pathfinder camp was much more limited than at PSR. Kids rotated around to different activities during the day. The main attractions were crafts (leather craft, copper craft, wood burning, glorified glass, etc.), nature (stars, mammals, birds, cats, etc.) and swimming. There were also several horses that some kids rode.

Oh, yes. There was also the Pioneering program that I was involved in. Every week a teacher and a couple college student assistants took about 30 kids and their counselors on a three night backpacking trip to Skunk Cabbage Meadow in the San Bernardino National Wilderness.

This program remained largely unchanged after the move to PSR. In those early years the Pioneering program was based more on the style of a military expedition than on the individual backpacking that became popular in the 1970s and 1980s. Food was cooked in huge pots by the staff and served to the campers. Backpacks were almost unknown, so kids were taught to roll their sleeping bags sideways (lengthwise) into a long "horseshoe pack," with their personal items — toothbrush, underwear, etc. — inside. The food, mostly dehydrated, was carried by two pack burros (Cleopatra and Jezebel), and the pots and pans were already at Skunk Cabbage Meadow, buried in two (hidden) 55-gallon barrels. Every youth camp in town had a similar program, so the meadow often had 30-40 horses grazing overnight. On more than one occasion I was awakened in the dark to see the belly of a shackled horse stepping over my sleeping bag. And everyone hiking up the Devil's Slide Trail was sure to encounter teams of six or eight pack horses delivering supplies to the various groups. In those days we camped in Skunk Cabbage Meadow, which had primitive outhouses and water faucets. By the early 1970s all those modern improvements had been removed, and camping was no longer allowed in Skunk Cabbage Meadow.

Back in Idyllwild, Pathfinder Camp directors made sure that the Pioneers were not the only ones to get out of the 16-acre camp. One night each week the whole camp hiked what was probably a couple miles on level ground to a campfire area in the forest. Food and supplies were delivered by car. And on Fridays, the whole camp (sometimes), or part of the camp, climbed to the top of Tahquitz Peak where each camper collected a little blue card, signed by the ranger, Jess Southwell, certifying that he or she was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Order of the Squirrel. I don't know how many times I climbed that 8800 foot peak. I stopped collecting after 21 cards. I suppose I have been up there about 50 times.

For more on Pioneering, Tahquitz Peak and Squirrel Cards Click Here

But I also remember that Friday afternoon was dedicated to swimming contests and demonstrations at the pool. It was there that I saw one of the funniest events. Evangelist Gordon Henderson, who was camp pastor that week, decided to sun his ample body on the new diving board during the swimming contests. So he stepped onto the board, stood over the supports and spread his large towel out to the end of the board. Then he turned around and laid back on the board, with his head toward the end over the water. What he didn't know was that the board was not yet bolted to the supports. So he and the board made a backward, head-first flip into the water, to the applause of every camper and staff member in camp.

Why the Pathfinder Camp was Sold

No doubt Walt Blehm dreamed of a larger, more isolated and different kind of camp from the moment he first saw the 16-acre Idyllwild Pathfinder Camp, but it was a water shortage that gave him the excuse to make the move. Severe water restrictions were in place in Idyllwild in 1959, and in the spring of 1960 the city announced that all unnecessary activities that required water would be cancelled — including all summer camps. In the end, the camps were permitted in '59 and '60, but with severe water restrictions. During the summer of 1960 Walt, who apparently had already received some kind of commitment from the conference president that he would support a new camp, loaded a few of us staff members onto the camp jeep or pickup and toured several locations in the Idyllwild area and asked us which we thought would make the best camp location. I don't remember that any of us had a clue how to answer. I know I didn't. All the sites I saw were heavily wooded. I don't know why they would have had more water than the Pathfinder camp, unless they were in areas where the camp could drill its own wells.

In early 1961 Idyllwild officials informed camp directors that they would not be permitted to operate camps that summer, leaving youth leaders with no choice but to skip a summer of camping or find a new location. (At least that is what we staff members understood. It would be interesting to see if Idyllwild town records show a ban on all camps, or if other camps, like Idyllwild Pines, Buckhorn and Tahquitz Pines were also closed that summer.)

Pine Springs Ranch: Blehm's Dream

On April 11, 1961 the Southeastern California Conference closed escrow on a 316-acre cattle ranch, named Cedar Spring Ranch, with mailing address in Mountain Center, California. The original name might have stuck were it not for the fact that the Southern California Conference (with offices in Glendale) already had a summer camp named Cedar Falls, which was actually located in the Southeastern California Conference, near Angelus Oaks. Camps named Cedar Spring and Cedar Falls were bound to cause confusion.

The name "Cedar Spring Ranch" is not quite legible in 2011 on a rock near the old entrance, but Blehm immediately renamed the property Pine Springs Ranch. The new name made more sense, anyway, since there were no cedars on the part of the old Cedar Spring Ranch that the Southeastern California Conference originally bought, but there were plenty of large old pine trees. (The ecologically important cedars are on the upper 160 acres, that the conference bought in the early 1980s.)

The original property is often referred to as 320 acres because it is a half section. A "section" is one mile square. On a flat surface, a section should be 640 acres. Pine Springs Ranch is one mile by one half mile, so it should be 320 acres. But surveying the uneven and curved surface of the earth, especially in mountainous areas, is not that simple. The PSR property  is listed on official title documents as 316 acres. The upper quarter section is listed as what it should be, 160 acres.

Immediately Blehm became an evangelist for a new kind of camp. Blehm recounted how he had worked in several camps in the North Pacific one summer when he was in college and had learned something from each. But he also struck off in a direction none of them had gone.

First, he said, kids deserved, or needed, to get out of the city or suburbs and onto a natural, authentic ranch — like a visit to their grandparents' farm. Here they would do farm chores in addition to having good old-fashioned rural fun. There would be no speakers in the trees and no canned music. Kids might learn to drive tractors, split wood, milk cows and go on hay rides. The staff would wear Levi's and western hats. There would be no crafts: it was just wrong, Blehm said, to pay money to spend a week on an outdoor cattle ranch and then spend a big part of the week inside a building, making a leather wallet. Naturally, there would be lots of horses, plus some cows and other farm animals.

In other words, Blehm's model for a camp was a farm or cattle ranch, not a military encampment. Not a theme park version of a cattle ranch, but a real ranch.

Most of Blehm's dreams for a real cattle ranch experience never materialized. I suppose that as he worked week after week to design a camp that would actually work, that is, that would accommodate 200 kids at a time and keep them all busy doing fun things, most of the "working ranch" dream was seen to be impractical. Even Bonanza's Pa Cartwright might have had a difficult time if 200 grandchildren all showed up on the Ponderosa at the same time. Still, the facilities Blehm built created a new kind of program.

