A Brief History of Camp Cachalot:

The 1980s

By the beginning of the 1980's, large-scale construction at Camp had slowed to a crawl. It hadn't stopped completely, however, as money set aside for physical improvements was used to build the two winter cabins, near the Ranger's residence. Construction on these "new cabins" began in 1980, and they first opened for use in 1981. [1]. It was also about this time that the Town of Plymouth's Board of Health began to insist that we move away from dry-pit latrines to flush toilets with real septic systems. The first of these were constructed in James West (Site 7), Baden-Powell (Site 8), and between Acooshnet (Site 1) and Sippican (Site 2) [2].

By this time, the Council Ring had fallen into disrepair. The wooden seating was in poor condition, the view of the pond had been grown over, and the soil to either side of the approach steps had begun to erode. Beginning at its 1983 Ordeal Weekend, the Neemat Lodge set out on what would be its largest, longest single service project — an effort to restore and improve the Council Ring. This would take two years of effort, mostly in the form of monthly work weekends, and involved completely tearing down the old structures, elevating the stage by moving large quantities of sand, cutting a new, less steep (and less likely to erode) approach path, planting new trees on the old approach, and terracing and installing benches in a new seating area [3]. With the exception of some tree and telephone pole cutting, done by chainsaw, this was done entirely by hand and predominantly by the youth of the lodge.

Throughout the 1980s, many units in the Council also contributed to an effort to reforest many areas of Camp. In addition to the lingering effects of the 1964 fire, many of the pitch pines in camp were infested, and in many cases killed by, an insect called an Eastern, or Pitch Pine Looper. Large areas along the main road and behind the Adirondacks were cleared with a bulldozer and brush cutter, and were replanted with pine saplings. These were mostly white pine and not native pitch pine, and the re-plantings have grown with mixed success.

The Health Lodge was expanded, its size nearly doubling, in 1985, with the addition of a wing specifically for the Camp Nurse's residence. This allowed the whole of the original building to be used strictly as the medical facility, for checkups and for treatment or quarantine of sick campers during summer camp. The 21 Club also underwent major revisions at this time, with all of its windows being replaced, the interior re-insulated and re-paneled, the exterior re-sided, and a new, fully-covered porch built on the front of the building.

One cool fall morning in 1987, the resident Ranger, Art Churchill, discovered that Cachalot had had another bout with arson. While driving into the central camp area to bring a contractor in for other reasons, he crested the hill by the Health Lodge to discover the smoldering ruin of the Trading Post. Fortunately, the fire had been contained to the site of the building itself, and a larger conflagration had been avoided. It would take well over a year, with the camp Commissioner's Corner building returning to its original role as the Trading Post [4]in the interim, but a new slab cap was poured and a new, concrete block building would be erected on the same site to take its place.

Numerous other small fires occurred in and around Cachalot though the 1980s and 1990s, including a large fire at Charge Pond whose smoke plume was clearly visible from Camp from the waterfront, during the Sunday swimmers tests during summer camp. Small areas near Little Long Pond, on the trail to Stumpy Pond, and in the staff site itself also burned, but were extinguished quickly and caused no lasting damage. The first two were the result of abandoned, possibly stolen vehicles being set ablaze; the last was caused by an electrical problem.

The 1980s also saw some of the busiest summer seasons in Cachalot's history, with as many as 9 weeks of program each summer, encompassing a "staff week", 4 weeks of Boy Scout overnight camp, 3-4 weeks of Cub Day Camp, and, for several years, a week of Webelos overnight camp. These weeks were, if not at capacity, very well attended, to the point of eating in shifts in the dining hall one or two weeks a summer.

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