“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper:
• IT WILL TAKE MORE THAN A NEAR-DEADLY BOLT OF LIGHTNING AND A DEVASTATING FIRE to shake the faith of souls at the Shetek Baptist Bible Camp.
“Praise the Lord that no one was hurt,” said camp administrator Steve Harms, as he surveyed the charred wreckage of what was once the Clarke Center at the well-known Lake Shetek camp. The camp’s dining hall and retreat center was destroyed by fire Saturday night after being struck by lightening.
Eighty men from a four-state area were attending a church retreat at the camp Saturday. The group was just about to pray before their evening meal when lightning struck the building. The time was about 6:10 p.m.
“There was a big flash and a loud clap,” Harms recalled. No one at first realized the building had been struck. At the moment the lightning struck, Jesse and Julie Harms were outdoors near the Clark Center’s rear entrance grilling meat. They recalled later that the sky flashed blue-white as the thunderclap struck.
“Wow, that one was really close,” they said to each other. Supper began indoors. Steve Harms made reference to the thunderstorm by reading a Bible verse from Colossians.
“We are praying that you will be filled with His Mighty glorious strength, no matter what happens, always full of the joy of the Lord.” The words were to soon have extra poignancy.
The meal finished, most of the men left the building, headed for a 7 p.m. chapel service. A leader stayed behind to discuss the final bill with Harms. He left for the chapel at about 7:15 p.m., and happened to look back. Flames were licking through the roof of the Clarke Center.
“He came running back in and said, ‘the building is on fire. Everyone has got to get out.’” Harms remembered.
What is important, Harms feels, is how people responded to the fire. He said that he is convinced that “the angels of the Lord” were watching over the people in the Clarke Center, and kept the fire from harming them.”
The 40-acre camp, located on the southwest corner of Lake Shetek, was established in 1948. It is owned by a group of 14 churches.
• Last week’s answer: Bob O’Reilly and Brad Maitland purchased Tracy’s Mobile home park from Claire and Lota Hannasch in the year 2000.