Pine Springs Ranch: The Property

Apparently the Dougherty brothers each bought a half section in the northern parts of Apple Canyon in the early 1900s, did minimal development, and ran cattle there over the years. These two half sections were not two halves of one section, but touched at the corners. When the Southeastern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists bought the lower half section from John Dougherty in 1961, the land had seen little use in many years.

When purchased, the camp property featured three structures: an old wooden barn (where the pool is today) with a small corral, a small, single-level farmhouse (still there, above the pool, in 2012) and a closet-sized pump house between the barn and the house. I don't know why the pump house was there; there was no well or water or pump. In addition, there was a usually-empty wooden water tank, perhaps 100 yards above the ranch house. In good seasons, that tank collected water from a nearby spring.

Forest Service Gate 15 at Keen Camp Summit, 2011

1961 Work Camp

The church actually owned two summer camps during the summer of 1961, the old J.M.V. Pathfinder Camp and the new Pine Springs Ranch. Even though the new property had been purchased, it would have made good sense to use the old camp in 1961 — it had cabins, a swimming pool, a dining hall and craft hall and all the things the new property lacked. But as the multi-year draught had grown more serious, the city of Idyllwild had ordered the camps suspended for the summer. The conference did, however, continue to use the Idyllwild camp when water was available. During the winter of 1961-62, I spent a weekend there, as a freshman ministerial student at La Sierra College (now University), at a memorable spiritual retreat for theology majors. In 1962, after ministering to Adventist kids (and others) for 30 years, the J.M.V. Pathfinder Camp was sold to a Jewish youth organization and renamed Habonim Camp Gilboa. In 1982 they sold the 16 acres to neighboring Idyllwild Pines, who still refer to it as Camp Gilboa. In 2012 the old camp is almost unchanged from when the Adventists owned it, except that most of the camper cabins have been removed.

The new property at PSR actually had less water than the old one in Idyllwild, but no one could forbid a camping program at the new property because it was outside the city of Idyllwild.

Blehm was obviously excited about the possibilities of a "special" camp in 1961. Blehm was born and raised on a farm. He was not only charismatic but hard-working and smart. It seemed that he could do anything and do it well. He could operate caterpillar tractors, chain saws and surveyors equipment. He knew framing, carpentry, wiring, plumbing and roofing. He could -- and did -- skin rattlesnakes, de-scent skunks, and trap and mount wild animals. Everyone I knew felt incompetent around him.

I was not there for the planning discussions, but they are not hard to imagine. They would use a small generator for daytime electricity. For cabins they would copy the countless wooden-floored, canvas-sided tents found at church camp meeting grounds around the world. Blehm knew how to build those. For restrooms, they would build two-hole outhouses over open pits. They would cook in the ranch house kitchen and eat in the living room.

                 Campers and staff load brush and logs onto sled in 1961. Click photo to enlarge.

The Blehms and Taylors would live in small camping trailers, with an umbrella tent or two for extra space.

And for work, the campers would load dead brush and fallen logs and branches onto sleds that would be pulled by Jeeps and trucks to the meadow where they would be burned in huge bonfires. The older campers would learn serious work skills, from felling trees with chainsaws to splitting firewood with double-bitted axes.

For water, they would dig a quarter-mile ditch by hand and bury a 1-inch plastic pipe. It would import water from a better spring on the far west end of the camp. They would hire six of the biggest male students they could find to dig the ditch, erect fences, cut trees, and do all the other farm work needed. Those six, plus the radio operator, would live (with the rats) in the tack room of the barn until camper tents were erected. Then, for three weeks, they would serve as counselors.

And that is what happened.

The Radio Shack

For communication, Blehm built a radio shack and furnished it with amateur radio equipment. They soon learned that no signal could travel directly from the PSR location to the conference office in Riverside or anywhere else, but for at least three years they bounced the signal off a rock cliff on the side of Apache Peak, to the east. Click photo at right to enlarge picture of Johnny Mallernee in the original radio shack, about 1961. The May 11, 1964, Recorder reported that "the east wing [of the original lodge] will have three stories with the first floor housing the John Mallernee Memorial Communication Center. This center is being made possible by gifts honoring 16-year-old John Mallernee who served as radio operator for Pine Springs Ranch since it was purchased for the Southeastern California Conference. John was killed in an auto accident this last November [1963]."

The Road Through Camp

When the church bought PSR, the only access to the upper valley for people who lived there, which meant Minnie T. Lee and Mr. Dougherty (now the Zen Buddhist Retreat Center), and their visitors, was to go through the heart of Pine Springs Ranch, coming in the entrance west of the current horse corral, turning right before the current multi-purpose building, and down the road by where our covered wagon camp is now, to the current front gate. Or Dougherty could just drive on the dirt road that now passes the dining room, nature center, ranch house and North Village. Almost immediately, Blehm hired a contractor to build a half-mile dirt road that was still on PSR property but took neighbors around the main part of the camp and up to the main gate from the south. A decade later, when the new road was built from Hurkey Creek Campground, most of Blehm's road became unnecessary, but now something new happened. The people who lived along the eastern half of the old 5-1/2 mile road (Bonita Vista Road) stopped entering through Gate 15 and started driving up the new road from Hurkey Creek Campground and across Blehm's road back toward Gate 15. If Blehm had not built that half mile road on PSR property, all those people would still have to access their property through Forest Service Gate 15.

The new road from Hurkey Creek Campground to PSR was built in 1969. That road was still dirt for many years, but it was a freeway compared with the old dirt trail from Gate 15.

• June 26, 1969, Pacific Union Recorder: "Pine Springs Ranch Road. Three large tractors and a 20-yard earth mover are currently carving out a 2.4 mile road to Pine Springs Ranch. By mid-May more than one-half of the initial cutting through virgin land had been completed."

Water

There were two springs at PSR: the one above the wooden water tank, that produced about two quarts of water per minute during the early summer, and another one on the hill above the current location of the fort. That one also produced about two quarts per minute. Blehm believed six stout students with picks could chip a shallow ditch through partially-decomposed granite to combine those two water sources in the one wooden storage tank before the first kids arrived for camp. The work could not be done by a tractor because the ditch would be almost entirely on the side of a steep mountain. That remote spring was "obviously" at a considerably higher elevation than the water tank, so if we were careful to drop very gradually we could use gravity to get the water to the tank. We swung picks for about 8 hours a day for two weeks, and found ourselves within a few hundred yards of the tank. That is when Marvin Mitchell and I began to suspect the unthinkable: we appeared to be lower than the tank -- so the water would have to run uphill to get there. That evening Marvin and I fashioned a crude surveyor's transit from a carpenter's level, an eye screw and a nail. During lunch we informed Blehm that according to our calculations the spring we started from was several feet lower than the tank we were aiming for. He looked at our crude instrument, said little, and drove into town to get a real surveyors transit. He worked alone with the transit and announced the next day that the spring was, indeed, lower than the tank and that we would immediately start building fences.

