The BC Division was once two divisions, North and South. Camp Mountainview was the camp assigned to the Northern Corps. The first Divisional Youth Secretary was there from 1981-1984, Lieutenant Donna Barthau.
Lieutenant Donna began her work by focusing on the junior soldier and corps cadets program. Like many after her, she recognized the need and potential for developing leaders in these northern corps. Almost immediately she met so many capable servants of Christ in the corps that really needed to be resourced. In the Nisga’a and Gitxsan villages, she focused on teacher training.
The Salvation Army camping began in the north by renting a facility in the Terrace area for two weeks in the summer. The first week would be a holiday camp, mainly for kids not yet connected to The Salvation Army. The second week would be a junior soldier camp for children already committed to the programs. By 1983, these camps were too full and children were being turned away.
Lieutenant Barthau was always looking for ways to develop and encourage the young people. One idea she had was creating a corps cadets honour student that had to meet certain criteria. The honour student would then get to be a Junior Leader at the camp. The first winner of this honour was Davey Griffin.
There was a territorial program that created a Youth Service Corps. This group of young people were cadets or young leaders that came from other provinces to help run the summer camp in BC North. These years of growth and camping were vibrant and lots of work was put in by many hands. The Divisional Commanders in 1981 were the Kerrs, followed by Lloyd Eason. The Northern BC division was an exciting place to be, there was an incredible Easter congress in 1982. During this congress, they showcased the children of the north – their singing, scripture readings, and enthusiasm really impressed the Territorial Commander. The young people were incredibly vibrant.
One of the first things Lieutenant Donna brought to her new Divisional Commander was the need for a camp. He told her to immediately begin looking for a property. They decided to move away from the Terrace area and look for a camp property more central to the northern region. If the camp was more central perhaps they could reach other kids in the Prince George area while still working with the children in the Gitxsan and Nisga’a nation. Divisional Headquarters was in Prince Rupert, but it made more sense for the camp to be more central.
Lieutenant Donna began meeting with a real estate agent in the Smithers area. The first property they saw was beautiful but very remote. It wasn’t accessible to most vehicles and would likely involve helicopters. They looked and looked but really couldn’t find anything that could work. The Salvation Army decided to ask for a hay field instead that they could repurpose as a camp. That was when they were shown the current Camp Mountainview property at the top of Hungry Hill. It wasn’t perfect, it had no waterfront that could be used for children. There was also no housing for staff, though there was a very old farmhouse that could possibly be renovated. And because it was prime farmland, at that time the price was $250,000. Finally, in 1984, they purchased the camp. After meeting the youth at the Easter congress years before, the Territorial commander helped find the money they needed.
Everyone was ecstatic with the purchase, Prince George was finally able to participate. This was really important because youth ministry in the north was sometimes seen as “native youth ministry”. The goal was to have a camp where kids from Gitxsan and Nisga’a villages could participate as well as kids from Prince George and further east. Divisional buy-in and ownership were really important. May long weekend was really fun at the camp, over 100 people came to work on it and get it ready for summer. There was mandatory attendance for all corps cadets on this first-ever work weekend.
The original vision was to use the large hayfield away from the house for recreational camping. It could be developed so RVs could be pulled out there, the hope was that this would be financially viable for the camp to turn a profit.
With the work done, it was time to name the camp. A contest was held in the division to choose the name. Because of the view from the back hayfield, Camp Mountainview was chosen.