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<H2 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="History"></A>deBenneville Pines Camp and Conference Center</H2>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="4"><I>Established 1961</I></FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><I>Our Mission Statement:</I></P>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="2"><I>&quot;To be a haven and retreat for a diversity of people, those of all ages
and conditions of life;<BR>
<BR>
To provide a gathering place where people from throughout the Pacific<BR>
Southwest District can meet in community;<BR>
<BR>
To be a spiritual community wherein ecological and humanistic values can be affirmed,<BR>
and Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes can be celebrated and lived;<BR>
<BR>
To make possible, in the wilderness setting, free from the restrictions of<BR>
urban and suburban living, the healing processes of introspection, in human<BR>
relating and communion with nature;<BR>
<BR>
To welcome a diversity of ideas, and provide a setting wherein they can be<BR>
expressed and explored in an atmosphere of mutual respect and acceptance;<BR>
<BR>
To be a safe and loving environment for growth and exploration.&quot;</I></FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><I><BR>
<IMG SRC="bdpsgw.jpg" WIDTH="437" HEIGHT="333" ALIGN="BOTTOM" ALT="San Gorgonio Wilderness" BORDER="0"></I></P>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P ALIGN="CENTER">Recollections on the Beginnings of de Benneville Pines</P>
<P ALIGN="CENTER">BY RAY BANKER, JULY 19,1986</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>In June, 1960, while I was District Consultant for the Pacific Southwest District of the Pacific Coast Unitarian
Council. At the close of PSWIRL week at Camp Radford, a delegation from PSWIRL came to see me and said that the
PSWIRL Annual Meeting had voted to ask me, as District Consultant, to explore the possibility of purchasing a summer
conference site. Camp Radford where we had been conferencing, had proved inadequate to accommodate all the various
summer conference needs we were experiencing. We already had moved the LRY activities into a separate camp, of
which I had been &quot;Dean&quot; in 1956 and 1957.</P>
<P>In July, 1960, a Camp Committee was formed. With the help of several lay persons, Ide Keeler, and I canvassed
several locations in the area. A camp in Idyllwild was for sale, and a private piece of property capable of development
at Seven Oaks was available. Ide Keeler heard that the Boy Scout camp near Barton Flats, Camp Arataba, a leasehold
on Forest Service land, was for sale. Arataba's lodge had recently burned down and, at just that time, someone
had given the Boy Scout Council a large tract of land in the San Bernardino Mountains on the ridge near Lake Arrowhead.
So the Boy Scout Council put their leasehold for sale. On July 29, Keeler and I met at the camp to look it over.
I had Bert Shaw, an engineer with the City of Riverside, and a member of my congregation, give us professional
counsel. It was a beautiful site on the north slope of Mt. San Gorgonio at an elevation of 6800 feet. The camp
had been a tent camp with &quot;permanent&quot; wooden tent platforms, perhaps 16'X16', on which army-style tents
were erected each summer. The tent platforms were arranged in groups of six or eight, in perhaps six or eight places
scattered over a considerably larger area than that which now comprises de Benneville Pines. Each of the tent clusters
had a large washbasin, perhaps 4 feet by 10 feet, with water spigots. The water was brought to each site in pipes
laid on the surface of the ground. These pipes had to be turned off and drained before winter. There was a horizontal
well with water flowing under its own pressure into a storage reservoir made of concrete pipes cemented together
and sealed. The water was excellent and sufficient to serve the camp. In addition to the tent platforms and well,
the camp improvements consisted of a standard camp-size swimming pool with propane heating system, a new shower
facility, the remains of the burned lodge (slab and fireplace), and the infirmary, now de Benneville's Director's
cabin. There was also a fire-circle (the present one just east of Homet Lodge), and an Inspiration Point where
&quot;Chapel&quot; services were held, now barely discernible on the promontory over-looking the present water
tank.</P>
<P>Keeler and I met with Hugh Holmes, the Boy Scouts' representative for the Arrowhead Area Council, on August
8. The scouts were asking $40,000 for their interest in the leasehold and for the improvements. It was by far the
best place we had visited. The Camp Committee reported to the joint boards of the California Universalist Convention
and the Pacific Southwest District, PCUC, at their August 13 meeting in Costa Mesa. The joint boards met in Riverside
on September 17, and those that could, visited Arataba. Everyone approved of the site, and it was decided to hold
an &quot;Open house/Visitation&quot; on two consecutive Saturdays, October 29 and November 5, so everyone in the
district could see it and give input.</P>
<P>The Universalist churches in Los Angeles and Hollywood (the Revs. G. Douglas Frazier and Sheldon Shepard, respectively)
had just disbanded and sold their properties. The combined sum, as I recall, was $50,000 to $60,000. At any rate,
it was enough to pay for the purchase of the leasehold and improvements at the Boy Scout camp. It had historically
been Universalist policy to have a clause in each churches Articles of Incorporation that upon the dissolution
of a church, the proceeds from the sale of the property would go to the state convention. In those days, however,
there were so few churches constituting the California Universalist Convention that it was thought prudent to have
these reversionary clauses name the Universalist Church of America, or its predecessor, to receive such funds.