But it wasn't nearly enough water for showers for campers. As soon as the all-summer staff (six students, one radio operator, director, assistant director, their wives and children, caretaker and wife) arrived, Blehm fashioned a wood-burning water heater and installed it in the pump house. The water would heat while we ate supper, then each staff member was allowed 60 seconds of water to shower. The main water shutoff valve was outside the pump house door so the staff waiting for a shower timed the water use and turned off the water if someone took too long. We used about five to ten seconds to get wet, then soaped up with the water turned off, then used the remainder of the water to rinse the soap off -- except when the water ran out after five or ten or 15 seconds of rinsing. At one time or another most staff members discovered what it felt like to stand in the shower with soap on your body and no water in the system. The only remedy was to wait for more water to collect.

Without enough water to even shower the staff, few campers showered during the three weeks of camp.

Above, from left: Gerry Chudleigh, Ed Blair and Bob Shetler, all from San Diego, Calif, build first fort at Pine Springs Ranch in 1961. The fort walls were made from "slabs" which are produced when a lumber mill saws the bark and part of the wood off of a log. Click Photo to enlarge.

Well, there was one other source of water. Local well drillers said that lateral wells could deliver water without requiring pumps. A lateral well was dug into the side of a mountain and was dug uphill rather than down. They drilled two lateral wells into the mountain at the site of the lower spring, just above the current nature area. The lateral wells produced tremendous pressure, so much that the concrete broke every time the valve was closed. But they delivered only a little more water than the spring had delivered, about two quarts per minute, when they delivered anything.

One of the primary goals the following year (1962) was to have the swimming pool completed, filled, inspected and approved by the county before the first day of camp. The pool was not finished until less than a week before camp was to start. But it was still empty and there was no way the well could supply enough water to fill it in time. So Blehm decided to employ the ancient camp fire truck to pump water from the lake (stock pond) to the pool. As a result, the pool was filled with smelly, slimy, dark green pond water. Several staff members, under the direction of Gordon Mote, organized a 24-hour work schedule, to stop the pumps and clean the filters -- at first, every few minutes, then every few hours -- around the clock, until the pool was clean. It passed county  inspection, and campers enjoyed clean, chlorinated pond water the first day of camp, 1962.

The Water Miracle at Pine Springs Ranch in 1970       (Click photo at right to enlarge)

At least three versions of this amazing story were published. All agree that the tanks were empty, the wells and springs were dry, and there was no rain -- yet the water tanks were full and overflowing after an evening of prayer:

• Miracle Water, by Paula Cummings, a 6-page story in Guide magazine.
• Miracle Experienced at Pine Springs Ranch Summer Camp, by Deanna Howard, in Pacific Union Recorder.
• Prayer Supplies Water for California Recreation Camp, in Review and Herald.

Bunks and Rats

As I mentioned earlier, in 1961 the six male staff, plus the 14 year old radio operator, lived in the feed and tack room in the back of the barn. That required two sets of bunk beds (army surplus cots with adaptors), stacked three high -- plus one other cot.

During the evenings we built an elaborate system of strings, pulleys and levers that enabled us to turn the light on and off from any bed, in case we wanted the lights off before the generator turned off. I was known for sleeping very soundly, so one night several of the others went to the Idyllwild dump and caught some live skunks, put them in cages and positioned them under my bed. I didn't wake up. Rats were the usual challenge. Staff on the lower bunks slept with clubs beside their beds or in their hands. Some were awakened at night by rats walking across their faces. And sometimes they found yellow urine stains on the sheets near their faces. I don't remember anyone actually catching or killing a rat.

I was the youngest of the all-summer staff. The other five were Marvin Mitchell, Bob Shetler, Luis Yaw, Ted Cook, and Ed Blair. Ed was a school teacher; the rest of us were students. Johnny Mallernee, about 14, who operated the radio, also lived in the feed room. I think it was entirely a coincidence that San Diego was very much over-represented among the staff. Leroy Taylor (the associate director), Elwood Staff (camp pastor for the two boys camps), Marvin Mitchell, Bob Shetler and I were all graduates of San Diego Academy and Ed Blair was a teacher there. Ted Cook was an elementary student at El Cajon when I attended there. So of the male staff, only Walt Blehm, Louie Yaw and Johnny Mallernee did not have roots in San Deigo.

I should mention that at the end of the summer the barn was dismantled to make room for the pool and bath house. The wood was re-used to build the maintenance shed that is still in use in 2011.

The Struggle for Upper Valley Access

One of the first things we learned upon occupying PSR was that the neighbors didn't like each other much, and, also, weren't very happy about a large and noisy church camp coming into their quiet valley. Today it is difficult to imagine the quiet solitude that was Apple Canyon before Pine Springs Ranch installed electricity and buildings and cars and people. One day, while we were digging our ditch to nowhere, Minnie T. Lee, the long-time widow who occupied the small house on the other side of the valley, warned Blehm that we were about to be taken advantage of by the Mr. Dougherty (John's brother) who owned the property at the top of the canyon. According to Minnie, Dougherty had been trying for years to build a resort on his property. His golden opportunity, as he saw it, arose from the fact that Idyllwild was a "dry" town -- that is, no alcohol could be sold by the drink -- and Apple Canyon was just outside the Idyllwild jurisdiction. He envisioned a popular bar, hunting lodge, resort hotel and perhaps more. Every part of his dream was prevented by the lack of a 20-foot wide access road, the minimum required by the county.

But now, said Minnie T., he saw a chance. He had contracted, she said, a road builder to arrive on the following Friday (1961) to widen the road -- without the new owner's permission -- when our small staff went home for the weekend. He expected that the new owners, church people, would not know about the 12-foot easement or would be too polite to say anything. Then, after the road was widened and improved -- which we might even appreciate -- he would just keep using it for seven years, when it would become his by "adverse possession." Or, if the new owner objected after he built his 20-foot road, he would offer money to make the wider easement legal. As the old saying goes, it would be easier to get forgiveness than permission.

