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| MICHELLE HOFFMAN / Scroll |
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| The Henry’s Fork property, located behind the Livestock Center, contains several campsites available for student use. |
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The Outdoor Activities Program received a surprise Oct. 25 in the form of canceling all their programs. And with it came a message from higher up in the Activities Program.
“Suddenly a bombshell was dropped, and they said, ‘Unless it’s Henry’s Fork, you can’t do it’,” said Meg Hawks, a junior from Clinton, Utah, who is also over the Outdoor Resource Center.
Although the announcement was a shock, it was only in effect for about a day, and Devin Shaum, director of the Activities Program, was the one who issued it. He said he wanted to help the Outdoor Activities Program to realize the resource they had in the Henry’s Fork Outdoor Learning Center.
“That was to wake them up and say, ‘I don’t want you to travel anywhere else until you can use the Henry’s Fork property’,” Shaum said.
Henry’s Fork Outdoor Learning Center is a piece of property the school acquired about five years ago, which is about seven miles away from campus, behind the Livestock Center.
“Ninety-five percent of students don’t know it exists,” Shaum said.
Wildlife is one of the things Shaum mentioned as an asset of the property: golden eagles, hawks, owls, white-tailed deer, mule deer and coyotes. He told multiple stories of wildlife, one of being at the William Leigh site while on horseback and being charged by a moose.
But wildlife isn’t the only thing of worth to Shaum at Henry’s Fork. “There’s historical value,” he said. “Children from school groups come out here all the time.”
The property is the site of Richard “Beaver Dick” Leigh’s home when he settled here, and the grave site of his wife, Jenny, and their six children: Richard Jr., Anne Jane, John, William, Elizabeth and a newborn who didn’t have a name yet, who all died in December 1876 of smallpox.
While children from school groups are coming to the site, Shaum said that not enough BYU-Idaho students are utilizing the resource.
“We need more students going into the out-of-doors,” he said.
Shaum said the Henry’s Fork Outdoor Learning Center could be a springboard to other outdoor activities for students, such as hiking trips in the Tetons.
And that’s the Outdoor Activities Program task — getting students to Henry’s Fork in the first place.
Hawks and Heather Murphy, a sophomore from West Valley, Utah, and a leader of CORE Adventures, had a meeting to brainstorm ways to use the Henry’s Fork property.
“We think other departments should get involved,” Hawks said. “It’s just as much their responsibility to use the land.”
Among the ideas is barn raising with construction management to make activities possible in bad weather.
“We could have a Henry’s Fork photography contest,” said Hawks.
A bike challenge course, Frisbee golf and Dutch oven cook-offs were other ideas.
“Expand your resources and ‘Take it Outside’ is the theme for CORE adventures,” said Murphy. “That is the target of our program — involve as many people as possible.”
