07/24/2026
It was so nice to find this page and I will add a tale to the memories.
I was a camper there around 1952. But, since the camp was also available for rent on the weekends through the LB Rec dept., it wasn’t my first stay.
Several of my folks’ friends and our family took weekend stays there in the late 40's so I knew the place well. While I was a student at LB Poly I got to take a week off to be a camp counselor which
I did a couple of times.
I recall that the Principal at the time was Andy Alegretti (sp). It was on one of the family weekends that a problem bear wandered into camp. It had a nasty habit of scaring the crap out of kids who had to scamper to the restroom at night. It also made a mess out of the half buried "Wishing well", AKA the garbage dump. (Some of you might recall that "duty" of having to drag out the garbage during the your stay)
After too any encounters Andy had finally gotten a permit from the Forest Service to shoot the bear. It made a fateful trip to the camp and headed straight to the well. Andy grabbed his rifle while many of us wandered down to the weather station that sat a safe distance up the hill. Andy's first shot only wounded the bear which then had to be carefully tracked for the final shot.
Although it was dispatched, it lived on. Andy thought it would be nice to have the head mounted and posted in the lodge. My Dad had a friend who was a taxidermist so...
The head was mounted with the front paws and was the source of may wild tales told by the staff to young campers.
My Dad kept the rear paws and they were used to create bear prints at many Boy Scout campouts. If the kids were slow to settle down in their tents , Pop would go to the watering area, make some prints with those paws, kick over a trash can, and quickly get back into his tent.
The kids would come out to calculate the cause of the noise, spotted the bear print, dive into their tents and the night became peacefully quiet.
Dad had a bit of a problem explaining why there was no need to call the rangers.
Those feet are still lurking around somewhere……
By Steve Shinn