Road to upper end of Apple Canyon, 2011

Blehm was not known for putting up with dishonest dealing. Besides, he didn't want to lose eight additional feet of the meadow, and he certainly didn't want it to become a busy avenue for drunks and party animals. So he sprang into action. He consulted an attorney about what constituted a legal fence and exactly how close to the easement it could be built. Then he bought metal fence posts, barbed wire, tie wire and concrete. A day or two later he rented a jack hammer. And we ditch diggers became fence builders. By Thursday evening we had completed a straight, impressive, and legally binding four-wire fence on our side of the easement for the entire part of the valley that was owned by PSR.

Friday came and we kept an eye on the fence while we worked on other things. Sure enough, in mid-afternoon, two pieces of heavy equipment arrived, plus Dougherty in his car. They pulled up and stopped in the area then outside the main gate. Dougherty and the equipment operator got out and stared down the 12-foot lane that we had created, with our new fence on the left and Minnie T's old fence on the right. He knew he could not legally touch either, so after a few minutes, both men got in their vehicles, turned around and drove away. As long as Dougherty and Blehm were alive, the incident was never mentioned between them.

Postscript: that 12-foot easement had not changed when I last worked at PSR as a student in 1965. But when I returned in 1976 as conference youth director and PSR administrator, I found that the Lee family had granted an easement on their property, making possible a road wide enough to permit development of the upper end of the valley (and requiring the removal of the old Lee barn). But the most useable property up there had been purchased by the Los Angeles Zen Buddhists, who had not done any development. The wider easement was one of the reasons the Southeastern California Conference purchased 160 acres at the upper end of the valley; so we would have undisputed use of the road across our property and to the upper end of the valley, and to prevent someone else from developing something much bigger up there. Plus other reasons I will mention later.

The Buildings

When camp started in July, 1962, Pine Springs Ranch looked pretty much the way it looks today, with 20 camper cabins, dining hall, swimming pool, bathhouse, staff cabins, restrooms and showers. The lodge would be built in 1964 and the multipurpose building, Town Hall and store would be added during the ten years I was not there;1966 to 1976. I don't remember the name of the planning group that created the overall design, but they were non-Adventists with prominent beards. Blehm told staff members privately that the plans they drew were exactly what he told them to draw, but that the conference committee wouldn't take the plans seriously if he, Blehm, presented them as his plans. But they will, he said, respect the plans presented to them by men who smoke cigars and have beards.

Finishing the buildings before the campers arrived on June 24, 1962 was not easy. The task required three groups of people: professional contractors, dozens of volunteers from churches throughout the conference and summer camp staff members who arrived a few days after college ended.

• October 2, 1961 Recorder: "The conference committee journeyed to Pine Spring Ranch Friday September 16, to study plans for development there. With a good supply of water now available, construction can start as soon as plans are approved and funds are available."

• March 26, 1962 Recorder: "Both lakes are full and running over at Pine Springs Ranch, reports Elder Leroy Taylor." [The upper lake was soon filled with dirt and the nature center was built there.]

• June 4, 1962 Recorder:

Pine Springs Ranch Nears Completion

"Hundreds of young people throughout the Southeastern California Conference are looking forward to the completion of Pine Springs Ranch and the beginning of formal camping this summer. The first official camp will begin on Sunday, June 24, and hundreds of applications are already coming into the conference MV Department.

"Scores of workmen throughout the conference have been going to Pine Springs Ranch to aid in the completion of the facilities which have become part of the camping center for all the members of the conference. The new ranch will accommodate 200 campers and scores of staff members. The dining room will accommodate up to 400.

"On June 23 the various churches in the conference will receive the morning offering slated for aiding in the development of this camping situation for the young people and families of the members throughout the territory. In addition to the dining room, 20 camper cabins, five staff cabins, the swimming pool and bathhouse will be completed, and other needed facilities are still in the planning for future development.

"Various members of the conference have also contributed to the ranching program by donating to the camp livestock. There is still need for gentle horses...."

• February 11, 1963 Recorder: "A caretaker's house and bath facilities are among the latest improvements at Pine Springs Ranch." (The bathhouse by the pool had been built in 1962 so the bath facilities mentioned here must be the two restrooms-with-showers in North and South Villages. I have a vague recollection that in 1962 campers used portable toilets and took showers in the pool bathhouse. Anyone remember for sure?)

• July 15, 1963 Recorder reported that two new bathhouses and a caretaker's home were complete and that "Plans are underway for a new lodge by fall." (The lodge didn't happen that soon. The projected completion date was changed to August 1, 1964 and the first meeting was held in the lodge in mid-August 1964 -- apparently without glass in the main meeting room windows.)

• May 11, 1964 Recorder: "Construction on the new year-round lodge for church and family organizations has begun at Pine Springs Ranch. The schedule calls for the lodge to be ready for use in August." "The lodge will house some 200 people in warm, comfortable quarters, featuring a large lounge seating some 350, a large sunken fireplace, two offices, toilets and showers for each of the two floors."

• June 13, 1966 Recorder: "A short, enthusiastic campaign is in progress to build a new recreation facility at Pine Springs Ranch. The recreation complex will provide for tennis, volleyball, basketball, handball, roller skating, shuffleboard, and for ice skating in the winter. It will be 100 by 115 feet and lighted for night use." Estimated cost: $5,000. [This was a concrete slab with surrounding chain-link fence near the camp entrance. After about ten years, winter freezing had damaged the concrete surface beyond repair, and the slab was removed.]

• Nov. 6, 1967, Recorder: "Pine Springs Ranch to Have Commercial Power Soon. Commercial power will go into use at Pine Springs Ranch during the latter part of November as a result of newly-erected power lines into the area from Mountain Center during the past few weeks. On October 11, 12 and 13 a helicopter was used to erect some 115 poles and string power lines from Highway 74 to ranches in the area. The availability of commercial power will make possible a more reliable and stable power supply which has not been available until this time. Since Pine Springs Ranch went into use in 1961 the facility has used power provided by a diesel motor. The availability of commercial power will make possible more extensive lighting in camp facilities including camper cabins and strategic points between the buildings. The ranch will continue to maintain a standby generator which can be used when commercial power fails." Click Photo to Enlarge.

• December 21, 1970, Recorder: "Pine Springs Ranch offers a full range of accommodations, beginning with cabins at only 75 cents a night and ranging up to first-class motel-type rooms in the newly completed Town Hall."

