By Chad Hershberger 

Fifty years ago, Camp Mount Luther was at an important juncture. It was not unlike where we are today. We are looking forward, as they did, to what the camp could be in the future. As the 2020s are also showing us, the decade of the 1970s would prove to be crucial to the camp’s survival.

Programs and facilities would need to be built up as the camp began to transform from being a “camping ministry” to an “outdoor ministry.”  Two studies would lead the synod to form a new multi-camp corporation, which would guide the camp through a very important capital campaign. During these days, the camp made improvements to provide year-round facilities for a wide variety of groups and ages and learned to be more financially sustainable through fundraising efforts.

With the launch of the Foundations for the Future capital campaign, it sounds like history is repeating itself in 2025!

The early 1970s were a time when camping in the Central Pennsylvania Synod became more unified and the synod looked toward improving their camps’ facilities, creating philosophies, and improving the organizational structure.  A new director, George Weiser, led Mount Luther, attempting to advance the camp.

As 1971 began, the synod Commission on Camping expressed concern about the declining summer enrollment and the need for leadership for both the commission and the four camps.  At the same time, they outlined a uniform system of financial accounting for all four camps and a uniform rate and rental schedule.  The possibility also existed that registrations would be done centrally at the synod office.

The Bloomsburg District presented a request that “the Commission on Camping give serious consideration to the promotion of family camping tents and trailers in addition to existing cabins, thereby making programs and facilities of the synod’s camp properties a real ministry to family camping.”   In July 1971, the synod Executive Board noted the declining enrollment in the synod’s camps and considered possible new ways of using the camps.  The synod asked the Camping Commission to make a study of the use of the present camp facilities, including camping structure and program.   Weiser also suggested that third graders be included in the camp program.

During Summer 1971, Weiser hired Tom Watters as summer maintenance help.  Former Director Donald Mincemoyer encouraged Watters to apply.  Mincemoyer taught Watters as a high school student.  At the end of the summer, the caretaker, Bob Troutman, resigned.  Troutman followed Kermit Boob in the position.  When Troutman resigned, Tom Watters and his father, Wes Watters, took on the caretaker responsibilities.  Both served in that role until September 1993 when Wes Watters retired.  The camp board hired Tom as full-time maintenance manager, and he started on January 1, 1994.

In September 1971, the Executive Board authorized the commission to secure the services of a management consultant in camping.  In November 1971, the Executive Board received a report that Arthur Harrison of Harrison Associates, Inc., would review the camps.  The synod board also considered the need for a full-time camping director.

During this year, the Chapel of the Holy Spirit was built and became the first outdoor worship site.  Chuck Palm, who was on summer staff, designed the site, which featured an altar on a concrete slab, benches for seating, and a small stone structure with a cross under a small roof.  “We did everything by hand, even mixed the mortar by hand.  We worked on it most of the summer.  We went into Hartleton to get the slate for on top the altar,” Tom Watters said.

Cabin 8 in Maple Village burnt down during this year.  Rev. James Park Bricker, vice-chair of the Commission on Camping, received the news of the fire and headed for camp.  “The first thing I noticed was that the campers were safely removed from the area.  In fact, I saw only camp and emergency personnel.  The cabin was totally engulfed in fire when I arrived.  In fact, I think that the roof was pretty much flat on the ground.  I remember that because I was standing by Wes Watters who asked the fire chief to let it burn so he would have less waste in the morning.  There was also some concern about making sure that the gas flow to the building was stopped.  The fire was clearly under control.  I clearly remember a personal conversation [later] with Howard J. McCarney, President of the Central Pennsylvania Synod.  He absolutely refused to allow the camp’s insurance company to sue the insurance company of the congregation who had rented the cabin.  It was only when I became pastor of Trinity, Mechanicsburg, in 1986 that I paid any attention to the issues of the fire from the renter’s point of view.  It was Trinity who had rented the cabin for a youth weekend retreat.  I think that it was only then that I realized how close we were to serious human loss.  It seems that the cause of the fire was a smoke bomb the boys had thrown under the girl’s cabin to scare them.  The bomb set fire to the dry leaves, twigs, etc. under the building and ignited it.  I understand that it burned very quickly,” Bricker said.

Tom Watters remembered the fire chief going up to the cabin and pinching and bending the metal from the gas line, which then looked like a blow torch.  Wes Watters remembered the mess they had cleaning up from the fire.  The metal beds were melted together and into other debris.  Both the Watters remembered that troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police sat in the dining hall interviewing the retreaters to determine what happened.  Early in 1972, the Lutheran Camping Foundation received $8,173 in insurance money to rebuild the cabin.   Tom Watters said that the church that rented the cabin came back to the camp and rebuilt it.  He knows it was ready in time for the 1973 Summer Camping Season.

Following the fire and other normal wear and tear, the camp needed renewal.  Almost ten years old, Mount Luther looked ahead to its teenage years, wondering if it would enjoy its own identity or always be compared to its sister camps, especially Nawakwa, which at the time was in a serious period of deterioration.

Lots more in the second decade of Camp Mount Luther’s existence would help build a stronger foundation for what the camp would become. We’ll explore that in future blog posts.