The Yates Lodge at Camp WaBak

In one of my previous blog posts, I talked about visiting the Greenville (SC) Library in the hopes of finding out information about Charles H. Yates.  One of the lodges at Camp WaBak is named after him, and there’s a very interesting item in the lodge itself that has always piqued my curiosity.  When I arrived at the library, I found out that The Greenville News archives are not indexed, so my researching hopes went out the window.  The library staff did find Mr. Yates’ death certificate.  I didn’t ask for it nor did I really want it, but the woman who gave it to me seemed very excited to have found it, so I just smiled and said thank you even though it was a little morbid.  I ended up discovering articles about the purchase of WaBak instead, which was just as exciting to me if not moreso than what I had originally intended for my visit. 

Fast forward to this past weekend when I just happened to notice that Newspapers.com now carries The Greenville News  – and it’s indexed!!!  I about passed out.  Well, not really, but it sounds dramatic to say that.  Needless to say, I couldn’t sign up for a free trial fast enough and went to work researching everything I could find out about WaBak – and the mysterious Charles H. Yates!

So what is behind my fascination with Mr. Yates?  When you enter the lodge, one of the first things you notice is this painting:

Yes, this is the famous Mr. Yates.  Before he passed away in 1944, he was best known in the Greenville, SC community as the manager of the local Coca-Cola Bottling Plant and for his contributions to youth organizations during his lifetime.  Mr. Yates sounds like he was a very kind person.  However, his eyepatch sometimes creeps out girls who are staying overnight in the lodge.  Leaders have been known to drape a sheet over the painting or just take it down altogether before bedtime.  Personally, I’ve always wanted to make a duplicate of the painting but with the eyepatch over the other eye, switch it out during the night, and then see if anyone notices.  It doesn’t take much to entertain me.

Mr. Yates requested in his will that his sizable estate be distributed to support his two sisters and to also fund area organizations that serve youth.  So in 1968, the trustees created grants from the Yates trust fund, and the following were the recipients:

• Old 96 Girl Scout council
• Salvation Army Boys Club
• Greenville YWCA
• Furman University
• Thornwell Orphanage
• Greenville YMCA

At the annual meeting in February of 1968, the Old 96 Girl Scout council revealed its plans for a new lodge:

The name of the donor wasn’t revealed at that time, but it was before the dedication date of June 9th, 1968:

As noted in The Greenville News article, the aforementioned portrait was revealed at that time.  I’ve been told that originally the portrait didn’t include his eyepatch, but his family didn’t feel like it really looked like him without it.  So the artist added the eyepatch after the fact.  In fact, if you look at the painting very closely, you can see the original eye’s layer.  This adds to the creepy factor for some people, but not me.  I think it just adds character to the painting.  And layers.

There’s also a plaque featuring a touching quote inside the lodge:

Thank you, Mr. Yates.