The Lodge

When Walt Blehm was designing the camp in 1961, he made it clear that he was going to design the camp in such a way that it could never be turned into a major church retreat center. It would always be for kids. But for many years the youth department had been required to rent other camps for Bible conferences, Pathfinder leadership institutes, youth leadership institutes, ministerial retreats, etc. It must have been frustrating from 1961 to 1963 to own Pine Springs Ranch, but still have to rent other camps for youth leadership training. In 1963, about 1-1/2 years before Blehm left youth ministry to become assistant to the president of the Southeastern California Conference, he announced plans to build a lodge. By the summer of 1964 a beautiful building had been erected in the center of the camp, exactly where the current lodge sits. The rooms featured built-in bunk beds with summer camp-style foam mattresses. Most people who slept in the old lodge slept in their own sleeping bags.

The old lodge included a feature that to most people was the heart and soul of the camp: the meeting room or chapel. To many old-timers, walking through the new lodge is like touring Yosemite in a bus with no windows. Sitting in the original chapel, looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows was like sitting in heaven, listening to angels sing, regardless of what was happening in the room. I do not know of any building in existence today that matches the beauty and tranquility of the old lodge chapel, though I am sure there are some. At the back of the seating area, under the balcony, was a circular fireplace with seating for perhaps 40 people. But with more people standing around the outside of the circle and other sitting on the floor inside, and entire summer staff could gather for intimate times of spiritual refreshment.

But that is not to say the old lodge chapel was perfect. In 1983 a major renovation was undertaken to help with some of those shortcomings: the stairs to the balcony were moved outside the meeting room, greatly increasing seating capacity both above and below; a glass partition and glass doors were installed to isolate the sound of people chatting around the fire circle from those seated in the main chapel; a new, wider platform was built; new curtains installed and a state-of-the-art sound system was put in place.

• Oct. 3, 1983 Pacific Union Recorder, with photo of stripped interior of lodge: "A major renovation is taking place on the auditorium in the lodge at Pine Spring Ranch. It will provide seating for several hundred more people, provide outside staircases, enclose the fire pit, plus provide new windows, carpets and drapes." (Several hundred more people sounds like a stretch, and the description omits any mention of the new platform and sound system. The new windows were double-glass thermo-pane, to reduce heating costs. The project was probably completed before the end of the year.)

But just a few months later, on April 19 or April 26, 1984 (see below), the lodge was totally destroyed by fire. No cause was ever officially determined. Investigators surmised that maybe a gas wall furnace was left on and folding metal chairs were stacked too close to it, reflecting heat back to the wooden wall paneling. But there was no physical evidence supporting that theory and the ranger stated emphatically that he never went to bed after a group used the camp without making sure every heater was turned off.

I believed from the moment I heard about the fire that it was the result of arson. That theory was corroborated years later by someone who lived with the suspected perpetrator, but the statute of limitations has long passed and the cause of the fire will no doubt always be officially undetermined.

• The Pacific Union Recorder reported: "About 2 a.m. on April 19, [1984], it was discovered that the lodge at Pine Springs Ranch was on fire. The building was totally destroyed. Rain falling at the time prevented a forest fire, and the rest of the camp was protected."

• But the next issue of the Recorder included a photo of the remains with a caption that began: "Fire of undetermined origin destroyed the lodge at Pine Springs Ranch the morning of April 26." So, it must have been one of those two Friday nights/Sabbath mornings.

According to information posted on the PSR website, the current lodge was completed in November, 1987. The new hotel-style rooms are incomparably more comfortable. Each room has its own full bath with tub, shower, sink and toilet. The beds are hotel-style with sheets and blanket. There is a useable meeting room in the basement that seats over 300 people. I have been told that no effort was made to recreate the beautiful chapel of the original lodge because the master plan developed at that time called for a large auditorium to be built above the dining room and toward the nature building -- where the go-cart track is today.

Dining Hall Changes

The roof and the floor of the dining room have not changed since 1962, but there have been many changes between the two. I believe all the changes were made between 1976 and 1984, when I was camp manager, and mostly when Dennis Nutter was camp director. Until 1976, when you approached the dining room from the lodge, you could wait outside the dining room but under a covered porch. You stepped onto the concrete floor and turned right to enter through the doors. The area where the serving tables are located in 2012 was then the staff dining area. It had tables just like the rest of the tables in the dining room. Meals were almost always family style — meaning that each table was given a bowl of, say, entree, a bowl of vegetables, a bowl of mashed potatoes, pitchers of juice, milk, etc. During summer camp, each table seated kids and counselor from one cabin. After prayers and announcements, each cabin sent two people to the serving decks, which were windows in the side of the kitchen, to pick up the food.

In the late 1970s we enclosed the porch to make room for the large serving tables, which every individual could walk past to get their own food. The windows in the wall between the kitchen and dining room were closed permanently to make more room for — well, kitchen stuff.

Originally, once you were inside the dining hall you could walk though the current door into the kitchen area. The dishwashing room on the right hasn't changed, and the actual kitchen on the left hasn't changed (except for lots of newer equipment that wasn't needed when all the heavy cooking and baking was done in Riverside). If you continued, you came to the only storage room on the left, which also has not changed. Just past the storage room on the left, you walked onto the open back porch or loading dock. Scores of times I drove the La Sierra College truck up to that loading dock and unloaded. On the left side of the loading dock (when coming from the kitchen) was the door into the cook's apartment. In the late 70s or early 80s, we covered all the doors and windows to the apartment, insulated the walls and refrigerated the whole apartment. If you walk into the current cooler, you can still see the marks on the floor that show how small the old cooler and freezer were. And the loading dock was enclosed for more storage. Also, originally, when you walked out of the kitchen onto the loading dock, you could turn to the right to the small screened-in trash area. This too, was enclosed for more storage. A new larger loading and trash dock was added outside the old trash area.

The Upper Property

In the early 1980s PSR learned that one Dougherty brother, then living in Hemet, still owned and wanted to sell 160 acres (a quarter section) at the top of Apple Canyon. Almost all the land is a steep hillside, with perhaps an acre or two of level land, plus some other hillside acreage that could be built on. At a conference executive committee meeting I presented the reasons below for purchasing the land. The conference bought the property, hoping that one or more of several good things would happen. Click topography map on right to enlarge.

1. Owning it would prevent others from developing the property in ways not beneficial to PSR and adding to traffic across the PSR easement.

2. Owning property at the upper end of the valley meant PSR had the legal right to use the road to the head of the valley, which mostly crossed Forest Service and Lee property. There was a very practical reason that this was important. Most weekends PSR was rented to groups, and most groups provided free time, especially on Sabbath afternoon. Before PSR owned the upper property, camp leaders spent considerable time and effort telling groups to NOT walk on that road toward the upper end of the valley because neighbors complained about our people being on that road, to which we had no legal right. When we bought the upper property we bought the right to use that road. Since then, thousands of PSR users have enjoyed walks up that road and into the forest service land on either side.

