Maggie Loves Weaver: Camp

A great write-up of this place that is legendary to our family.

MUCH thanks to Milo Walker and John Weaver Rarity III!

McKain’s Camp 2/18/2021

The camp owes its beginning to Ed McKain, Milo Walker Sr. (Pappy), and a friend named Ed Kemper. Ed McKain was the father of Beatrice; now known to most of us as Granny Bea. Milo and Bea were married. Ed owned McKain Manufacturing Company and Milo owned a car dealership – both businesses were located in Canoga Park, California I believe. McKain came up with the idea of acquiring some property out in the boondocks where family and his employees could recreate and have fun. OK – PARTY! I don’t know who originally owned the land, but McKain acquired 12 acres of property located in a valley canopied with old oak trees and watered year around by a stream running through the length of the acreage from south east to north west. It was very secluded and located at the end of what is now named McKain Rd., which begins at Stump Rd. which in turn connects to Mulholland Hwy. I’m guessing that this occurred during the early 1930’s.

McKain, Pappy and Kemper went about building a dance hall, some small cabins and eventually two houses; one on the N/W part of the property near the creek that was known as ‘Dora’s cabin’. The house on the south side of the creek a little ways up the slope was known as the ‘main house’. There was a house across the creek from Dora’s cabin that was considered McKain’s house. John Rarity 3 recalls that McKain died in that house and it became known as ‘Dora’s House’ when she moved into it later. There was also a small cabin near the dance hall called Zylpha’s cabin. Kemper built a one room log cabin on his 10 acre parcel abutting the camp not far from the creek. The dance hall burned down during a fire that also destroyed the water holding tank up the slope from main house. The fire also destroyed Dora’s cabin and Zylpha’s cabin. There was a generator near the bottom of the drive coming into the camp and it supplied power for lights in many of the buildings. Both of the main houses were using gravity fed water systems from small streams above them. I don’t recall the houses having toilets; outhouses were used. I remember the outhouse near the main house contained a Sears catalog for perusal to stop you from worrying about getting bit on the butt by a spider while doing your business. At a later date the outdoor kitchen was built by Weaver below the main house near a bridge that connected the north side of the property with the south side. Pictures of the kitchen show like large windows all the way around…. They were all screened (no glass installed) to keep flies out but let any breezes in. Between the outdoor kitchen and the main house was a small bunkhouse which was known as John’s house because Milo Jr. lived in it for awhile (I know – it gets really confusing. Milo Jr. was also called Mike or John at certain times in his life).

Maggie and Weaver moved to the camp in 1939 when their son John Jr. was 3 yrs old. In 1945 Milo Jr. married Kay and had a son, Milo #3, which would be me! They moved into Kemper’s Cabin for a time. Dora came to live in the ‘McKain’s house’ with husband Mert. Over time Maggie and Weaver acquired land (6 acres) near the intersection of Mulholland Hwy. and Stump Rd. where they proceeded to build a home. When the home was built the Rarity Clan which now included Milo 3 (me!) moved into it from the Camp. Zylpha, Peter and Betty Brent then moved into the main House which the Rarity’s had vacated. The Camp aided many folks during the rebuild after the Depression and through the years of WW 2.

For me, the Camp was a wondrous playground. When the weather got hot us kids would dam up parts of the creek to use as shallow ‘swimming’ holes for cooling off. We had bikes for getting around and all of the trees and hills were my playground. I would hike about ¾ mile from the house on Mulholland Hwy. down to the Camp to see Betty and Peter Brent, and cousin Packy. There were very few homes in the general area and none with kids my age, so I was often on my own to play, explore the hills and just be a kid. I had a BB rifle and a bow with arrows…… Life was good. ~ Written by Milo C Walker III, aka, "little Mike", aka "Cannonball"

Here are a few pictures and a map of how the "Camp" property was set up.

The period that these pictures are from is mostly the 40s.