The site of the Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship (FCF) Village is where almost all of the pageantry, mystique, ministry and soul searching takes place for this district.  Skills, Crafts, know-how, practices and pre-1850 lifestyle is observed.  This is a very attractive and enjoyable aspect of the Rangers ministry.  Top Notch men and boys are invited to polish their skills, knowledge and abilities and become candidates to be FCF members. There are hurtles and tests to assure that these individuals are spiritually sound, life-skill equipped, and Rangers ministry grounded.  These are the guys to reenact the strain, stretch, toughness and glory of our early American adventurers.  FCF is black powder, tommy hawk, knife, leather or rough garments, interaction with down to earth mother nature and a true ‘you-gotta-make-it-happen-yourself’ world.  It is great fun and attractive to folks who could possibly be drawn to the Royal Rangers ministry.

This site was somewhat of a crazy selection.  It was covered with large, beautiful, mature, pine timber…covered!  The pine beetle got us. 10s of thousands of dollars worth of pine timber was destroyed.  We had to chainsaw it all down and was sickening to do so.  In the end a great, great pile of logs and limbs covered the landscape…what to do?  We finally decided that burning was our best option. And burn we did.  It burned for days.  Of course, we watched it very carefully.  All was going well.  We were down to the very last…maybe 4-6 hours until totally gone and out.  Cmdr. Schramm (who lived nearby) volunteered to sit with it until done (a Ranger never leaves an unattended fire).  It was almost all over.  Cmdr. Schramm was sitting in his pickup watching things as it died down.  He went to sleep. The fire somehow managed to now get out in the few trees and pine straw on the edges.  He awoke when his pickup got hot and fire all around him!  He quickly backed his pickup well out of the way (surprisingly undamaged) and began to put out the escaping fire. It took hours but he managed it all alone (it was late at night now).  Exhausted but now safe…he returned to his pickup to crash.  We returned the next morning to find the entire hillside now black with ashes (the remaining timber was unhurt – just the burnt straw and under growth.  We were shocked at the site.  Cmdr. Schramm in his characteristic grin…told us ‘No problem’ now we have the whole hill side cleaned up!!!  He was cheerful, smutty, gritty, smelled of fire and truth be known…sagging a good deal as he now left it with us to go home…10 hours late!!!

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