CAMP TONKAWA
HISTORY
Camp Tonkawa was established in 1929 and is located in Buffalo Gap some sixteen miles south of Abilene, TX and is owned by the Chisholm Trail Council, BSA. Credit for the idea of founding Camp Tonkawa must go to Judge C. M. Caldwell. He and Ed Shumway secured a lease from the City of Abilene to a small five acres plot near the State Park at Buffalo Gap, TX. The land was leased in May, 1929 but soon proved too small, so in 1936 they added another fifty acres of land for a total of fifty-five acres for the camp. By 1949 that was increased to ninety-six acres. They found out, when they wanted a ninety-nine year lease on the land, that the city bad actually leased the land to the State of Texas for a park. The State of Texas could not give a ninety-nine year lease until after 1970, which was the date which the bonded indebtedness against Lake Abilene was completely paid. They did, however, give them a twenty-five year lease on the land
Once they had the land they had to build campsites permanent buildings on the land. Those improvements came very slowly as the Council did not have that kind of money in their budget. The first summer camp held at Camp Tonkawa was in July 1930 with Ed Shumway as the Camp Director. A large building had been built to serve as a mess hall. It was fifty feet wide and one hundred feet long with a dirt floor and open walls. The cooking, as in many camps of that day, was done on a round top wood burning heater. The Scouts furnished their on mess kits. A dirt dam was built across Elm Creek and the area where the dirt was taken out became the swimming pool. The banks of the swimming pool and the bottom of the pool were very muddy. The drinking water was hauled in on a wagon. A man from Buffalo Gap used two tanks for this purpose. He kept one at camp and used the other one to haul the water and fill the tank at camp. The water was from open stock tanks and was untreated.
The boys started the building of a log cabin that was located about 100 yards north of the mess hall. The only time any work was done on the cabin was during summer camp. It was never completed and only needed a roof to be usable. It was removed in 1942 by unknown parties.
The summer camp in 1931 was the same as in 1930 with no improvements made to the camp facilities. Red Cross life saving classes were taught in the dirt pool. By 1932 they had decided to not use the pool at camp. Instead, using buses, they took the Scouts to the swimming pool at the Presbyterian Encampment grounds A water well was dug about twenty steps east of the log cabin and was used for drinking. The water had to be drawn out of the well with a bucket. A commissary was built between the mess hall and the new well. It was a ten foot square building open on three sides. They sold ice cold drinks, candy and handicraft items out of this new facility. It was dismantled in 1930 and a new one was opened in the south-west corner of the mess hall.
By the summer of 1934 the Scouts went to the State Park swimming pool for a charge of ten cents per day per Scout. The C.C.C. boys were stationed in barracks at the State Park. They moved away early in 1935 and arrangements were made for that summer camp to be held in their buildings at the State Park. The following year they moved back to Camp Tonkawa and dug a new water well which provided the camp with their water for the next couple of years. Very few changes in the physical equipment were made at the camp over the next several years. The well went dry and they were forced to dig yet another well which was considered very weak but is still producing water today. In 1938 they put a concrete floor in the mess hall and screened it in. They also added a few dishes to the kitchen. All during this time Ed Shumway was the camp director and his wife served as nurse.
There were no summer camps held at Camp Tonkawa from 1939 through 1942. It was in 1938 Laverne Haugness replaced Ed Shumway as Scout Executive. Haugness was in opposition to the camp program and allowed the camp property to deteriorate and the grounds to become overgrown with shrubs and brush. It was during this time that the log cabin was removed and kitchen equipment stolen. The public had been cutting the cedar trees on the property for Christmas Trees.
The board employed a camp caretaker in early 1943 by the name of W. W. Faulkenberry who got the camp ready to open again that summer. He lived into a room in the corner of the mess hall. Camp Barkeley furnished the camp with serving dishes and the boys furnished their own mess kits. By the summer of 1943 a two room rock house was built for the caretaker at a cost of $700.
A new swimming pool, a new hot water system, dishwashing system, butane gas for cooking, a new handicraft and headquarters lodge, a newly painted mess hall, eight new troop campsites and a new obstacle training course were built by the summer of 1946. By 1949 the camping program was converted from a mass camp to a troop camp. All troop leaders were advised in advance that, if a boy planned to attend camp, he must come in a troop and each troop must have a least one adult leader. It took a couple of years for this new way of camping to catch on but has proven to be the best method of camp operation and is still used at the camp today.
By 1951 a rifle range and Archery range was added to the camp program. A new dining hall was built in 1957-58 and later remodeled in 1996. The old dining hall, later called the Recreation building and Quartermaster building, was built in the early thirties on the edge of Elm Creek. It was still a good building but needed some major repair work done on it. They jacked up the roof, removed the rotten sills and cut the studs off at about 3 feet from the floor, and then built a cement block wall about three feet high, installed new sills and lowered the building back onto the cement block wall. In 1962 the Kiwanis Club of Abilene donated $500 and a new galvanized steel roof was added to the old building. It is still in use today.
The lake was developed in 1957. Fred Swan of the Caterpillar Tractor Company took on the job of using one of his largest dozers and an employee to clear the area of trees in preparation of building the lake. They discovered that there was too much sand below the topsoil and that the lake may not hold water. With the help of several producing oil companies donating drilling mud to line the new lake they were able to seal the bottom so it would hold water. Everything went well until they started bulldozing for the base of the dam. All of a sudden the bulldozer started sinking in quick sand. They had to make a quick call into Abilene to get the largest piece of equipment available to rescue the dozer. Shortly after the dam was completed a good rain came and filled up the lake. Since the lake has been built it has filled up with silt and is now very shallow.
The Camp Ranger’s residence is a former barracks building at the Stamford, Texas Air Field during World War II. It was used as a Scout meeting place in Avoca for several years having bee donated by Mr. and Mrs. R T. Taylor of that city. Later, after the troop had been disbanded, the building was donated to the council and remodeled into a nice residence for the Camp Ranger and his family. The moving of the building and remodel work was done in about 1962.
In about 1994 a new COPE Course was built which had proved to be one of the highlights of the summer camp program. A new training facility and camp office was completed in 1995. The camp continues to serve the needs of the Scouts in the Chisholm Trail Council.
Information for this page was gathered from "History of the Chisholm Trail Council Boy Scouts of America", by Claude "Skipper" Willis, August 1952, and "Chisholm Trail Council Boy Scouts of America, 1954 - 1969", by Henry H. McGinty, June 1, 1997. Last updated: October 8, 1998. Edited and condensed by Aivars Jurkis, March 2002.
What's New?
Penateka Lodge Spring Brotherhood and Fellowship
*************
QUICK LINKS
