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Red Dog Lodge in a recent photo from the SDCI web site. Both benches have plaques on them, I think one of them has my mother’s name on it.

Red Dog Lodge in the summer of 1973. This roll of film (#143) includes a photo of a stream and a wooded road at Soldiers Delight, but nothing else.
I took my first photos there right after college. I don’t remember why, and I don’t remember taking them. The earliest ones are from the summer of 1973 after the state had purchased the land. That summer I had a conversation with Sally Dieke, a physicist friend of my father’s, about taking photographs at Soldiers Delight. I remember complaining that it was not very picturesque, and she said “Well you have to do details.” The second time I photographed Red Dog Lodge, later that summer, the other photos on those rolls of film are of details. There are flowers, ferns, fungi, lichens, and moss. I wouldn’t learn the names of those plants until a couple of years later when I started attending Elmer Worthley’s botany class.

Late summer of 1973. The lodge had been vandal proofed, but renovation had not started. I took three rolls of film on this visit to Soldiers Delight (#149, #150, #151).

The southwest corner of the lodge. There was apparently a “sleeping porch” on this end. Late summer of 1973.
The stone building never changed much, except to slowly deteriorate. Originally it had covered porches on the front and south sides, a dormer on the front, and a few out buildings, but I don’t remember those things. It was just a lone, empty, simple, enduring house on the edge of a weird landscape of rocky soil, sparse plants, and old mine shafts. There was one other historic building at Soldiers Delight, but I have no early memory of that log assay office from the 19th century mining operation.
The later photos of Red Dog Lodge in my collection of Plus-X film were apparently taken in the spring of 1975. I think the event was the dedication of the newly organized Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area. The lodge had been nicely renovated, with a new roof and re-pointed chimney. And it was decked out with flags, bunting, and musicians for the official Maryland Department of Natural Resources ceremony. On the stage were James Poultney, Elmer Worthley, Florence Rogers, and Ed Hibline. Maybe they all gave speeches, I wouldn’t know. I assume my father was in the audience with me, and that my mother was not. She died on April 1, 1975, probably not long before the ceremony. That might help explain why I have no memory of this important event which I clearly attended. Maybe these photos will jog the memory of others who were present. Are there other photos or records from this day? Who are the other people on the stage?