Camp Timeline

Year Date Description 1860’s Land that would become Rancho Los Mochos is granted to the Central Pacific railway by the Federal Government. xxxx Central Pacific trades the land to the Crocker-Winship estate. Land is only used for Cattle grazing. 1910 02/08 Boy Scouts of America is formed. 1916 06/11 Oakland Area Council (council #21), BSA is organized. 1917 01/25 San Francisco Council (council #51), BSA is organized. 1944 06/04 686.4 acres of land is purchased by the Eastbay Auto Machinists Union, Local 1546 for $10,000 and presented to Oakland Area Council. Only Cattle trails allow access to the property that is known by the local residents as Sweetwater Springs. 1944 06/25 Council representatives take first tour of Los Mochos. 1945 01/24 Main road into camp is constructed by Navy Sea Bees from Camp Parks. 1945 06/17 First campout at Los Mochos when a group of 60 Scouts from the Southern District (Fremont) visit the new wilderness camp. 1945 07/27 Mary Teel leaves her property in San Lorenzo (624 Lewelling Blvd) to the Oakland Area Council for use as a camp. 1948 08/10 Camp Dimond in Oakland closes forever. 1949 01/09 Construction of Pool begins. Forms to build the swimming pool are built in the Camp Dimond mess hall. Sand filter from Camp Dimond pool (c 1925) is installed at Los Mochos and used until 2012. 1949 06/01 Kiwanis Building from Camp Dimond is moved to Los Mochos for use as the rangers house. The building is cut into three pieces and reassembled at Los Mochos. 1949 05/08 Los Mochos renamed Rancho Los Mochos as a Western Cattle Ranch theme. 1949 05/22 Rancho Los Mochos is used for the first time by the Order of the Arrow for the induction of new members into Machek N’Gult Lodge 1949 10/09 Warehouse/Garage, Training Center and Rangers Cabin are completed. A kitchen will not be installed until 1960. 1950 06/04 Water is piped to the Blue Oak Ridge and Manzanita Flats camping areas from an 80,000 gallon storage tank high above Blue Oak Ridge. 1950 05/07 Pool is completed when the cement walk-way around the pool is poured and finished by 10 members of the Cement Finishers Union 304. 1950 06/04 First swim takes place as pool is complete: 105 feet long, 45 feet wide, 12 feet deep and has a diving board. 1953 Teel Lodge (in honor of Mary Teel) and Camp Masters annex constructed. Camp Masters annex has a small kitchen and four bedrooms. 1953 06/07 Rancho Los Mochos is officially dedicated as a Wilderness Camp along with the Memorial marker donated by the Auto Mechanics Union. After the dedication a demonstration of life saving and water safety is carried out by the Dimond-O aquatics director. 1953 Chapel Constructed by members of Oakland Kiwanis Club. 1953 Lou Josephs becomes ranger at Los Mochos 1954 01/17 5500 Trees are planted around camp including Sierra Redwoods, Monterey Pines, Coulter Pines and Arizona Cypress. Trees were planted at Chapel Hill, Blue Oak Ridge, Deadwood Springs, Central Camping Area, Windmill Area, Meadow, and Flagpole hill and slope. 1956 Barn and Corral are constructed near the activity field 1956 Rifle Range is constructed. Initially it is nothing more than a flat area where mattresses can be placed for prone shooting 1958 07/27 Waterline construction near the current activity field unearths some old objects. 1960 04/03 Rifle Range is upgraded to an actual open range covered structure. 1960 04/03 Kitchen is created when a section of the warehouse is walled off and old engine mounts removed from the floor to provide space for a Kitchen that will be used for conferences and weekend events. 1964 02/10 Oakland and San Francisco Council’s merge to form the San Francisco Bay Area Council. 1967 05/01 Deadwood camping area of Los Mochos is dedicated after a new water tank is installed. Water for the Deadwood area comes from Deadwood Springs. 1967 07/02 300 acre brush fire threatens Los Mochos but was driven back by 13 fire trucks and 7 tanker planes 1969 Stan Falk becomes Ranger at Los Mochos ( 1971 Al Robinson becomes Ranger at Los Mochos 1979 Jasper Steele becomes Ranger at Los Mochos 1983 Jerry Abad becomes Ranger at Los Mochos 1990 Campfire area is moved from Activity field (next to Chapel Hill trail) to current location. 1992 Accessibility campsite is installed near main campfire ring 2002 Pool House/bunkhouse is re-purposed into a shower house with individual bathroom stalls. 2006 Penny Decker becomes Ranger at Los Mochos 2008 Backdrop is constructed at Campfire ring 2008 02/01 Dining hall is closed for three months due to fracture in main support beam. Upgraded dining hall has an open beam ceiling, the old dining hall had a drop down ceiling. 2014 Nature Lodge is converted into bunkhouse with six bedrooms 2014 Teel lodge bathroom is removed and Camp Masters kitchen is removed and converted into a bedroom. 2015 400 foot well is sunk at the top of Observatory Hill for emergency water purposes 2019 James Ewing becomes Program Director at Los Mochos 2020 04/27 San Francisco Bay Area Council, Alameda Council and Mt. Diablo-Silverado Council merge to form the Golden Gate Area Council. 2020 05/01 Weekend camping was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic from April through October. 2020 09/01 Fires near Los Mochos require ranger to be evacuated from the camp for a week. Luckily camp is not affected.