OCONTO COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – As spring arrives in the Northwoods, one camp in Oconto County still has work to do in order to clean-up a winter disaster.
The roof of the old Bear Paw Scout Camp dining hall and storage facility was no match for blankets of heavy snow this last winter.
The site will soon have to be cleared out after camp leaders salvaged what they could.
“The whole end of the building came down,” explains Andy Anderson, Bear Paw Scout Camp Ranger.
Anderson says it was a partial building collapse that started when a roof caved in due to heavy snow.
“Our sail boats, chairs, all kinds of stuff, even our telescopes and everything like that were sitting underneath there,” he explains. “Those got crushed also.”
Additionally, there was years of scouts memorabilia inside.
Volunteers used an excavator to pull apart the rubble last month and recover some of the items inside.
Yet, scout leaders say rebuilding the old hall is unlikely.
“The construction is dated back to the 1950s, and if we were to try to reconstruct that same type of construction, it wouldn’t meet the current building codes,” says Anderson.
So, the decision was made to demolish.
“What we can do is go ahead and take down the building and clear the area, in the hopes that something new will come in, and then, of course, that will follow the modern construction techniques,” he explains.
The plan is to build a new storage building in a different part of the camp and for now the site will likely become green space.
But, summer camp gets underway in around six weeks and the site needs to be cleared prior to that.
“Obviously now you look at it, it’s a definite safety hazard, and we can’t have scouts running around in this area,” says Anderson.
Work could start in a week or two and it could take a couple days to remove the debris.
Bear Paw is located east of Mountain, in Oconto County, and about 5,800 scouts participate in programs offered there throughout the year.
