THE MOUNTAIN CAMP BEFORE DIMOND-O

As early as January 1922 the Oakland Council was looking into a location for a mountain camp when Scout Exec Homer Bemiss announced “The Sierra Mountain Camp will be a reality”.  The mountain camp that Bemiss talked about could provide additional camping and hiking opportunities for the older “veteran” scouts of Camp Dimond that could not be provided by the existing camp which was located in the Oakland hills.  In July of 1923 the first Sierra Mountain camp was held along the banks of the Truckee river in Tahoe on property owned by Max Taft.  The first mountain camp of the Oakland Council was in easy reach of Lake Tahoe, but was a temporary location while the Council discussed the prospect of a permanent site.

 

THE PEACH & FIG GROWERS ASSOCIATION

The California Peach Growers Association was a consortium of San Joaquin Valley fruit growers that was headquartered in the town of Fresno.  From 1917 until 1925 the California Peach Growers Association, also known as the Peach & Fig Growers Association (CP&FG) operated a saw mill and railway about a mile south of the town of Mather, near Yosemite, as a way to assure a dependable supply of wood shook used for the packing of fresh fruit.  

 

Pivotal to the Peach Growers’ plan was the development of the 69 mile Hetch Hetchy Railroad that was built to transport construction materials for the building of the O’Shaughnessy dam at Hetch Hetchy Valley.  The Hetch Hetchy railroad was the only practical way for the Growers Association to move its lumber products from the mountains to the valley.  The main line of the Hetch Hetchy railroad passed within a mile of the eventual Dimond-O camp site.  Prior to the Hetch Hetchy Railroad becoming a common carrier in July of 1918 (meaning that it carried other goods in addition to the Hetch Hetchy project) the CP&FG began negotiations with the United States Forest Service to cut the government timber.  They also sought approval from private land owners to purchase timber lands or stumpage rights.  

 

Maps from 1918 show that the CP&FG logging camp and buildings were located on a terrace overlooking the middle fork of the Tuolumne river and that the actual sawmill, millpond and mill yard were further up the slope on lands that are still part of the Peach Tree Growers Summer Home Tract. The sawmill began operations in 1918 after the CP&FG secured a logging contract which called for the harvest of 26 million board feet of lumber with an option for an additional 54 million board feet.  At its peak the CP&FG mill and railway provided five or six carloads of lumber daily to the Hetch Hetchy railroad.

 

The death of the CP&FG logging operations came in late 1924 when the decision was announced to discontinue the Hetch Hetchy railroad as a common carrier due to the completion of the O’Shaughnessy dam at the Hetch Hetch valley.  Probably having gotten prior word, the CP&FG stopped its logging operations in 1924 and the saw mill burned to the ground in 1925.  Although the CP&FG rail lines were removed in 1925, the Hetch Hetch Railroad remained in place until 1949 when the entire line was dismantled.

 

DIMOND-O (THE JEWEL OF THE SIERRA’S)

In 1925 when the CP&FG abandoned its railroad logging operations, they had a wrecking crew assigned to dismantle the former logging camp.  Joe Agulardy had been assigned to the wrecking operation as the cook for the CP&FG and as luck would have it, Joe had also been the cook at Camp Dimond in Oakland.  Joe contacted the Scouts in October of 1925 to see if there was any interest in converting the logging camp to a Boy Scout camp.  Reportedly, the Council’s representative was very enthusiastic and quickly sold the idea to the Council.   At the council board meeting on October 23, Scout Exec Homer Bemiss presented to the board the opportunity to acquire the fully equipped CP&FG logging camp along with its buildings and its inventory of equipment.  The consensus of opinion was that this was a desirable “thing” for the council to have and recommended that the camp committee immediately investigate the site.  

 

Only ten days later at the council executive meeting on November 3, 1925, a motion was made by board member George Harris and was unanimously approved to spend $3800 to purchase all of the buildings and equipment that comprised the Peach Growers logging camp and mill area from the United Commercial Company of San Francisco.  This included the existing sixty-nine buildings and cabins of the logging camp which also included the mess hall and kitchen.  The Oakland Council secured a loan from the Bank of Oakland for $3800 with the agreement that it was “to be repaid at the Council’s convenience”.  As a home owner, you’ve got to like those “when-ever” arrangements.  A couple months later in January of 1926 the Council sought and received a special use permit from the United States Forest Service for 23 acres to operate a Scout Camp at the former logging camp.  The permit called for the Council to lease the land for $400 per year.  I do not know the length of the original lease but in 1967 the forest service changed the lease amount from $400 per year to a higher amount until the camp closed in 1979.  The forest service lease with the Boy Scouts officially expired in 1983.

 

On April 11, 1926 the council officially named the new Boy Scout Camp, “Dimond-O”.  The camp’s name can be traced back to the councils main weekend and summer camp in the Oakland Hills near Montclair, called Camp Dimond. The new Scout camp at the former logging site was to be an outpost of the Oakland Hills camp--hence the name, Dimond-O.

 

The first group of Scouts to camp at Dimond-O were veteran campers from Camp Dimond.  The first of two summer camp sessions (each two weeks long) at Dimond-O took place on August 1 at the end of the camping sessions at Dimond.  A total of 79 scouts and 22 leaders camped at Dimond-O that first summer.  The camp session consisted of hikes to various Yosemite locations including Half Dome, the Pate Valley, Hetch Hetchy Valley.  That first summer the scouts covered no less than 120 miles within the confines of Yosemite Park.  The Scouts also dammed up the Tuolumne river which was adjacent to the camp to create a swimming hole and on other occasions hiked over to Mather to swim in Birch lake.

