The Wooden Stage

There was a period in the 1980s through the 1990s when the Stahlman Friday Night Campfire stage was built completely of cross-ties. As Andy Whitt described it in a 1983 interview, “In ’83 we had a crappy metal stage and I don’t even know what structure it was, but the metal was starting to curl up. It was really dangerous. It’d get slick too if it had been raining any. It was that way in ’83 and ’84. It was ‘85 that we built that stage.”

Long-time Program Director Ernie Ragsdale masterminded the stage. After getting the ties to the site, which was itself an ordeal as the ties were not typical landscape ties at 12-15 feet long and a foot and a half wide, Ragsdale would direct his vision. Ties were cut to various lengths and three pyramid like structures were built in the back, which became the back supports. The stage itself was one tie deep, but about twenty wide. A small set of stairs was built in the back. No railing. No concrete. No nails.

Here is the Stahlman staff prepping for a campfire in 1996. Garry Shores sits at the table in the middle. The ties are a big ragged, but still hanging in there 11 years later. The stage burned down in the early 2000s.

Stahlman’s Friday Night Campfire stage, made of large wooden crossties, 1996. Photo by Alex Cox.