History of Hume Lake Christian Camp
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Hume Lake Christian Camps began as Fellowship Conferences and was founded by Walter Warkentin and partners in 1945 in Dinuba, California. Walt Warkentin, Dave Hofer, Hermon Pettit and John Strain formed the Fellowship Conferences after meeting to pray about their relationship with God. Walter Warkentin was named director when the group drew their assignments written on slips of paper that had been placed in a bible.
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On January 9, 1946, 320 acres of land was purchased for the camp adjacent to Hume Lake at a cost of $140,000. After the purchase, the land was cleared for buildings and roads. Trees were selectively cut that posed safety risks yielding 2 million board feet of lumber. Don French managed a small sawmill that was built to handle the lumber. Many of the facilities were re-purposed from the mill town built by the property's original owners the Hume-Bennett Lumber Company.