3. The upper property had a spring (Cedar Spring) that produced far more water than the wells at PSR. Laws prevented transporting water from the upper property to the lower property without a permit from the state, which was unlikely, but it still seemed there might be a way to obtain the water.

4. PSR might actually want the property later for development of a small retreat center.

5. That quarter section was marked in red on the California state conservation maps, indicating that acquisition of the property was a top priority. It was on the edge of the state (or federal) wilderness area and there were endangered Cedar trees growing on it. But neither the federal nor the state parks had current funding to buy the land. So PSR could preserve the land for later sale to the state, instead of watching the state lose the land permanently to a developer that PSR did not want.

6. More important, the state had other land that Forest Service personnel said they would be willing to trade for that piece of land. Of greatest interest to PSR was the triangle of land between the original PSR 316 acres and the new property. That land was heavily wooded and included a very good spring. Or the state might trade the new property for land they owned on the lower side of PSR, past the horse corrals. This land was not heavily wooded but would provide property for later development.

By 2011 none of those possibilities had materialized except numbers one and two, but there was talk of trading the land for other privately owned land adjacent to PSR's main facilities. Either the state lost interest or saw no possibility for funding. But, at the very least, ownership of the property has prevented others from developing that part of the valley and has provided access to the road. PSR soon dug a new well that produced plenty of water, removing a need for the upper spring water.

Sewage

Believe it or not, sewage disposal is one of the more interesting stories of Pine Springs Ranch. Waste from the original camp restrooms and kitchen flowed into septic tanks and the water ran from the tanks to leach lines under the field between the Town Hall and the caretakers house. Unfortunately, the decomposed granite that PSR is built on does not "percolate" (absorb) water very well and the old leach lines were incapable of handling the water produced by the increasing number of groups using the lodge and dining room.

Sometime before I arrived back at PSR in 1976, the camp had installed what were called "transpiration beds" south of the caretaker's homes. The difference between this experimental system and the old system was that the old Septic tanks were replaced by three larger underground tanks with circulation pumps, and the leach field was covered with broad-leafed plants that were supposed to draw the waste water from the ground and evaporate it into the air. That process of drawing up the water and evaporating it was called transpiration. Monitoring the tanks and the beds became a significant part of the caretaker's daily work.

Before the system could be installed, it had to be permitted by several state and county agencies. It was critical that the system work because all waste water not properly processed would end up in Lake Hemet, about three miles downhill from PSR. A review of the permit process revealed that they were never enthusiastic about the transpiration beds and permitted them reluctantly and tentatively.

Unfortunately, it never worked very well. One problem was that the broadleaf plants all died during the winter, but the lodge and kitchen were busy all year.

When summer camp started, the leaves were just beginning to spread, and the transpiration beds never caught up with the summer surge -- if they ever worked. Springs of sewage water appeared in several places near the beds, and little streams of sewage snaked down the ravines toward Lake Hemet. Somehow, the frequent inspectors never saw the springs, even when seeming to look right at them.

Sometime around the year 2000, the Southeastern California Conference installed a multi-million dollar sewage treatment plant that includes a pond that eliminated part of the horse stables, a fenced pumping and treatment facility that does whatever happens inside those windowless buildings, and sprinklers that spray ecologically safe water over about five fenced acres of the lower part of Pine Spring Ranch. This has eliminated the risk of contamination of PSR's own wells and contamination of Lake Hemet, and has produced lots of non-drinkable water suitable for irrigation purposes.

The Mine and Mining Equipment

The mine was dug at PSR in the late 1970s or early 1980s. When I arrived back at PSR in 1976, Robin Christian, from Loma Linda, introduced himself to me and told me his hobby was finding old abandoned mines in the desert, going down into them and dragging out old ore cars and other mining equipment. He often made it a Pathfinder outing for older Pathfinders. He wanted to know if we would like him to donate some of the track and cars for display at the camp. I said, yes. Eventually, the youth department was paying his gasoline costs and he harvested a complete mine tower and all the equipment to make it work. He reconstructed the tower just across the streambed behind the store, then built a faux mine under the store. Later, perhaps in the early 1980s, Robin harvested mine drilling equipment and suggested we dig an actual tunnel through a hill on the southern part of PSR property. Again we approved and the mine was drilled. It became a popular stop on the weekly Walk Through the Bible. In 2011, the mine is still there, though one of the cars was stolen earlier in the year. The tower behind the store, where Brian Neal, Dennis Nutter and I once met for two days of planning, has collapsed and rotted away, not necessarily in that order.

Steve Zurek Enters West End of Mine, 2011

The honor of finding the first rattlesnake at PSR goes to Ed Blair. The other all-summer staff were sleeping in the newly-erected camper tents in 1961, when we heard a weak and shaky "Hey fellas, I think there is a snake out here." "Out here" meant behind the bush Ed had chosen during the night instead of walking a few feet farther to the wooden outhouse. We found 12 rattlers that summer. Most, if not all, were kept in cages for a while, then killed and skinned. The skins were either mounted on boards for display on a wall or made into hatbands, like the one shown at the bottom of this page. After 1961, a biologist from Loma Linda University came to the camp regularly to pick up a gunny sack full of the snakes for research. No one was ever bit by a snake when I was at the camp, but I have been told that one of ranger Richard Gore's boys was bitten by one.

This part of PSR history needs to be filled in by people who worked the the horses, especially during the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were horses at the camp from 1961 to 1965, but I don't remember anything about them. I know that when Bill Dopp arrived as youth director and camp director in 1965, he put new emphasis on the horses. The horse corral was improved, including lights and an elevated reviewing stand with public address system for rodeos. And Bill did love rodeos. One evening each week the whole camp gathered at the corral for a parade, barrel races, roping contests, clowns, and all the other events that horse people do (while pioneers are hiking in the mountains). Dopp's first year, staff members even wrestled steers -- until their horns began to seem like they were going to fall off. Dopp also bought a team of huge draft horses to pull the luggage wagons on registration day. Roy Yonkers, camp ranger that year, was pretty good with them, but they still turned out to be too unpredictable to be around a lot of kids.

During the late 1960s and/or early 1970s, I have been told,  the PSR rodeo team became well known at rodeos in nearby towns, where they won an impressive collection of trophies. During that time, largely under the leadership of Bill Smith, associate youth director, PSR got into the horse breeding business, keeping quite a few horses year-round.

