Retro Friday Begins
Posted by phil
After finding some old and impressive Camp Ridgecrest pictures, we have decided to share them with you! Each Friday we hope to release a few pictures from Ridgecrest Vault (located somewhere in the Lake Lodge.) If you have any old pictures you wish to add, please send them our way. You can even scan them and email them to camp! In the mean time, enjoy these historical pictures of Camp Ridgecrest!
Above you will find 2 images. The first is an aerial view of Camp. Notice the old Fidelias Lodge where the Stables now are. You can also see cabins behind Spilman where the parking lot is now. And, check out where the Canteen is today… What else do you see that is different? Comment below…
The second picture is Ron Springs first contract to serve at Camp Ridgecrest in 1976. You need to read it.
Enjoy, and check back next Friday! (Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog to have posts emailed to you!) Look on the right side of the page…
Posted in Boys, News | Tagged Camp Ridgecrest, Retro Friday, Ridgecrest Summer Camps, Spilman Lodge Fidelias Lodge
That’s a nice find. The old pastor’s dwelling is in the trees on the hill to the right of the front gate. Torn down around ’85? No fir trees yet along the road by Apache Circle and down the road to the front gate. No Lake Lodge and it looks like a cabin sat there before the mountain was scraped back to make room for the LL. No what were once cabin 14 and 15 on Choctaw Hill. No old infirmary. No new infirmary and it looks like it was, in fact, a sand pit of some kind back then. The Big Tree on the middle green was there and already had some size to it. The old crafts lodge was plainly visible before trees were obviously allowed to grow up and obscure it, even by 1980 when I first saw it. Old TBI, torn down in ’93, was there and apparently some kind of island of trees existed beside it in what is/was the staff parking lot. No arapahoe hill back then. No old H dock, no old P dock. No Activities Building and no Lakeside Chapel. I see Rogers Retreat, built in the 50s I think, so the picture dates at least 50 years i would guess. And finally, high on the mountain to the right, Ron’s spacious home. Just kidding. Great diversion. Thanks.
Phil,
Great insight. The “sand pit” where the New Infirmary is, was actually a Horse Riding Ring. Pretty cool… Thanks again for your help!
These pictures are amazing. I cant belive how much camp has changed over the years
Sweet Pics. Cant wait for camp to see the new changes
Camp has changed a whole lot
I cant wait to see more camp pics from the olden days of camp
The photo was looking through the front gate much like it did in 1958 when I went to Ridgecrest for the first time. Fidelis Lodge was called “The Shack” and used for Sunday Church Services, Saturday Night Movies and other activities. On the backside of the sign over the gate was the slogan “GOD GIVE US HILLS TO CLIMB, AND THE STRINGH TO CLIMB THEM”
When I went to Ridgecrest for the first time in 1958, Fidelis Lodge was called “The Shack” and used for Sunday Church Services, Saturday Night Movies and other activities. The craft classes were on the far end of the building in what must have ben the kitchen at one time. On the backside of the sign over the front gate was the slogan “GOD GIVE US HILLS TO CLIMB, AND THE STRINGH TO CLIMB THEM”
Norman,
Thanks for sharing. You’ll be happy to know that the same slogan still hangs on a similar sign above the camp gates. There is also an older camp sign with that slogan on the back that now hangs in the Weightlifting Room. We hope you will have the chance to stop by and see it sometime soon!
Four-square courts are missing!! enough said.
I just want to point out that while it seems beards were not allowed at camp, “Mustaches are fine if they are a part of your regular appearance.”