EASTON: We had a real blast

Reading your ongoing, and recent, articles on Camp Easton brings back a few memories.

I was a Boy Scout in Mullan in the ‘50s. My buddy, Snuffy (Dale Smith) and I attended Camp Easton twice. We had a great time there.

One summer there was a drive to clean up a lot of the property by clearing underbrush and trees, mainly on the east side of Highway 97, where the rifle range was. There might have been an archery range too, but I don’t recall for sure now. I do recall that there didn’t seem to be much problem with the highway, we just followed the advice we learned from our mommas — “Look both ways!” Well, maybe there is more traffic now than there was then.

The clean-up involved groups of scouts from all over. We got it pretty well cleaned up, but there was a large tree on the east side of 97 that was right smack in the way of progress. The tree was cut down, but, of course, the stump was still there, and as much of a hindrance as the tree was. Getting heavy equipment in there to yank it out was not a possibility. The solution was to blow it out.

My buddy Snuff and I got picked to accompany the Scout Master, Mr. Johnson, to go to Easton to do it. We went during the middle of the week when there weren’t other people around. We took digging tools and dug a cavity under the stump. We watched as Mr. Johnson put a blasting cap in the dynamite and put the dynamite in the hole. When he lit it off we ran like crazy to the safety of some big trees. Shortly, it went off with a mighty “Ka-Boom.” Then a moment later a big “whump” as the stump returned to Earth. Talk about a thrilling experience for a couple of young boys.

ART ANDERSON

Mullan