Mama watched teenage Herbie pack up a croaker sack to take with him on his first trip away from home in Birmingham. He poked in one change of pants and two shirts, but mostly the sack was filled with tools he would need: a hammer, crowbar, a shovel. His Mama put in what meager groceries she could spare. He picked up the crosscut saw and put it over his shoulder, hugged his mom and left for the train depot. It was the onset of the Depression in 1933 when Herbert West felt the call to join an Episcopal venture for young men. The program was dubbed Pioneer Camp, a two-week experience for youth to live in the wilds and help develop a camp for the church. This one was for Camp Beckwith, a 40-acre wilderness on the west bank of Weeks Bay way down south in Baldwin County, Alabama.

Bishop Beckwith had traveled from pillar to post in the 1890s. One of his favorite stops in the diocese was at the home of Susan Swift in Bon Secour where he ministered to the members of St. Peter's by the Sea. He loved being on the water and bought a refuge where he enjoyed fishing and hunting. He wanted others to find the peace he had found there and desired to bequeath the camp to the church. After his death, his widow honored his wishes and deeded the property to the diocese.

Entrance to Camp Beckwith on MaryAnne Beach Road leads to the site on Weeks Bay.

By 1930, the church was made aware that there were people living on the property and realized that to maintain the ownership, evidence of the church use of the property was imperative. Fr. J. Hodge Alves of St. Paul's in Mobile was aware of a program the church had to provide summer camp experience for teenage boys. A few had already been successful in Baldwin County, so he planned a Pioneer Camp on the Weeks Bay site.

The program was similar to the FDR New Deal CCC but this one would develop not only the property; it would foster the character and spiritual growth of the campers. And not only did the workers not earn a payday, the volunteers had to pay a fee to get to come! Herbert was one of the 23 volunteers who joined the adventure of a lifetime.

When Herbert arrived at the pier in Fairhope, Creek Indian Chief, Fred Walker, met them in a makeshift truck and drove them miles over muddy roads to Pioneer Camp. Here the boys helped set up borrowed tents and a cooking area – a start to a daunting task. Herbert must have questioned his decision as they slogged through the mud, but his first view of Weeks Bay confirmed his calling to come there.

Chief Fred Walker of the Poarch Creek reservation was one of the volunteers. He was a part of the St. Anna’s congregation on the reservation He was Chief in the 1920s-1940s.

By the end of the two weeks, Herbert sat looking over the bay and penned a letter expressing support of the project. Recently Fr. Albert Kennington met me at Beckwith to tell me all about that beautiful retreat and shared three documents with me – letters from participants in that first camp. The originals are housed in the Archives of the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast in Pensacola, where Albert has served as historian for 16 years. He showed the photographs hanging in the Alves building, those taken by Herbert Stein and Marshall Seifert, both from Mobile. These tell the story of the Pioneer Camp.

All three letters praise the hard work done in unfavorable conditions. They each hailed Chief Walker and his mule as the most valuable resource in their labors. Fred Walker was from the Poarch Creek Indian community near Atmore. The steward and nurse, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barton from Atmore completed the staff.

The letters describe the site as a perfect setting for gatherings, the salty water calm and protected from Gulf Storms. The mail was delivered by the water route out of Magnolia Springs, but as there was no pier, someone had to paddle a skiff or walk out to get the mail from the postman. The two weeks' work resulted in a log cabin, well, and road improvements in spite of the unpleasant conditions.

"The group met and went through a gauntlet of difficulties, troubles, and discomforts. Due to the very unsettled weather conditions in the Gulf, it rained part of every day except the first and last day. The makeshift tents and cots were comfortable in their way. The mosquitoes having multiplied for years without interruption were quite delighted the very first night with the delicious meals laid out for them and covered only by thin city skin. On following nights they were balked by such disturbing sauces of Citronella and Flit. The last week they did not score a bite. They couldn't bite thru a combination of sunburn, sweat, pine rosin and toughened skin." (Herbert West)

Rev. Albert Kennington shows a photograph hanging in the Alves Building at Beckwith Lodge and Conference Center. The mule in the photograph was brought to the camp by Chief Fred Walker of the Poarch Creek Indian tribe in Atmore.

Herbert's letter outlines the urgent needs for more cabins, better roads, a pier, a sanitary system and a Delco system to generate electricity. Rev. Alves expressed the same needs and plans were made to continue the work the following year.

Rev. Albert Kennington has written a history of the camp: They called their cabin Camp Beckwith. Some of them returned the next summer and built a second cabin. In the winter of 1934, both cabins burned. The 1933 camp is now called the Pioneer Camp. Names of the pioneers are engraved on a granite stone near the bay.

Since then, property disputes were settled in court, additional property has been purchased, and comfortable structures have been added for eating, meeting, worshiping, swimming, fishing, and sleeping. In the still of an evening or the breath-taking beauty of a sunrise, the holiness of Beckwith stirs the soul in ways that drew the first inhabitants to this land and calmed the fevered spirit of an old bishop whose wife kindly passed this place on to welcome and inspire many in years to come. Come and see.

One more note: This week we went to the Creek Museum on the Poarch Reservation to see if we could find out more about Fred Walker. Lo and behold, our guide was the official historian of the tribe who proudly told us about her great great grandfather, Chief Fred Walker. Now, is that synchronicity or not?

Byrne Chapel overlooking Weeks Bay at Beckwith Lodge.