By Chad Hershberger
Camp Mount Luther is well-known for our summer program. It’s the first program to exist on our site. I was our founders vision for a new model of church camping (small group camping). But even from our early days, our site was used for more than just summer camp. It has always a year-round, intergenerational camp.
Off-season retreats started to increase in the late 1960s. Around 1,630 used Camp Mount Luther during the fall, winter, and spring months, as early as 1968. The synod reported, “There is increasing demand for use of camping facilities by weekend groups during the fall, winter, and spring. It is impossible to accommodate all who wish to use our campsites in the off-season. The director of camping is gathering information about other camp facilities available to our groups.”
I’ve written quite a bit about Donald and Betty Jane Mincemoyer’s impact on camp, particularly with BJ’s death this summer. One of the lasting legacies of their time here happened toward the end of their tenure. On January 1, 1969, Donald L. Mincemoyer became Camp Mount Luther’s first full-time director/manager. Later that year, on October 4, the Managing Board passed a motion that Betty Jane be named co-director. On November 20, the Executive Committee of the Board of Parish Education referred the co-director matter to the Division of Camping for study. In April 1970, Betty Jane asked that the idea of co-directorship be dropped and not brought up at the Board of Parish Education meeting. The actions at that time showed that full-time leadership for Camp Mount Luther was important to advance the ministry.
Other exciting things happening at camp in 1969 included the construction of two new arks and the establishment of a picnic area with ten tables behind the barn. In addition, the synod Executive Board approved a plan to extend the dining hall building to provide more kitchen space at a cost of $4,538. Plans also called for renovation to the bathhouse in Maple Village (today part of Maple Hall), replacing the semicircular washbowls and adding new shower space.
The summer of 1969 was a busy one at the camp. In June 1969, the synod Executive Board requested that the Lutheran Camping Foundation finance the insulation of the cabins at Camp Mount Luther. Camp held an interracial family camp that summer with eight white and six black families from Lancaster participating. For that time, this program was groundbreaking. Betty Jane Mincemoyer recalled that the African American campers “went into Mifflinburg and would come back and say they didn’t feel very comfortable being in Mifflinburg.” Donald Mincemoyer replied, “The progress you make is hard to measure. I think people are a little more understanding [of different cultures] in the long run.” The couple remembered that the African American families did not want to eat the camp’s food because it wasn’t “soul food.” After their week living together, the African Americans invited their white campmates to Lancaster for a meal and they had “soul food!”
Another unique camp week occurred that summer when 80 youth participated in confirmation instruction. An especially memorable event happened on July 20, 1969. The director waived a rule prohibiting TV sets and a television was set up so campers could see the historic landing of the first man on the moon. It was late at night. “We had to get the kids up [out of bed]. Donald set a TV out in the lawn [of the Administration Center] on a step ladder, and we watched them walk on the moon,” Betty Jane Mincemoyer said. This would be reenacted on July 20, 2009, in front of the A-Center, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing.
As the new decade of the 70s began, it didn’t start out so well at Camp Mount Luther. On January 24, 1970, fire destroyed the caretaker’s home, occupied by the William Pontius family. The fire started by faulty wiring in a clothes dryer on the back porch and caused $12,000 in damages. On March 14, the camp Executive Board met and decided to remove the remains of the caretaker’s house and two adjacent buildings and accept $8,173 in insurance money in lieu of making any repairs to the building.
On May 4, 1970, the Managing Board voted to prohibit snowmobiles and motorcycles at the camp. A sign announcing this action greeted visitors for years to come. The board also accepted the resignation of Donald Mincemoyer, effective August 31st. Mincemoyer and his wife received the opportunity to teach in the local high school in Mifflinburg starting in September 1970. Following his resignation, the Executive Board of the synod ruled out full-time directors for all camps except Sequanota. Mincemoyer would stay active with the camp, serving on the board and other committees. One of the last events he attended at camp before his death was the camp’s 40th Anniversary Worship Service in June 2003.
Programs offered during Mincemoyer’s last summer included a horse trail camp, “service to a handicapped child,” a canoe trip to the Adirondacks led by the director, and a Canadian trip. Betty Jane Mincemoyer took five girls to Canada for two weeks because of a camping exchange program the Mincemoyers offered. They developed this camp after going to an American Camping Association conference. On June 15, 1970, the camp made available a picnic area near the barn for use by campers as well as organized groups and family visitors.
As the Mincemoyers looked back on their time at Camp Mount Luther, they remembered with fondness many of activities the campers engaged in, especially Friday nights. “We had a lot of good times in the barn. Friday nights they would go down and have a dance. We had the vesper candlelight service over by the pond and then go down to the barn,” Betty Jane Mincemoyer said. The barn was “L-shaped” and featured an open lower level that was used for storage. Inside, the décor consisted of different colors of paint and people’s names.
On December 5, 1970, the synod’s new Commission on Camping held their organizational meeting. The synod amended their constitution and made provisions for the appointment of this commission consisting of 20 members appointed annually by the president of the synod. This commission’s responsibility included the conduct, promotion, and improvement of the camps owned or operated by the Central Pennsylvania synod. At the meeting, the commission elected M. Francis Coulson as chair; Rev. James Park Bricker, vice chair; and Onni E. Kangas, recorder. They established four standing committees: Program, Publicity and Promotion, Property and Maintenance, Finance, and Long Range Planning. The birth of the Commission on Camping dissolved the individual Managing Boards for three of the synod camps. The commission was composed of twenty members, appointed annually, with no member serving for more than six consecutive years. The camp directors of the four camps were ex-officio. The constitution of the committee set out their tasks which were to determine camp programs, formulate schedules, select and train staff, set policy, maintain the physical plants, and establish financial policies and procedures. Also at that meeting, the commission elected George Weiser to the position of director for Camp Mount Luther. The commission also explored opportunities to purchase a vehicle for the camp, which was done in 1971.
The new structure continued the trend to centralize administration of the synod camps and again added layers of governance to the camping structure. Yet again, Camp Mount Luther found itself lumped into more bureaucracy, now losing even its own Managing Board and keeping it from finding its own identity. This would continue until the mid-70s, when the trend started to be reversed with the formation of a new non-profit corporation. Slowly, in its late adolescent years, Camp Mount Luther began finding itself. That would be done with a new director at the helm.