Have You Ever Been Stuck Behind Spilman?

Have you ever gotten your car stuck behind Spilman Lodge? To help improve traction and prevent further problems we have made some improvements to the parking are behind Spilman. We now have an outlined parking lot with additional gravel in place. This will help us accommodate more parking in this area and simply make it look more inviting! Paired with the additional trees added to hide the camp vehicles and dumpsters, this upgraded parking area will be a nice addition.

A special thanks to the Alumni who made a weekend out of this project! We had about 30 current and former campers and staff in for the weekend. We worked hard, but hung out even more. Lots of good meals in Black Mountain, some camping on the Upper Green, and even a good old campfire on the Middle Green. We missed you if you weren’t here. It was a good time.

The Alumni also helped us with a few other projects including: putting the canoes away for the winter, boarding up the side of Spilman to keep the rain out of the Dining Hall, painting the doors on the Activities Building, cleaning the gutters on the canteen, and more… We appreciate all your help! Camp couldn’t do it without you!!

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Trees Planted Behind Spilman Lodge

In an effort to help hide a parking lot and our necessary but unattractive dumpsters, we started planting some new trees behind Spilman Lodge – the Dining Hall. Some of you may never notice the new addition, but there is something else you won’t notice…the ugly dumpsters! Enjoy this insight into a day in the life of a Camp Ridgecrest Intern!

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Spilman Addition Gets Railing

After snow put off the completion of the woodwork on the Spilman Addition, workers were finally able to put up the railing along the outside of the porch. Their work looks fantastic! Most of the woodwork for the railing was done in a workshop, so the entire railing was done over the course of the day today. Now all that is left to do is paint it and  put rocking chairs on it!

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Spilman Deck Ready for a Roof

The addition to Spilman is really starting to take shape now! Next to go up will be the metal roof, with the railing soon to follow. The workers have looked pretty cold while working, but they still manage to get alot done!

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The Porch

The Spilman Porch is underway! You can see the log limbers supporting the floor system for the porch stretching the length of the building. The logs are beautiful, and the deck is a whopping 11 feet wide…the widest deck anywhere in camp! The porch floors will be finished soon, and the logs being used upstairs in the dining hall will be ariving tomorrow. More pictures soon… (If you have yet to subscribe to this post, just click on the bottom right to make it easy to see updates!)

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Spilman Progress

The historic Spilman Lodge is growing! After waiting for the weather to cooperate, the carpenters began their work…or at least the work we could see. You can now see the outline of the new floor system. This part will move somewhat slowly, but once the foundation is secure, they will be done in only a few weeks. I found it interesting that the builders are choosing to not use many power tools. They are swinging hammers, rather than shooting nail guns. Although slower, I find this to be fitting considering they are working on a building built with no plans back in 1942. They are doing everything possible to make the addition blend and seem as if it was a part of the original structure. I’ll post more pictures very soon…

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Spilman Expands

We have broken ground on the new addition to Spilman Lodge! (Click on the picture to the right to see what it will look like.) We are excited about a 24’x18′ expansion going onto the Choctaw Arapaho side of the Dining Hall. This new room will give us more dining space which will be crucial with the addition of a few new cabins. There will also be an 11′ cover front porch that will stretch the length of the building. The porch will be covered with a green metal roof, with traditional log spindals used for the railings. This front porch will be wide enough for additional rocking chairs for campers to hang out and enjoy their free time! With a little help from a local architect, we believe that this addition to Spilman will be a definite improvement that we can all be proud of. This project should be compete within the month, so check back often to see pictures!

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