Pastor Sees Outreach Opportunity in Old Camp and Pool

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Key points:

  • For the last three years, the Rev. Ricky Begley has been leading an effort to repair and update 76-acre Fort Blackmore Camp, a 100-year-old camp owned by Holston Conference's Appalachian District since 1956.
  • The pastor's first goal is to rebuild a pool for neighbors in Scott County, which currently does not have a public pool.
  • The 2023 disaffiliations of some Appalachian District churches from the United Methodist denomination took a toll on the camp’s support base.
  • Encouragement and donations from the community keep Begley and others working toward a vision of reoffering the camp as a faith-based community center.

FORT BLACKMORE, Va. -- The Rev. Ricky Begley was eating lunch at the local deli last week when a woman who had been staring at him finally asked, “Are you Ricky Begley?”

A conversation followed, in which Begley gave the woman an update on the old United Methodist pool and campground he’s trying to revive. The woman asked how much he needed to finish the pool and wrote out a $50,000 check.

Things like that happen often enough to keep Begley working toward a vision requiring a lot of his own sweat and tears yet a vision he believes is powered by God.

“It’s the Lord’s doing,” he says. “There’s too much going on for the Lord not to be involved in this.”

For the last three years, Begley has been leading an effort to repair and update 76-acre Fort Blackmore Camp as a place to share the Gospel and love of Christ. Begley’s initial goal was to reopen a pool that hasn’t been used in 15 years so the young people of Scott County would have a place to swim again by May 2024. Currently, Scott County, located in Southwest Virginia, doesn’t have a public pool.

The 2023 disaffiliations of some local churches from Holston Conference’s Appalachian District, which owns Fort Blackmore Camp, took a toll on the camp’s support base. Begley lost several members of the camp board he chairs. Publicity around the recent United Methodist General Conference also incited a few community members to speak against supporting the camp.

“We live in a world where our main commitment should be to love people,” Begley says, “and one thing we’re not doing well is, we’re not loving each other.”

The completion and reopening of the pool hasn’t happened yet, although Begley and others are hopeful Fort Blackmore Camp can soon be offered to a new generation of community members.

“The pool was always a big draw,” says Mary Beth Vaughn, who remembers many summer days as a Fort Blackmore camper, counselor, and camper parent. She is a member at nearby Midway Memorial United Methodist Church in Gate City, Virginia.

“When we had to close the pool, attendance went down. I think my daughter was one of the last lifeguards,” Vaughn said.

The camp is about 100 years old, started by Episcopal missionaries as the Cumberland Mission in the 1920s. Holston Conference’s former Big Stone Gap District bought the camp in 1956. Generations of community members remember Fort Blackmore Camp as a faith-based hub for reunions, cookouts, ballgames, swimming, food and clothing missions, as well as a place for district get-togethers, summer camp and revivals.

“This is where I first sang in a church,” says Begley, gesturing toward the creek-side site where a one-room church used to stand on camp property. 

For the last seven years, Begley has done his singing and preaching as the local pastor at Smith’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Gate City, Virginia. Prior to that, he was a youth director, along with his wife Leigh Ann Begley, at Hiltons Memorial United Methodist Church in Hiltons, Virginia.

Begley has ties to Fort Blackmore Camp not only as a United Methodist but also as a member of a native family.  

“My dad was raised up on Big Stoney Creek, probably two miles up the road,” Begley says. “I’ve got a picture album of the camp, back in the day. A lot of names written below the pictures are kinfolk. My cousin Betty said if it hadn’t been for the camp, she would have never known Jesus.”

When Begley was invited to participate on the Fort Blackmore Camp board in 2020, he was excited about helping the Appalachian District restore the camp after a decade or so of decline. He was surprised when the committee considered filling up the pool and selling the camp.

“I was thinking, ‘Where is your faith?’” Begley remembers. “Most of our churches nowadays, the youth are missing. What better way to get youth involved but to rebuild the pool? What a ministry it could be, an outreach for different kinds of people who won’t even go to church.”

