The Forest of the Lost Green Cathedral
"Travel down to the Gemini bridge [ aka Cobbledam Bridge] and past Gemini Cabin and into the Pine Forest....on your left...Once into the Forest on this path (about 40 yards), look out for the Green Cathedral. You are looking for old rotted logs in the forest about 10 yards off the path.
"Green Cathedral: was built about 25 years ago [ placing it circa 1973] by Senior Girl Scouts for a service project. If you look around it, you will see the logs used as pews and the rocks that made the pulpit and even the cross made of logs. Note: the pine trees are shaved clean so that no one will hurt themselves. Look up. Do you understand why one might choose this place fora cathedral?"
"Green Cathedral: was built about 25 years ago [ placing it circa 1973] by Senior Girl Scouts for a service project. If you look around it, you will see the logs used as pews and the rocks that made the pulpit and even the cross made of logs. Note: the pine trees are shaved clean so that no one will hurt themselves. Look up. Do you understand why one might choose this place fora cathedral?"
-Commentary by Renee Lisa Antoine, troop 1876; as part of a camp resource notebook that she compiled for her Gold Award. One copy was placed in every Crowell / Hilaka campsite. Lisa wrote graduated from Strongsville High School in1998 and finished the project shortly afterwards.
1951
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1980
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The pine forest itself has a story. It was planted as a Christmas tree farm shortly after the Girl Scouts bought the Neal property which they later named "Hilaka". The purchase put the Cleveland Council into debt, and the sale of Christmas trees was a way of earning extra money. What became Gemini Road was the original driveway into Camp Hilaka. The cleared space just south of Gemini Road (visible in the 1951 image on the left) was perfect for planting the trees and the road was perfect for eventual customer access.
In the two images above, the two lakes and the gas cut are reference points. Thirty years after the left view, the right had view shows that bands of dark conifers have filled in the cleared area.
Troop 131 of Bedford searched for the Green Cathedral after reading Renee's book, but we were never able to find it. In 2009, the newly formed Friends of Crowell Hilaka enlisted the help of Spazz, the 1999 summer camp director. She led u confidently up Gemini Road and into the Forest. But no evidence of the Green Cathedral could be found. It had disappeared without a trace.
In the two images above, the two lakes and the gas cut are reference points. Thirty years after the left view, the right had view shows that bands of dark conifers have filled in the cleared area.
Troop 131 of Bedford searched for the Green Cathedral after reading Renee's book, but we were never able to find it. In 2009, the newly formed Friends of Crowell Hilaka enlisted the help of Spazz, the 1999 summer camp director. She led u confidently up Gemini Road and into the Forest. But no evidence of the Green Cathedral could be found. It had disappeared without a trace.