Lount Lodge Reborn

A recent photo of the lodge.

On July 11 Graham Lount came back to Camp Stephens.

His visit this summer was more than a trip down memory lane--it was business, too.

Graham Lount at the lodge's opening in 1981.

Lount, 90, provided the funding for the construction of Lount Lodge in 1980-81.

The retired founder of development company Shelter Corporation came back to see the log lodge and the wear-and-tear it's endured after 30 years of campers coming and going.

Lount and his family want to see the lodge last another 30 or more years, and have agreed to provide about $100,000 towards its restoration over the next three years, Lount's son Colin says.

Work will include a new roof, re-doing the interior floor, and cleaning and preserving the exterior walls.

"It looks like it's certainly in need of a retrofit and I'm glad it's going on," Colin said.

From left, Bruce Robinson, Bob Paterson, Punch Jackson and Graham Lount

"My father as a child was there for years and he enjoyed his time very much and so he got engaged with the building of Lount Lodge. He just turned 90 years old a week ago and he doesn't want to see it deterioriate. He'd like to see it be refurbished every 20 or whatever years it takes to keep it there forever."

I told Colin I was one of many people who helped cut down the trees and build the lodge, starting when I was 19. Here's an earlier post on the construction of the lodge, which remains a work in progress.

I explained on my recent visits to camp some of the problems with the building. That includes replacing three rotted posts the building sits on, powerwashing black mould (video) off the back of the building and the situation with the roof, specifically on the back left corner of the building where many of the cedar shakes are rotted.

Colin mused it might be better to put a metal roof on the building, but that's beyond my level of so-called expertise.

Anyway, as we ended our phone conversation he said he'd contact his father to visit the island to see the lodge. Within hours Graham Lount, who has a cottage on Lake of the Woods, was talking to Camp Director Steve Allen and others at the lodge, seeing things for himself.

"My father, he loves being involved with this sort of stuff," Colin said.

In a fitting way, this year's camp T-shirt features Lount Lodge.