[photo by Richard & Donna Burns]
Camp Armac - some history
Then ... 1968
[photo by Richard & Donna Burns]
Now ... 2008
Many of you may have wondered what happened to Camp Armac since 1968. Jim Griffith & I have been carrying on an exchange for a while (Mar-May 2008) regarding the location and history of Camp Armac. I live about 15 minutes from the old site but had not been back there since 1968. The whole area is now quite developed and a major freeway (I-405) is close by.
Ironically, Jim, located in Brazil, was able to find directions via MapQuest to the site. However, the address according to our Training Syllabus, 1631 228th St., Bothell, is clearly wrong (or they changed the streets) because it is some distance from the freeway and we could see the freeway going in when we were at Camp Armac. Jim sent me directions to the site (20th Ave. SE & 225th St. SE) and on Sat., April 5, 2008, I drove to the site. It is a loop road now with single family homes; you can hear the roar of the nearby freeway. I was surprised to see a swimming pool at the corner of 20th Ave. SE & 225th St. SE. A sign indicated that it was a community swimming pool. I talked to a woman who lived across the street and she said that the pool was there when she moved in, ten years ago. We think it is highly unlikely that the pool was built when the houses were built.
Early aerial photos of the
area were obtained from the city of Bothell, Office of Community Development.
The following compares a 1976 aerial photo
with a 2007 image from Google Earth:
If you want a closer look at how developed the area is, open up (or download) Google Earth (make sure the Toolbar is showing - under View). Then enter the N. latitude and W. longitude in the box: 47.7940,-122.2077
That should point to the center of the pool.
Some comments:
There was evidently little land use change from 1965 to 1976. The only major change is a large trailer park due East of Armac which doesn't appear in the 1965 photos.
The bridle track was built between 1961 and 1965. The wooden fence was still there in 1968. There was still one horse too! Jim remembers Jerry Reed riding it bareback one evening. Apparently the dorms, the Quonset hut and the pool were already there in 1961.
What was going on to the immediate right (East) of the camp entrance road? Looks like a small Christmas tree farm, or orchard or cemetery! Now it is apartments so must not have been a cemetery.
The development around Armac today is impressive. Most of it is urban sprawl, but I notice someone created an attractive wetland just east of Armac which drains into the creek that passed through camp. Looking at the old photos, the wetland didn't exist then. The site was formerly a drained agricultural field (you can see the drainage ditches). The creek goes under 228 St SE and then runs south to where it drains into the Sammamish River river and then Lake Washington.
There is little doubt the present Village Square community pool is our old Armac pool. The present pool is aligned exactly as the old one - notice its diagonal alignment is exactly parallel with I-405's alignment in both old and present photos.
Camp Armac was used for the following purposes:
Apparently, the camp closed
in 1979. The city of Bothell has little information on Camp Armac
because it was outside the city limits. According to an email from a
former City of Bothell Landmark Preservation Planner, the buildings were burned
by the City of Bothell Fire Department. In 1967 a Peace Corps (Bolivia) group
trained
at Camp Armac in Feb.-Mar. -- not a nice weather time around here. Jack
van Olst located the pool and drove to it in the early 1990s or so.
----
Jeff Breiwick & Jim
Griffith, May 2008