Begley responded to the camp board by expressing his passion and vision for bringing the pool and camp back to life. “Next thing I know, I’m the chairperson,” he says.

As a man with a full-time excavating and construction business, Begley realized how much work the camp needed. He started raising money and was gifted $150,000 by a friend who enjoyed the camp as a child. A couple of barbecue, bluegrass and blood drive fundraisers brought in $48,000 total in donations. Others from the community heard about the project, got excited, and made donations of money, labor, or equipment.

The donations kept rolling in, and the hard work started. “It’s unreal what we’ve cleaned up and cleaned out,” Begley says.

In addition to cleaning out buildings, Begley and a small crew improved mowing and maintenance of the property, put in a new heat pump, made bathrooms handicap-accessible, and installed new kitchen equipment. Internet accessibility was donated by two local utilities.

With the help of friends with various skills, Begley rebuilt a 69-feet long and 27-feet wide pool, pouring eight inches of concrete and using at least $20,000 worth of steel. A new shed was constructed where “nanna and pappa can watch the grandkids,” he says.

Begley also found new ways to put fresh energy into the camp. A congregation that split from a local Baptist church, now named Stony Creek Fellowship Church, worships in the main building every Sunday. For the last two springs, Fort Blackmore Camp has hosted Easter egg hunts attracting as many as 250 participants and an annual “trout derby,” made possible by stocking 400 pounds of fish in the creek that runs through the camp.

“If you could only see the happy faces of those kids on trout derby day,” Begley says.

In the year since some churches in the Appalachian District departed the denomination in April 2023, Begley has occasionally felt that support for the camp was waning. He was disappointed when the pool project temporarily stalled, and the projected May 2024 opening date was delayed.

Yet encouragement from community members inspires Begley to keep going – like the $50,000 check that was handed to him at lunch last week, given in memory of a father who loved Fort Blackmore Camp as a child. 

“That spurs me on, and it lets me know that when God does something, he does it good,” Begley said.

Begley’s still hoping to open the pool before the end of summer, estimating the pool is “85% to 90% finished” save for a new fence, pump, and some plumbing and electrical work. In the future, Begley envisions hiring a camp director, adding a walking trail and softball field, and building a new lodge and cabins to replace aging structures or those that no longer exist. 

Vaughn joins Begley in seeing the potential for an updated Fort Blackmore Camp. She plans to offer a Vacation Bible School for the community July 10-13, a tradition she and her family have kept alive in recent years, even amid the camp’s decline. 

“This is God’s camp. It’s not just United Methodist,” Vaughn said. “There are a lot of things we could do to benefit the whole community.”

Wesley Eastridge, a retired physician who previously worked in Southwest Virginia, now serves as Appalachian District lay leader. He sees opportunities for the camp to again serve as a district gathering place, hosting youth pool parties, fish fries, and spiritual retreats.

“There is enthusiasm among the local people there, which looks to me like the Holy Spirit is in this project,” said Eastridge, a member of First Broad Street United Methodist Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. “This is something they’re excited about so I’m excited.”

The Rev. Will Shewey now pastors Shades of Grace United Methodist Church in Kingsport, but he previously served as Begley’s pastor at Hiltons Memorial United Methodist Church. Shewey also remembers how Fort Blackmore Camp once served as a vibrant ministry, drawing people from Scott County and beyond to the wooded acreage at 464 Methodist Camp Lane.

“I know the world is changing, but we can still offer children a wonderful camp experience,” Shewey said. “I have the utmost faith that Fort Blackmore Camp can be whatever it was in its heyday, and Ricky Begley is the man to do it.” Annette Spence serves as editor of The Call, Holston Conferences news publication. Holston Conference includes 545 United Methodist churches in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and North Georgia, with main offices in Alcoa, Tennessee.