Camp Obediah

Mon May 4 00:10:05 EDT 2020

 I can remember a special train which ran annually, in the late '40's, from Roanoke to Bluefield with Roanoke officials for a picnic day. My memory was that Dad said they were going to Falls Mills (where N&W supposedly owned some kind of park facility), but it is possible that sometimes their destination was Camp Obediah. Anyway, it was an annual outing for the brass, and they came to Bluefield on their own special train of business cars, pulled by a streamlined K2 or K2a.
Jim Nichols
    On Sunday, May 3, 2020, 11:47:34 AM CDT, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:  

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Ken,

Thank you. Some stories indicate the N&W owned the camp and other stories indicate it did not. The confusion probably comes about because the N&W used the Camp on an annual basis from 1933 through 1966 except for WW II, but other Bluefield groups, such as the garden club and church, also used the camp.

The camp was constructed somewhere around 1932. It was constructed by W.O. (William Obediah) Tracy who was General Superintendent of the Western Division, along with his friends George Dunglinson, Harry Weller, P.D. Woods and Dr. Wade Sinclair among others. The camp gave way to I-77 in June 1972.

I just found a news article from 1946 indicating the model train was built at the Bluefield shops and a 1500-foot track was set up at the camp for the demonstration.

Can anyone identify other people in the photo. W.J. Jenks was also in attendance.

You can contact me offline at aschust2 at comcast.net.

Alex Schust 

From: NW-Mailing-List [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2020 9:26 AM
To: NW Mailing List
Subject: Re: Camp Obediah

Alex

Cannot speak to the cost of the meetings, I’m sure that was covered in a budget item.

N&W apparently owned Camp Obedah as it had a live steam track to run the Cowling model Class J from Bluefield on, and signage matching the real thing in many cases. In particular, one which shows in the photo the sign on the tree reads:

“The Powhatan Arrow’s little brother, a jolly lad is he.

He takes you for a joy ride and as you know, it’s free

For the Arrow’s little brother ain’t hear of the ICC.”

The tall man with the white hair in the group of three on the right is R.H. Smith.

Ken Miller

On May 3, 2020, at 9:02 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

Does anyone know if the N&W owned or contributed to the upkeep of Camp Obediah  near Rocky Gap, Va?

Does anyone know the general cost of any of the annual gathering at Camp Obediah sponsored by the N&W from 1938 through 1966? 

Did anyone on this list ever go to one of the gatherings?

Alex Schust
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