Summer Four Bunk Unit

It is always fascinating to explore the “could have been” here. This week is one of those examples. Seen here is a “Summer Four Bunk Unit” developed by Burkhalter-Hickerson & Associates for the Boxwell Reservation Development Fund. In other words, these were designs from the 1959 Capital Campaign to build Boxwell Reservation.

Given the other campaign materials, this “Four Bunk Cabin” was intended for Scoutmasters at Camp Murrey. The plan–at one point at least–was to build 15 of these cabins at $1,500 a piece. For whatever reason, these cabins were never built. It would be the 1972 Capital Campaign before cabins were built at Murrey. Then, the goal was 12 cabins, but only six were built.

Seen here is a composite image. The blueprint in the background is the Burkhalter-Hickerson designs for the building. The color image is from the 1959 “High Adventure from Middle Tennessee Boys” Development Fund booklet. It is an artist’s rendering of the building in question.

1959 Designs for a four bunk Scoutmaster’s hut at Camp Murrey. Collections of Kerry Parker and Archie Crain.

Incompletes

We hate to admit it, but bureaucracy is everywhere… even at summer camp. In the days before everything was online, merit badges had physical paperwork. If you completed the merit badge, you got a blue card. If you didn’t, you received an incomplete form.

An incomplete form was a form that had all the requirements for a merit badge listed on it. A counselor/staff member would sign and date the requirements that were completed that week at summer camp. The paperwork was then passed along to the Scoutmaster. Every Friday night after campfire, Scoutmasters went through a packet of information to make sure incompletes or blue cards were present and that everything was in order.

Seen here is an incomplete for Swimming Merit Badge that was used in the 1960s. If our timeline is correct, incompletes were common in the 1960s and then fell out of use for a period in the 1970s before returning for regular use in the 1980s and 1990s.

Swimming Merit Badge Incomplete form, ca. 1965. Collection of Greg Tucker.

Craig Showerhouses

Camp Craig has had an interesting life. It began life in 1973 with the only flush toilets on the camp in the dining hall. There were no showerhouses or pit toilets at first, a fact we’ve covered before. While a “main showerhouse” was built behind the dining hall (with flush toilets) relatively quickly, it was still years before the loops got showerhouses of their own.

The first showerhouses on the upper and lower loops were finally built in 1986. The staff dug the trenches for the water lines, breaking a number of tools in the process. Once the concrete pads were poured, the staff did exactly what you would expect–they signed them. Of course, most of the signing is “coded” in acronyms with jokes only staff members would understand, but a few used nicknames.

Seen here is the signature of one “Festus” located on the corner of the showerhouse on the upper loop at Craig. This showerhouse–and this signature–stood until the showerhouse was torn down in 2001/2002. Do we know who “Festus” was? Yes. Are we telling? Not today… If you know, you know.

The signature of “Festus” adorned the concrete slab of Showerhouse 3 on the upper loop for almost 20 years. Photo by Grady Eades.