Camp 9 offered great 'vacation' atmosphere

(Recently, I had a picture of a lumber camp in the Priest River Times. It was called Camp 9. I received a call from Robin Kreager and she shared with me some of her memories about the time she, and her family, spent summers at the camp. Her story reflects a time that is no more, and sadly, will never again be possible. It was a time when family, friends, and the small things of life were the foundation of true happiness. I asked Robin if I could share her story with you and I am glad she said, “Yes.” Find yourself a log, sit down, relax, and let Robin tell you, in her own words, about her Camp 9.)

“I have many good memories of Camp 9. It was located on the east of Priest Lake and it was just before Lionhead and up by Huckleberry Bay, at the top of the lake. After Shafer’s, the camp belonged to Diamond Match and I remember that they used to rent it out. Now the Park Department has the property. There are none of the old buildings still standing.

“My dad was a logger and his name was Lawrence Rogers. All the old timers would know him because he logged forever around this area. When my dad logged he ran jammer and he had logging trucks. My mother is Inez Rogers and she went up to Camp 9 along with six of us kids. It was a long drive from Priest River to the camp and we hated that drive because it was a gravel road and you were kind of dusted out, especially if there was someone in front of you. It was a pretty drive and a lot different looking than it is today. We were always excited to go to the camp and looked forward to being right on a beautiful, great big, sandy beach.

“We stayed in the cook shack and my mother cooked for all of us and probably for some of the loggers that were there working. When we were at the camp, there were about six loggers from Switzerland. They were a good bunch of men but I don’t know why they were up at Camp 9. They brought a goat to camp for their milk and you knew they were Swiss because they yodeled.

“The camp had quite a few bunkhouses. I think there was a least six. We stayed in the cook shack, it had a big wood stove in it and it had tables where the men ate, and in the evening, they would use them to play cards. They did not have plumbing so there were the usual outhouses.

“My uncle and his family would join my family at Camp 9 and we had some good times. There was a dump not too far from the camp and we would go there to watch the bears. My dad would rattle cans and the bears would come out thinking they were going to get something to eat. Back then, people would just throw their garbage right on the ground and the dump was a good place to watch the bears. It was fun when we had family from out of town come up because they had never seen bears. You had to keep and eye out for them when you were berry picking because they might be right in the patch with you.

“In the evenings, they would build a big bonfire down on the sand and everybody would sit around it. We didn’t have any chairs but there were some home made benches. The Swiss would yodel and sing and that was a lot of fun. It seemed like the weather was always nice and we would run around and play all summer long in the lake.

“During the day, all we kids just played. We played cops and robbers; we swam a lot and we were all good swimmers. Of course, all the girls had their dollies and back then, you used your imagination when you played. I recall that my little sister and I would play farm. We would build corrals with sticks and our animals were rocks. You had to use your imagination because we didn’t have many toys. Kids today do not know how to play; they watch TV and play video games. We used to ride a stick around as if it was a horse. We used to play explorer; we would break the limbs off the old fir trees and lay down, and that was our beds. We would make little lean-tos and put limbs over them and that as our shelter.

“My mom was a wonderful cook and we had good food. We would bring a lot of canned food from home and we ate meat when we had it. I remember eating a lot of fish because we could catch all the fish we needed. We would keep a cooler in the creek and we used that for our milk or anything else that had to be kept cool. I remember how a watermelon used to taste when we brought it out of the creek. The water was very cold and we would eat that cold melon with juice running down our chins.

“We had to watch the bears like a hawk because they would try to come in and get our food out of the creek. They would even try to get the food out of the coolers. We would be sitting around the campfire, listening to Uncle Elmer (Rogers) tell a story, and we would hear the bears in the creek. The guys would jump up and run for the creek and start hollering and making noise. The women would stay with the kids because we were not allowed to chase the bears.      

“My favorite memory about being at Camp 9 is being there with my family. It was fun just being with my aunt and uncle and my cousins. We were always excited to go there; it was like a vacation. In town, you had to get someone to take you to a swimming hole but up there, the swimming hole was right out your front door. I learned to skip rocks up at the lake. We made a trip to the upper lake and I was so excited because I found a lot of flat rocks and I brought them back with me. I was very excited about finding the perfect rocks for skipping. It all brings back good memories of the fun times we had up there.”