In 1976, when I arrived as youth director and hired Dennis Nutter to run summer camps, the old wooden corral was in poor condition and most of the PSR horses were gone, though some, I believe, were stabled for the winter at La Sierra University. Nutter and I laid drinking straws on the floor of his office in Riverside to design the current corral and arena, with each straw representing an eight foot section of the fence and half a straw representing a four foot section. I believe we added the metal benches a couple years later.

Each summer we rented about 100 horses from Rex English, an Adventist outfitter from Idaho. He had rented horses to Big Lake Youth Camp in Oregon for several years, and was soon renting horses to other camps in California. Because the horses were used in the fall for pack trips in the mountains of the Northwest, they were all large, healthy and reliable horses -- except for the one that died and had to be buried and paid for.

Fires and Rescue of Horses by Horse Associations

Several times PSR has been threatened by fast-moving forest fires. Typically, the fires start during Santa Ana conditions (winds blowing hard from the east) on the steep mountainsides to the southwest of Palm Springs. One such fire occurred during Dennis Nutter's time as director. As I recall, it was after the campers had left but before the rented horses had been picked up by Rex English. We had no idea how to remove all the horses from camp, but were thrilled to see a steady stream of horse trailers arrive from all over southern California to pick them up. We learned that there is an association of people who rescue horses threatened by fires or other disasters.

After that fire, the head Forest Service ranger told us that he had watched the fire from a helicopter over Apple Canyon. He said the fire moved ahead at a steady pace, the winds never stopped, and there was no way to save any of the buildings at the camp. Yet, for some reason that he said was a complete mystery to him, the fire just stopped advancing at the PSR property line. No fire has ever damaged the camp.

This is another part of the history that will require contributions from many people. Every summer kids who go to Pine Springs Ranch must sign up for a particular activity that they will major in: horsemanship, pioneering, nature, swimming, etc. Through the years, activities that were becoming popular among kids were added, and activities that were becoming less popular were dropped. With the help of staff members through the years, we can probably figure out what those classes have been.

• Pioneering, which meant backpacking and outdoor skills, was very popular from the 1920s through the 1990s. Classes included knot-tying, fire-building, camp cooking, lashing, orienteering, etc. As mentioned above, in the early years all the cooking was done by the staff, using huge army surplus pots and pans. The menu featured Dry-Lite dehydrated foods of all kinds. This was mostly before freeze drying so the vegetables were rock hard. Most had to be soaked overnight before being cooked for hours. Sometime between 1965 and 1976 the program changed to modern backpacking skills. The Forest Service no longer allowed camping in large groups, the campers cooked in pairs, over tiny backpacking stoves, and the burrows were not needed. By 2011, the Pioneering program had been dropped, as kids looked for more immediate fun, and fewer long hikes.  
• Photography. In 1977 we introduced color slide photography at PSR. A new process made it possible to develop color slides quickly and easily. The camp purchased 12 Pentax K1000 35mm cameras in Loma Linda at a considerable discount and sold them at the end of the camping season for what we paid for them. At that time Kodak provided a nice photography course on slides at no charge to camps and schools. Switching from black and white prints to color slides got the kids out of the darkroom and into the camp activities. The first Saturday night we thought it would be nice if those kids could show the pictures they had taken. Dennis and I thought this would be a nice feature, a way to fill time as well as a skit or music. The response was a complete shock to everyone: the kids yelled and clapped and, toward the end, cried, as they reviewed what they had done during the week. Even after the photography program was discontinued, a Saturday night photo or video review has become an important part of the PSR experience.  
• Computers. In the late 1970s, computers were mostly things adults read about in magazines. But PSR bought several and offered computer classes in the multi-purpose room. As I recall, the kids learned very basic programming, very close to the ones and zeros level, to produce stuff on the screen that looked like PacMan.  
• BMX Bikes
   
• Go Carts
   
• Archery
• Gymnastics, Tumbling and the Trampoline

To be written by Darryl Priester or other developer of the ropes course.

One day, before camp started in 1962, Blehm was excited to show everyone a large Indian water jar, or olla, that a contracted construction worker (I think) had found in a hollow under a huge boulder on or near Pine Springs Ranch. The unbroken jar was displayed in a case near the fireplace in the dining room for at least two years. My faulty memory suggests that it was there in 1963 but was not there when I returned in 1965. I don't know what happened to it, but in the period 1976 to 1984 I visited the historical museum in Idyllwild and saw one exactly like it. I don't know if it is the same olla or one exactly like the PSR olla. In later years, Ruth Berglund, health educator for the Southeastern California Conference, took a huge interest in Indian artifacts found around the camp. Many of the artifacts that she dug up are displayed in the lodge. If someone would like to contribute photos and information about the Indian artifacts at PSR, I will be happy to add that on a separate page here.

For quite a few years in the 1960s and 1970s, Ivan Graham was ranger or caretaker at PSR. Ivan learned to make arrowheads the same way Indians made them -- with glasslike rock (such as obsidian), a deer antler and a piece of soft leather. From the amount of time I saw Ivan with those tools his hands, and the number of arrowheads he presented to guests who were willing to wait a few minutes, I would guess he made several hundred during his years at the camp. I don't believe any of the "points" found by Ruth Berglund were made by Ivan, but I do know that not every "point" that people took home from PSR through the years was made by an American Indian.

The "Indian caves" that are rumored to exist on the property are another matter. As a staff member or director of the pioneering program, I have spent quite a few whole days with other pioneering staff, combing all the ravines of Pine Springs Ranch and nearby property, looking for springs. There are several ravines that feature large boulders with sheltered areas underneath. Some would call them caves, but, of course, they are not the kind of caves you can walk into until it is totally dark.. Evidently, it was under one of these large boulders that the olla was found, but I don't know where.

If you go to wikipedia.com and search for "Caves" you will find that the word "cave" may refer either to a sheltered space under the edge of a large rock or rocks, or to a tube or crack in the earth, some part of which is totally dark. The geologic materials necessary for the latter type of cave (limestone, lava, etc.) do not exist in the San Jacinto Mountain area.

Probably no one has explored the remote parts of Pine Springs Ranch and neighboring properties more than Randy Blehm (son of Walt and Shirley) during his pre-teen and teen years. He told me in 2011 that he had found several Indian caves at or near PSR and had collected Indian artifacts from them, most of which he still has. I asked him, "are these caves that you found, deep enough that there are totally dark parts? Or are these large, sheltered spaces under boulders in stream beds? He replied that all the "caves" on PSR property are shelters under boulders, but that there was one not on PSR property that was deep enough that it had Indian drawings on the walls. He told me he could hike right to it if he were there, but with his severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as a result of his service in Viet Nam, it is unlikely he will make that hike.