 

Dimond-O, The Early Years

According to a forest service document, in 1927, the Flying “W” Boys Camp became involved with the scout property, but the interaction between Flying W and the Scouts is unclear. It appears that the Scouts were not making full use of the lands and improvements as required by the use permit and thus had subleased facilities that were not in use or of which the Scouts did not make full use of. By the end of the 1929 season it appears that the Flying W’s agreement with the Scouts was terminated due to the Flying W’s camp manager failing to perform the labor necessary for keeping the place kept.

 

The middle fork of the Tuolumne river afforded the scouts the ability for swimming, however it required a dam in order to hold back the creek.  From 1926 until 1929 a makeshift dam made from sand bags was used to create a swimming hole.  The sacks would remain in place until spring time when a work crew would remove the sacks in time for the spring flood.  In October of 1931, the scouts built a permanent cement dam across the river to replace the sand bags.  The middle of the dam contained wooden slats that allowed the scouts to raise and lower the level of the swimming hole.  The swimming area averaged about 6 feet deep but near the dam where a diving platform would eventually be erected, the depth was around 9 feet deep and the water was always cold from the snow melt.

 

1926, Rev. RC Waddell named chaplain for first summer at Dimond-O

1928, First Eagles Flight in the high sierras is held (c 1928 – 1930).  This was the special hike open only to Eagle Scouts

1929,  Mountaineers, Rangers, Vigilantes & Frontiersmen are the names of the camping areas at Dimond-O

1930, Frontiersmen Treks start at Camp (c1930 – 1944)

1932, Dimond-O was opened to all scouts and dropped the requirement that you must be a veteran of Camp Dimond in order to attend.  To qualify though a Scout must prove he can campout for two nights and a day and cook all his own meals.

1935, Mess hall burns down after fire starts in kitchen during the Scouters Moot weekend

1936, Rebuilding of the mess hall at Dimond-O takes place as a work party breaks ground on the new dinning hall and kitchen. Cost was $12,500

1938, Oakland Rotary Club donates money and materials to build the first aid station at Dimond-O

1939, Dimond T at Dimond-O is organized for troops that wanted wilderness camping.  T stood for Troop, phase out around 1950

1940, Miwok is the name chosen as the tribe of Indians at Dimond-O.  The following year it turns into Miwok Training which last 39 years until 1979.

1947, Family Camp area is developed at Dimond-O for families of the volunteer leaders.

1956, The Long barn, which was previously used as a trading post and storage was torn down due to poor condition.

1958, Dinning hall renovated, family service building finished, 50 troop tents purchased for the troop area

1958, Permission asked for old buildings at Dimond-o to be demolished due to being unsafe.  Buildings to be replaced by tent campsites.  The council burned about half of the original logging camp buildings and rearranged others on the grounds. Some of this action was taken because of the age and poor condition of the buildings and some was spurred by national BSA council direction to have scouts stay in tents rather than in buildings. The buildings that were in better condition were retained for various uses, including storage buildings, a trading post, a craft building and a nature lodge.

1958, Council requested additional acreage from Stanislaus national forest for D-O.  An additional 80 acres was granted in May 1959, Fourteen new campsites added. Jamboree style cooking added.

1959, Dimond-O, additional 80 acres of land is leased from the forest service.  Fred W Taylor Trust of $20K was slated for a dormitory and clubhouse. Properties committee decided against that and instead completed with more than a mile of water lines laid and sanitation facilities of wash racks and toilets.  

1960, Oakland board discusses installing a Swimming pool due to the cold waters of the Tuolumne

1968, New 10 position rifle range at Dimond-O is completed by Scouters from Mission Peak and Twin Valley districts

1971, The last structure to be built at Dimond-O was the Lum Building, also called the Health Lodge. Named for the camp physician, Dr. Lum, who died in 1968 and donated construction money to the Boy Scouts, the building was finished in about 1971 and is the only Scout building still remaining as of 2010.  Dr. Lum spent 15 summers at Dimond-O administering to the medical needs of the Scouts.

 

In the late 1970’s, scouting was experiencing a steep decline in membership. Concurrently, the improvements at Dimond-O required a raft of health and safety repairs required by Tuolumne County. Given the overall situation, the San Francisco Bay Area Council, formed from a merger of the Oakland and San Francisco councils, decided to eliminate one of its four camps. Since Dimond-O was leased and the others were owned, Dimond-O was the camp to be closed down. In 1979, the Forest Service approved a request from the San Francisco Bay Area Council for non-use of the camp for the camping season of 1979 and a reduction of the acreage under permit from about 60 to 19. Although Dimond-O would never reopen as a Scout Camp, the land was eventually turned into a campground for the US Forest Service aptly named, Dimond-O in honor of the Scouts.

 

1979, Final Miwok Training is held, ending almost 40 years of leadership training

1979, Article in Bay Area Scouter indicates that Dimond-O will not reopen

1981, Dinning hall structure is dismantled after almost 50 years of use

1983, Lease ends officially returning property to the US Forest Service