| CRAFTS BUILDING |
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New crafts building (after the 1947 fire that took the old one). |
| WHITAKER BUILDINGS |
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Dining room, headquarters and part of the crafts building from a boy's cabin, circa 1950. |
| MT. SILLIMAN HIKE |
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Eating snow on a 3-day pack trip to Mt. Silliman, above Lodgepole. "Carrot Top" (Dave Roberts) on the right. About 1950. |
| MOUNTAIN CLIMBING |
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Inching along the slope below Mt. Silliman peak. "I had a terrible time because I had pounded hobnails into my shoes. Was sliding all over the place. Had to get them out, and fast." About 1950. |
| VIEW OF KING'S CANYON |
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Ellen and "Carrot Top" Looking into King's Canyon from a Mt. Silliman ridge on the 3-day packtrip. About 1950. |
| TAKING AIM! |
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Early 1940s. From a Whitaker postcard. |
| "DEAR MOM & DAD" |
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Early 1940s. Old caretaker's cabin in the distance. This picture was a Camp postcard. |
| MORO ROCK CLIMBERS |
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Top of Moro Rock. In the foreground, older Padavana brother. To his left is Richard Hornichter (became a MD in Beverly Hills) and on the far right is Norman Palmer. About 1951. |
| ONE HAS TO EAT! |
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The new dining area. The poles holding up the roof on the far side were partially burned in the 1947 fire. About 1955. |
| LEARNING TO SHOOT |
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"Me teaching(?) riflery. (I had never owned a gun or shot one except at Camp." About 1952. |
| CABIN INSPECTION |
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Inspection at Cedar cabin about 1946. |
| CEDAR CABIN DAYS |
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Cedar cabin, for the mid- aged boys, about 1946. No electricity at Camp for another year or two. Only flashlights and a few lanterns. "Going to the outhouse alone in the middle of the night was an ordeal for scaredy- cats like me, way back in the forest with bears." |
| AT ALDER |
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Dick Padavana at Alder cabin around 1951. |
| AT THE TOP |
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Top of Moro Rock with Ivan Haas, son of movie actor and producer, Hugo Haas. |
| AT ALDER AGAIN |
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Me at Alder cabin about 1951. |
| "...OFF TO WAR" |
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Roaring along in the back of a truck on the General's Highway around 1948. "To me, this was really exciting.I would pretend we were soldiers going to war. WWII had just ended in 1945." |
| WORTMAN'S MILL |
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A camper surveying the jump at Wortman's Mill. This was a giant Sequoia sawdust pile left over from the 1880s, where you could take a flying leap. About 1948. Hornets took it over a few years later. Then, there was a forest fire and now it is gone. 1 hour hike. |
| BEARS? WHAT BEARS? |
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Carrot Top & Jim Bishop(?) making a cast of a bear's footprint. |
| DARRYL AND FRIEND |
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"Me with a dead rattlesnake on a King's Canyon packtrip." |
| HEAD COUNSELOR |
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Bob Schumaker, head counselor, in the late 1940s. |
| WHITAKER INTERNATIONAL |
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Jacques deBeer (from France) about 1954. |
| "HI, KING!" |
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Hiking up King's Canyon on a pack trip about 1950. |
| "KEEP ON TRUCKIN'!" |
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Trucking down the General's Highway. Illegal now. About 1951. (See previous photo, "...OFF TO WAR"). |
| TAKING THE BIG LEAP |
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Norman Palmer taking the leap at Wortman¦s Mill. Ivan Haas at far left. (See prior picture, WORTMAN'S MILL, for details). About 1949. |
| PING-PONG, ANYONE? |
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Outside the crafts building. Headquarters to the left. About 1948. |
| TRAILBLAZERS |
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Some of the "trailblazers" on top of the highpoint on the mountain across the valley from Camp (above the General's Highway). "We built a trail from the mid-valley all the way to the highway." Circa 1951. |
| A JOB WELL DONE |
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Admiring our trail work (See previous picture, TRAILBLAZERS, for details). |
| WORK'S DONE |
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After building the trail. (See prior picture, TRAILBLAZERS, for details). Camp is that clearing in the valley. It took several all-day excursions to complete the work. |
| ON THE ROAD TO CAMPFIRE |
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Looking back toward the dining area from the road to campfire. There was a deep gully to the left on the other side of the Sequoia log. After the 1947 fire, old wood-burning stoves, etc., were dumped into it. Bet they are still there.
Puppetry and riflery were
Just ask William Kaplan. |
| I LOVE TO GO A-WANDERING |
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Day hike along the General's Highway to Grant's Grove. About 1950. On the way back, one boy kept lagging way behind, just out of view. Turns out he had purchased a bunch of candy bars at the store and later was trying to sell some back at Camp. |
| BATTER UP! |
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Dick Padavana playing my favorite camp game, wacking a tennis ball in a sock with a big wood paddle. About 1950. |
| GOING BACK |
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At headquarters ready to ship home. About 1949. |
| WORKING TOGETHER |
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Jackie Turner and Tim McGee (front). William Kaplan especially remembers McGee. About 1950. |
| SEMIPHORE |
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Semaphore was taught about 1949. |
| WILLIAM KAPLAN |
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William Kaplan, who first taught riflery at Camp, about 1949. |
| MORO ROCK |
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Top of Moro Rock before there were railings on top. About 1948. |
| AT WORTMAN'S AGAIN |
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Wortman's Mill mountain of sawdust. About 1949. |
| ANOTHER VIEW OF MORO ROCK |
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Another view from the top of Moro Rock prior to railings. About 1948. |
| ON THE ROAD AGAIN |
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Trucking down into King's Canyon to a packtrip. About 1949. |
| ON THE GENERAL'S HIGHWAY |
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Trucking along the General's Highway. Frankie Hancock in foreground. About 1948. Years later, he drove the Camp truck for supplies. |
| GENERAL SHERMAN |
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General Sherman tree. Jim Frazier, second from my right. |
| EARLY WHITAKER LAYOUT |
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Photo taken in 1945 or 1946 from in feont of the boy's cabins, looking down on the old dining room, kitchen and craft building (left to right). I think it was in 1947 on the first day of camp, these three structures burned to the ground. The new open dining room had just been built on this side of the buildings and it was damaged. Some trees also burned. It was originally a 4-H camp. They got it in July and we got it in August. A truckload of us from the Fresno train station was just pulling in the uphill gate when we were stopped and told to turn around and head back up the dirt road and go to Grant's Grove. That's where we all had dinner that night. At the camp gate, we could see the buildings burning, including some trees. At that point, seemed the whole forest might burn. That night, since all the sleeping cabins were OK, we returned. I remember standing there for some time staring at all the glowing embers. The next day, we ate a few meals at a girl scout camp about a mile down an old logging road past the caretaker's cabin. Then, trucks brought in an emergency food supply and we were able to continue camp for the whole month. There was a deep gulley between the dining room and the dirt road to campfire. Old cast iron stoves and other metal objects were dumpped into it, and it was filled up. They should still be there, where a little trickling creek ran down from in front of Alder cabin. Now, all of the structures are gone and most of the original clearing has been reforested. There is a caretaker's cabin and other structures for forestry students from UC. |
| CAMPFIRE |
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Postcard of a 1945 campfire. "My first year. Doc used to write to my parents that I was homesick, cause I was such an introvert, but actually, I HATED to go home! I loved it up there and felt much healthier, except for the yearly day or so of dysentery. Drinking H2O delicious! Classic postcard I wrote home in '47:" "Dear Folks, Camp burned down the first day. I am fine. We got to eat at a girl scout camp." |
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