The funds in either case were to be held against a time when another church, or other Universalist project, in
that area came into existence and needed funding. The funds from the Los Angeles and Hollywood Universalist churches
had been sent to the UCA for holding. When the purchase of the Boy Scout Camp became desirable, the California
Universalist Convention Board wrote to the UCA and requested the release of $40,000 to purchase it. The UCA and
the AUA were then, however, in the process of working out the details of the merger and smoothing out the fiscal
differences between the two entities. The UCA was ready to release the $40,000 in good Universalist tradition.
The AUA, however, did not want to let it go without a &quot;string&quot;. The compromise was that $40,000 would
be a long-term loan to the California Universalist Convention, with no interest and no pay back date. The note
was duly signed and the CUC bought the Boy Scout Camp.</P>
<P>At the Annual Meeting of the California Universalist Convention, then in the process of merging with the Pacific
Southwest District, I was appointed Superintendent of the California Universalistic Convention. (I was already
the District Consultant of the PSD). The joint PSD/CUC Board decided to hold a contest to name our new facility.
I wanted to guarantee a Universalist heritage for the new camp, so i proposed several Universalist names. Among
the names submitted, Camp de Benneville. The Board chose de Benneville but did not like Camp de Benneville and
changed it to de Benneville Pines.</P>
<P>The original thought was to somewhat duplicate the facilities available at Camp Radford--a purely summer-time
camp with small cabins on concrete piers and eight to ten beds, bunkstyle, in each. Just at that time, however,
a number of wood-frame World War II buildings at March and Edwards AFB's became available at very reasonable prices.
A committee of us inspected them. Those at Edwards were pre-fabricated buildings, very similar to today's double-wide
mobile homes, though they were completely wood-frame and without wheels. They had been duplexes set up during WW
II to house civilian women employees at the base. They could easily be taken apart down the middle, lengthwise,
as that was how they had been originally constructed. As I recall, the price was about $1000-$1200, including the
delivery to our site. We bought nine of them. The delivery was more than the sellers (or our organization) had
bargained for. One half of one of the buildings fell off its trailer on the way up the mountain highway and shattered
into kindling. The remaining half of the building is now part of the staff cabin.</P>
<P>The cabins were ready to be delivered and we had yet to decide where they were to be placed. So a committee
of us hurried up the mountain one Saturday, tramped over the site, chose nine places and flagged them. The cabin
halves were brought into camp as far as the truck could pass. Large concrete piers were poured, and the cabins
were winched up the terrain and set in place.</P>
<P>At just this time, the Forestry Service drew up new requirements for all camps in this region: &quot;All must
be placed on complete foundations and winterized so the camp could be used year-round.&quot; If an organization
could not use its facility all year, the camp must be made available to outside lease groups. Additionally, the
traditional privies and septic tanks in place at the time were deemed &quot;no longer acceptable&quot; by the Forest
Service. This decision was made after an outbreak of hepatitis at our YMCA neighbor, Camp Round Meadow.</P>
<P>Bob Bland, of the Anaheim Church, set about putting new roofs on the buildings with increased pitch and strength
to accommodate the weight of the winter snows. He also designed and built, with much help, the marvelous porches.
The exterior walls were removed from the cabins, insulation installed and new board and batten exteriors put on
to conform to Forest Service and San Bernardino County codes. At Forest Service insistence, we cleared a twenty-foot
fire trail clear around the camp. Ide Keeler, a professional sanatarian at the time, researched a sewage disposal
system.</P>
<P>At the insistence of the Forest Service and the County, we had unexpectedly changed from a simple summer camp
to a year-round conference facility. We did not have the money, so we sold bonds, at six percent interest, to any
UU we could interest in buying one. Campaigns were held in all UU churches, and the appropriate money was raised.
Oh yes, all the water pipes had to be buried so as not to freeze during the winter, and sewage pipes were laid
and connected to our new sewage disposal system.</P>
<P>One more thing was needed, an assembly hall. Plans were drawn and an estimated $40,000 was needed. We wondered
from where the money would come. We publicized the need, and the Rev. Claire Blauvelt, minister of our new Costa
Mesa Universalist Church, and former minister at Throop Memorial, called me with a lead. He thought an elderly
member of Throop Church, a Mrs. Theresa Homet Patterson, might be interested in giving the building. Taking the
plans for the proposed lodge, I drove into Pasadena and met with Mrs. Patterson on May 8, 1961. She agreed to give
$40,000, but asked that the lodge be named after her family. I assured her we would be glad to name it &quot;Patterson
Hall&quot;; but she said, &quot;No&quot;, it was to be named after HER family, the Homet family. The name is French,
she told me, and pronounced Oh-may.</P>
<P>Sometime before we started planning for the lodge, we purchased two more surplus buildings from the Air Force.
