Gillette has been working on its Camplex facility for years – adding event centers, gymnasiums, porta-potties and parking lots. Many improvements were made in anticipation of some 50-60,000 youth campers with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church visiting for a week. A daunting number for any Wyoming town, but equally, an opportunity to see how Gillette, population 33,000, likes being a national and, sometimes, international destination.
“Gillette has been so friendly. I love Wyoming,” said Geoff Sewell from California. "What a welcoming town. I mean, the Camporee is, like, twice the size of Gillette, and they want us? That’s so awesome, it’s like, 'Gillette, shout out! Love you, Gillette! Thank you for having us!'”
Sewell, like many other pastors, leaders and youth ministers, arrived in Gillette the weekend prior to Camporee to assist with preparations for the thousands of young Pathfinders on their way. Pathfinders are like the Boy and Girl Scouts, but with the church. It’s made up of clubs and conferences from around the planet, gathering once every five years for a week of worship.
Once they arrived in Gillette, they turned the Camplex into a sort of city campus, complete with classes, expos, temporary bus stops, golf cart transports, and a seemingly endless flow of RVs. Some, like Jari Sosa from Minnesota, came prepared with water, fire extinguishers, and power generators for his Pathfinder group.
“Just, like, those little things that the campers and their families might not know about when they come and they might forget,” said Sosa. “And, you know, it's not just super easy to just run out to Walmart with 55,000 other campers who forgot a toothbrush.”
The local Walmart was densely packed with shoppers gathering camping supplies and foods. The added influx of people caused congestion around the highway exits and the Camplex facilities as well. That wasn’t a bother for some but it was a hassle for others.
“When 60,000 come in, you got three times more people in town, so everything you do is three times more ruckus,” said Lonny Flack with Black Hills Trucking, a local trucking company. “It's just a rat race when more people show up to town. Kind of messes up your schedule, so. I'm not a fan of disruption.”
Downtown businesses weren’t sure what to expect. Many prepared for above average amounts of new customers, like Michelle Sarah, owner of Hands on Pottery.
Sarah brought her business to the campers. She set up a booth in the Camplex for Pathfinders to paint commemorative art piece keepsakes. Sarah said it’s a popular craft, and she had to increase the seating to accommodate how many people signed up for classes later in the week.
“People have signed up for the off-site, which is here at our studio, that is already full. People have already signed up and registered and whatnot,” said Sarah.
Up the street, Casey Mills, who owns the Teacher’s Corner Kids Mart, said she’d been looking forward to the event.
“We’re excited to see everybody. We love meeting people and we have a map up here so everybody can put where they're from on the map, ” said Mills.
In a follow-up call to Mills, she said that the event was overall a good thing for the community. She appreciated community service projects done by the pathfinders, and that they “cleaned up after themselves nicely.”
“I just think it has to do with what our town can handle,” Mills said over the phone. “And how people treat it. I think people would like to see more events at the Camplex, which I think is great too, but to the size of the Camporee, maybe not so much all the time.”
Gillette voters also made that clear when they approved a tax to help build an outdoor multi-use arena at the Camplex that may host major rodeo events in the future. City Administrator Mike Cole agreed with Mills, suggesting the Camporee is a massive undertaking, but other Camplex events could help to grow Gillette’s travel industry.
“Concerts, trade shows, and similar type outdoor recreation events. We’re looking forward to promoting the success of this event with other future events,” said Cole.
Ultimately, Camporee goers got the full Wyoming experience. Some enjoyed the beautiful sunsets, some visited downtown Gillette, and some took time to visit Devils Tower. However, everyone got to see western weather first hand. A severe storm sent many campers inside the Camplex to seek shelter early in the week, and weather eventually shut down the Friday night stage show as well as sent some campers home early. Regardless of the last minute rain out, the Pathfinders website has the next Camporee set for August 6-12, 2029. Location: This little place on the map called Gillette, Wyoming.
