Wow!!! My Cathedral Pines Story, what an incredible rush of memories that triggers. For the many wonderful friends that Charlet and I made at Cathedral Pines, we are all doing well. We enjoyed seeing and visiting with so many of you at the 90th Anniversary Celebration. We would love to hear from you at mombentzinger@cableone.net

My mother's childhood memories included annual trips to the "Idaho Baptist Assembly".She told me once that she remembered the summer Leona Lodge was built. Some years later, after she was married, there was a contest to name the camp. My mother submitted the name Cathedral Pines.

My parents acquired an old worn out travel trailer in partnership with two other families from Jerome. The trailer was not even road worthy, so my dad would haul it on one of his equipment trucks every spring, to the place where we parked it across the bridge from the camp. My earliest childhood memories include things like the sound of the camp bell, walking across "the bridge" and jeep trips to places like Boulder City.

There are two factors that had a huge impact on my life through late childhood and adolescence. The first of those being my first snowmobile ride in December of 1966. This coincidentally occurred about a mile from Cathedral Pines at Baker Creek.The second of those factors being church camp, which began for me as a camper in July of 1968. On December 26, 1973 (my sophomore year) my best friend, Keevan Shropshire, and I, and two snowmobiles left for the first ever senior high snow retreat.

On December 26, 1975 God allowed me to meet the love of my life at the Cathedral Pines snow retreat. Charlet & I were married on June 25, 1977 in the outdoor chapel. The camp icon, Elder Berry presided over our very special wedding ceremony. Dick Chilcote played the pump organ and admitted later that it was quite a work out to get four bridesmaids and Charlet to the front of the chapel. For the next few years I worked closely with the first year round manager, Dale Wilkins. I helped maintain the camp snowmobiles and helped arrange the purchase of a small snowcat type vehicle. Dale used the Cushman Traxter to haul supplies in and out of the camp during the winter months.

In the fall of 1980 the camp manager position was open. Charlet and I applied and were hired. At the time Aleece was 2-1/2 years old and Brian was 1 year old. We adopted Tiffany the last winter that we lived at the camp. We spent 3 long winters and 2 incredible summers at Cathedral Pines before we left in the spring of 1983. We have so many awesome memories of the 2-1/2 years that we lived at, and managed, Cathedral Pines Baptist Camp and Easley Hot Springs.

Late one afternoon in the spring of 1982, I was driving the Traxter down to the camp, to fill our water jugs. Our apartment in the Easley Hot Springs building only had the sulpher hot spring water. We had to haul our drinking and cooking water from the camp. When I rounded the corner to cross the bridge it simply was not there. What a vivid memory that moment is for me. I had spent countless hours, spread over 8 years of summer camp, sitting on that bridge, listening to the peaceful current of the wood river, soaking up the majestic grandeur of Boulder Mountain, meditating and forging my relationship with my God. I cannot describe the emotions that I felt to see that dear old friend resting peacefully on the river bed.

Charlet & I were able to help accomplish a lot of good things while we managed the camp, but the most obvious was replacement of the bridge. One other small accomplishment that we were able to help facilitate, was to develop a logo to represent the camp. At our request, that logo was created by my long time friend, and partner in church camp mischief, Keevan Shropshire. To this very day it still thrills me to see that logo being used on Cathedral Pines promotional materials.

During our time at the camp, I became frustrated with the camp board. All but a couple of them were totally uninvolved with daily operation at the camp. They went to a handful of meetings at various churches somewhere in the valleys, to tell us how to run the camp every day of the year. In spite of our continual suggestions, they could not come to the camp for one day or one weekend of that year for a camp board meeting. Inevitably, we left the camp at odds with the camp board. Cathedral Pines will always hold a very special place in our hearts, but we have had virtually no involvement with the camp since that time. I share this paragraph in hopes that current and future camp board members might accept our challenge to be more pro-active in working with and supporting your staff. It will mean more to them than you can possibly imagine.

Charlet & I look forward with high hopes for the 100th Anniversary Celebration in 2019. We hope to see even more of our summer staff from the summers of 1981 and 1982.

In Christ's Love, Ron & Charlet Bentzinger and family