Camp Lee was not paradise, but I sure would go back

By Rennie Phillips

We grew up in the Sandhills of Nebraska so we weren't far from the Black Hills of South Dakota. So for a kind of mini-vacation, Mom and Dad would put the camp stove and the picnic box in the car, fill the cooler with food and load it and we'd head for the Black Hills. Most of the time we'd get a cabin or something to sleep in. One time we rented a tent that was set up on a kind of platform. Both were fun.

Dad liked to just go and not do a whole lot of planning. His plan was to find new places and explore. He'd come up on a road and wonder where it went, so we'd drive till we found out. On one of his excursions we came upon a sign that said Brainerd Indian School. One thing that I thought was really cool was there was a pretty decent stream flowing right past their sign. As a boy I was thinking there has to be fish in it.

We went in and almost immediately were welcomed by some of the staff at the school. Turns out Brainerd Indian School was a school for young Indian children. Not sure how many were there, but maybe 50, 75 or even 100. The staff gave us a tour, and by that time it was working on dinner time so they invited us to have dinner. It was fun. I was around a few Indians growing up, but not many. We spent awhile after dinner and then headed down the road.

That experience has stuck in my mind. At the time, I thought it would have been fun to just attend a camp or school like that. Not on a long-term basis, but for a week or two or even a month; get to know the people and check out the land around the camp; get to know their favorite foods.

Fast forward a bunch of years and we ended up moving to Scott City where I pastored a small Wesleyan church. Turns out the churches that made up this district had a summer camp for youth called Camp Lee up by Patterson, Missouri. Camp was held for a couple weeks in the summer every year. One week was for younger kids and the other week for the older kids.

To say it was rustic would be an understatement. The main building was a long, block building. The north end was a big girl's dorm with a bathroom and shower. The south end was the boy's dorm and bathroom and shower. Then in the middle was the kitchen and dining area. The kitchen consisted of a couple old gas stoves, some counter space and a sink. We had a couple old refrigerators. Since there was no AC, there were some big box fans that had to be almost 4 feet across. They were huge, but they worked. I remember many a night laying there in bed soaking wet from sweat.

Not sure what it was about the camp, but it was always enjoyable. Maybe it was getting away. There was always work there to do, so it wasn't getting away from work. Maybe it was a slower, simpler way of living, even for a week or two.

Some of us would go up before the youth camp and work on getting it ready. We'd make sure the electric was working, check on the well and the water, check out the bathrooms, do some cleaning and then mow the grounds. It took several weekends to get the camp ready, so we'd call out the volunteers who would come in from all over. Some drove 100 miles or so to come. Several from our church would take a whole week or two and just move to Camp Lee.

There was a nice lake about 10 miles from Camp Lee called Frontier Lake or Ward Lake. It was just full of bluegill. So on a regular basis we ate bluegill at camp. We always had to have a campfire, even when it was 100 degrees in the shade. A friend of mine, Dallas, had to put a pot of ham and beans on the fire. So no matter what, there was ham and beans for breakfast, dinner or supper.

Dallas never had a nice mower. He worked on mowers, so his were always in a state of repair. One summer he brought up what looked like a piece of junk he called Satan. The mower would dearly try you. One time Dallas was mowing and I heard what sounded like a gun shot. I ran to check on Dallas and found him looking for his spark plug. He had only finger-tightened it, and it had worked loose.

Ticks were awful, and I'm not exaggerating one bit. Awful. You did tick checks all the time, and you found them little buggers every time. There was a chemical there for bugs and stuff so I started to spray the grounds and around the buildings. It helped. Probably the best thing we could have done was haul in a mess of guineas and let them take care of the ticks.

Now that I'm older, I'd like to go back to a place like Camp Lee for a week or two, or even a month. Not sure about the ticks or no AC. We slept on old army cots where your head and legs were high and your rear sagged down. Not sure about the bed either. But even with the heat and ticks, I'd still go back to Camp Lee.