Couple adds warm face to popular local campground

Scott Swanson

In the 10 years since it was born, River Bend County Park has grown significantly, with new features appearing each year for the many campers who’ve become regular visitors.

It’s also grown in usage. This year, it was nearly sold out through April and is rapidly approaching the popularity that Sunnyside, Linn County’s top camping facility, enjoys.

What hasn’t changed, though, for nearly River Bend’s entire existence, are the cheerful faces arrivals see as they roll into the campground: Camp Hosts Jack and Betty DeWall, whose fifth-wheeler is parked strategically just inside the gate.

“We see so many returning campers at River Bend that when I see familiar faces, usually the first thing they say is, ‘Where are Jack and Betty? We haven’t seen them yet,’ said Ranger Scott Puskar. “So, the guests really recognize them and appreciate their service.”

The DeWalls have served as camp hosts at River Bend since 2008. Before that, they hosted at Sunnyside.

“We don’t move,” Jack said. “We used to go south for winter. When we came back, we served as camp hosts at Sunnyside. Then I got real sick and was hospitalized. Betty said we’re not leaving any more.

“Steve Lambert, who was second in command then, came to me and said, ‘If you’re not going south this year, why don’t you come to River Bend?’ We’ve been here ever since.”

Although they are both longtime residents of the Willamette Valley, Jack and Betty didn’t meet until later in life.

Betty, 84, was born in Oklahoma and lived there until her parents moved to Oregon in 1945, from Woodward, Okla., and settled in Albany in 1947.

Jack was born in Lebanon in 1933. His father was a heavy equipment operator who helped build Highway 20, “so I almost was born in Cascadia,” he said. The family moved around with his dad’s jobs, but he lived most of his life in the Willamette Valley, Jack said.

He graduated from Albany Union High School in 1952 and spent two years in the Army in Japan during the Korean War. Betty “got smart” and quit school her junior year, she said.

Jack spent most of his working life as a logger. He noted that he also operated Jack’s Dam Tavern in Foster during the building of the dam there in the late 1960s. He then ran a yarder for a big logging outfit for 29 years before retiring in 1997.

He owned a house in Lebanon at the time. His wife died shortly after he retired and he sold “everything,” bought a motorhome and announced he was going to see the U.S.

“Darn near did it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Betty’s husband also died, two weeks removed from Jack’s wife. She lived with relatives for a time, helping to care for her dying sister-in-law in Albany and then with a niece, who needed help with her children.

They met on New Year’s Eve in 1998.

It was a significant night for Betty in two ways.

“I smoked my last cigarette. The guy asked me if I was going to buy another pack and I said no.”

And she met Jack. They decided to travel together – continuing for nine years before officially tying the knot.

“The kids were talking,” Jack noted.

Camping in Arizona, they started thinking about the possibility of serving as camp hosts, and shortly after that they pulled into Sunnyside Park on Foster Lake, where Lambert was working in the check-in booth.

“He told us ‘We’d love to have you,’” Jack said.

They spent four years at Sunnyside, where Betty worked in the reservation office, making friends throughout the department.

They spend a lot of their time interacting with guests and checking and cleaning sites after campers leave.

Their busiest day is Sunday, after check-out time. Jack cleans fire pits and pads. On a recent spring weekend he did 30, while another camp host on the other side of the park did 30 more. Betty greets incoming campers and helps out with the chores.

They love it.

“Where can you find a better place than this?” Jack asked, gesturing at the young forest growing around their trailer. “I worked in the woods most of my life. I didn’t get to talk to people much. Here, I get to talk to lots of people every day.”

Puskar attributes much of “the overwhelming success of the park” to the DeWalls.

“They do a great job of keeping the park clean and tidy and are quick to offer customer service – answering questions or helping with a bag of ice or a bundle of firewood,” he said.

County Parks Director Brian Carroll agreed.

“Jack and Betty have been so great to work with. We’ve received so many compliments about them. They are certainly part of the success of the park. When people come back, part of the reason they come back is that they’re treated well. Jack and Betty are part of that. They’re our front-line people.”

The feeling appears to be mutual.

“There are good people here,” Betty said. “All of the managers have been great to work with.

Jack said it’s good to know that they are part of the attraction for River Bend visitors.

“It really has been a pleasure to do the work we do for them.”

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