One is now our Coffee House. We originally planned it for our Maintenance Building, but having a maintenance area
as the first thing to be seen upon driving into the camp proved to be a mistake. The building was then remodeled
to be a meeting place. The Coffee House, as I recall, cost us $1500, delivered.</P>
<P>The second building we had agreed to purchase was the March Field hospital building. We thought this building
could be a series of bedrooms, kitchen and conference room. I don't remember the price, but $5000 comes to mind.
Plans were made to place it in a clearing across the drive, and to the east, of the showerhouse. A change in our
board officers brought new check signers, which meant that the officers signatures did not match the bank's records.
We knew we had ample funds in the bank, so confidently, we sent the check through again. It bounced a second time
before we could get our signature cards straightened out. The hospital was sold to another bidder.</P>
<P>The final signing of papers, which then transferred the leasehold and gave us the property, took place at the
Mill Creek Ranger Station on January 6, 1961. The summer of 1962 was our first full use of de Benneville Pines.
We had a total of 676 people at the various camp sessions. June 16-22 was LRYweek with 75 people; June 23-29 was
the First Family Camp with 80; June 30July 5 LREA (religious education) week with 150; August 18-24 was Junior
High Camp with 77; August 25-30 was the Second Family Camp with 200; September 6-9 was a district Churchmanship
Conference with 94 people.</P>
<P>At the end of the Churchmanship Conference, on September 9, 1962, with Homet Lodge barely underway, we had a
grand dedication ceremony for de Benneville Pines. Mrs. Patterson was escorted to camp for the occasion. Ed gorgers,
Professor of Telecommunications at USC, and member of the Long Beach Church, was commissioned to write a play for
the occasion. It was titled, &quot;Farewell to Eden&quot;, and had only three characters-Adam, Eve and God. The
play was well received and the day was a big success.</P>
<P>To the best of my recollection, the PSD/CUC officers and others active in the purchase and initial organization
of de Benneville Pines were as follows: Ide Keeler, San Bernardino Fellowship; Dr. Ben &amp; Mrs. Jean Lundberg,
Claremont Church; Bert Shaw, Riverside Church; Dr. Frank and Mrs. Bonnie Wills, Riverside Church; Art Horn, Throop
Memorial Church; Dick Mulford, Throop Memorial Church; Bob Wyider, Long Beach Church; Bob Bland, Anaheim Church;
and John Quinn, Santa Barbara Church.</P>
<P>I gave up my positions as District Consultant PCUC and State Superintendent CUC on December 31, 1962, and Arthur
Olsen became Executive Secretary of the new Pacific Southwest District of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
In August of that year, our family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and I withdrew from responsibility for de Benneville
Pines.</P>
<P>I hope my recollections are helpful to you. De Benneville Pines will always be a special place for me.</P>
<P>We are ever grateful to the foresight of the Unitarians who recognized the need for a special place where people
could gather in nature and breathe clean, crisp mountain air while sharing their ideas about making a difference
in the world. deBenneville Pines Camp and Conference Center, named in the memory of George deBenneville, is that
special place and it is owned by the congregations and fellowships of the Pacific Southwest District of the Unitarian
Universalist Association. From Santa Barbara, Phoenix and Coronado members and friends have enjoyed the wide variety
of programs for children, families and adults over the past 37 years.</P>
<P>A special program entitled &quot;Share theVision&quot; is expanding the role of the Center in the life of the
surrounding Churches and Fellowships. In keeping with the philosophy of cooperation and interdependence within
our wider community, the Center is available for use by groups other than Unitarian Universalist.</P>
<CENTER>
<P>
<HR ALIGN="CENTER">
<A HREF="index.html"><FONT SIZE="2">Home</FONT></A><FONT SIZE="2"> | </FONT><A HREF="calendar.html"><FONT SIZE="2">Coming
Events</FONT></A><FONT SIZE="2"> | </FONT><A HREF="facility.html"><FONT SIZE="2">Facilities</FONT></A><FONT SIZE="2">
| </FONT><a HREF="http://www.zweb.com/uusd/dbpines/debenneville.htm"><FONT SIZE="2">San Diego Friends of deBenneville</FONT></a><FONT
SIZE="2"> | </FONT><A HREF="http://www.zweb.com/uusd/dbpines/dbpalbum1.htm"><FONT SIZE="2">SDF Photo Album </FONT></A><FONT
SIZE="2">| </FONT><A HREF="drivdir2.htm"><FONT SIZE="1">Driving Directions</FONT></A><A HREF="facility.html"><BR>
</A><A HREF="mailto:debenneville@altadena.net"><FONT SIZE="2">webmaster</FONT></A>
</CENTER>
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