William E. Dopp, camp director 1965-1969

This history of Pine Springs Ranch is being written in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the camp. For that reason, is is mostly about Walter D. Blehm, the youth leader who dreamed of this kind of facility, bought the property, designed the overall layout, and supervised the construction of most of the buildings now in use. But Pine Springs Ranch is about more than buildings and property. Blehm believed individual counselors were the heart of the camping experience and he devoted himself to making sure those counselors were thoroughly trained to be affective spiritual counselors.

After building and directing the camp for four summers, Walt Blehm accepted an invitation to leave youth ministry to become assistant to the president of the Southeastern California Conference. Under Blehm's watchful eye, Bill Dopp assumed the director's role in 1965.

During its first ten years, PSR probably produced more future conference and union youth directors than any other church entity in any other decade -- in addition to many pastors, youth pastors, health system leaders, lay Pathfinder leaders, youth and children's ministry leaders, and other lay church leaders.

Blehm directed the camp program four of those years, Dopp directed five years, and it was the combination of the passion and commitment of those two men that produced the explosion of youth ministry leaders.

Bill Dopp leads Pine Springs Ranch Band 1967 Click Photo to Enlarge

Beside Blehm and Dopp, themselves, future conference and union youth directors or associates who worked at or attended Pine Springs Ranch during its first ten years include: Leroy Taylor, Winston DeHaven, Ron Wisbey, Gerry Chudleigh, Dennis Nutter, Steve Blue, Des Cummings Jr., Dan Savino, Bj. Christensen, Bucky Weeks, Keith Alexander, Paul Schmidt, Maurice Woods, Don Livesay, Bill Smith, Dick Duerksen, and probably some I have missed.

And the list of youth pastors, senior pastors, conference and union departmental leaders and presidents, teachers and school principles that attended or worked at Pine Springs Ranch during that ten years is just as impressive. Of course many camp staff members also became doctors, nurses, lawyers, business leaders, etc., but that doesn't illustrate the desire of young people to imitate the camp director, in the same way that becoming a camp director does.

At least 75 percent of those future youth leaders would name Bill Dopp as their primary role model, not Blehm. All but one, Leroy Taylor, would trace their inspiration to either Dopp alone or a combination of Blehm and Dopp.

The point I am trying to make here is not that Dopp was somehow a "greater" youth leader or camp director than Blehm; he wasn't. But Dopp took the Pine Springs Ranch that Blehm built in a new direction, one that caused a near-rebellion among "Blehm's" staff in 1965, but sparked a new style of youth leadership across North America. It was the combination of the visions of Blehm and Dopp that inspired so many to devote their lives either to youth ministry or to excellence in church leadership of many kinds. I am forever indebted to both men.

If the old Idyllwild camp was a combination of revival tent and military camp, and Blehm's Pine Springs Ranch was a combination of revival tent and cattle ranch, Dopp's Pine Springs Ranch was a combination of revival tent and theme park -- Disneyland or Dolly World. All were in tune with the youth of their times and all three led to thousands of commitments to Christ. As the decades pass, Pine Springs Ranch remains large enough, and versatile enough accommodate changing styles of youth ministry.

Click here for a more complete description of Dopp's program and leadership style (with photos), and how his ministry built on and differed from Blehm's.

• Lost Campers by Gerry Chudleigh
• The Rattler Kept Snapping at My Leg by Gerry Chudleigh
• My Most Embarrassing Day by Gerry Chudleigh
• Hike from Tahquitz Peak to PSR Before the Trail was Built by Gerry Chudleigh
• Miracle Water, by Paula Cummings. Reprinted from Guide magazine, Aug. 11, 1971.
• Bats in the Belfry by Ron Blehm
• (Your Story Here)

Have a Pine Springs Ranch Story? Click Here for Email Address

Links:

• 1961 Pine Springs Ranch movie (Silent)
• Clips from 1961 movie, with captions
• Photos on Flickr of J.M.V. Pathfinder Camp, Idyllwild, Calif. shot in 2011
• Photos of Pine Springs Ranch shot in 2011
• Official Pine Springs Ranch Web site.
• Pine Springs Ranch Alumni on Facebook
• Staff Lists - alphabetical
• Staff Lists - by Year
• List of Summer Camp Directors
• Early Pathfinder History

About the Author, Gerry Chudleigh

I worked as a counselor at the old J.M.V. Pathfinder Camp in Idyllwild the summers of 1959 and 1960, then at Pine Springs Ranch the summers of 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1965 (taking a year off in 1964 to get married and sell religious books door-to-door).

I also experienced PSR frequently during the winters, from the fall of 1961 to spring 1964 because I was assistant catering cook and truck driver for the La Sierra College kitchen. During those years, PSR did not employ cooks. Each summer the camp negotiated a per meal price with La Sierra, then La Sierra bought the food, precooked some of it at the La Sierra College kitchen, and hired and managed the kitchen staff who prepared and served the food in the new PSR kitchen. I didn't work for the college during summer camps because I was on the PSR staff. But the day after camps ended each summer, I went onto La Sierra payroll, and started cooking for such groups as Spanish family camp, ministerial retreat, colporteurs retreat, teachers retreat, etc. The winter groups (nurses, doctors, dentists, Pathfinder leaders, Academy Bible conferences, etc.) contracted directly with the college for food service during their events. Once college started, I drove the truck, a 16-foot, 1953 Chevrolet bobtail, two to three weekends each month to various camps in the mountains of Southern California, including Pine Springs Ranch, Cedar Falls, Buckhorn, Idyllwild Pines, Tahquitz Pines, Pinecrest, and several more, whose names I don't remember. I mostly worked with head catering cook, Barton Wenger.

I had no contact with PSR from 1966 to 1975. During those years, I attended seminary in Michigan, then worked as counselor, assistant director or director at Sunset Lake Youth Camp (Washington Conference), Big Lake Youth Camp (Oregon Conference) and Lone Star Camp (Texas Conference).

I was SECC Youth Director and administrator of Pine Springs Ranch from the fall of 1976 to the spring of 1984. During those eight years the summer camp program was directed first by Dennis Nutter (who had earlier been a camper in my cabin), then by Steve Blue. Every summer that Dennis or Steve directed camp, I served as Trail Pastor with the pioneers for one to three weeks. No doubt this history is distorted by what I did and didn't do during my years at PSR.

Gerry Chudleigh, pioneering director, leading group up Devil's Slide Trail in 1965. Hatband was made from rattlesnake caught at PSR in 1961 and skinned in the old barn.

Questions, Suggestions and Comments are Welcome. Click Here for Email Address.