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08/06/2002
The hundreds of firefighters battling the enormous Florence and Sour Biscuit Fires have managed to save almost every building in the threatened Illinois Valley.
But they were too late to save the historic McCaleb Ranch, a Boy Scout camp destroyed July 26.
Boy Scout executive Ed Walsh said it is too soon to say whether the ranch will be rebuilt.
Located along the Illinois River, 12 miles west of Selma, the 106 acre camp was surrounded by thick forest and had a three-bedroom ranch house donated to the Boy Scouts in 1960 by the late Betty McCaleb.
A week after the fire went through, Weiseth said, it is still too dangerous to enter the camp area to assess the damage. Besides the ranch house, the camp included two old miner's cabins.
Reports of the camp's destruction came from helicopter surveillance.
The camp was said to be different from other Boy Scout camps because of the ruggedness of the terrain, adjacent to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. Most Boy Scouts slept in tents, and used the camp as a base to hike into the wilderness.
"It has some gorgeous timber," Weiseth said. "That's what I'm really sick about. It can never be replaced, not in my lifetime."
Betty McCaleb had lived on the property from 1927 -- her husband, Bob, died in 1958. The McCalebs mined gold and chrome, raised some cattle, and were largely self-sufficient, according to area news accounts.
Betty McCaleb continued to live in the ranch house until her death in 1994 at age 94. She is buried on the property next to her husband.
Weiseth said he hoped the McCaleb headstones had survived. If not, he said, "We'll build from there. We want to preserve that site."
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)