Photo: Alan Graham 1958

THE CHAPEL STEEPLE IS ATTACHED

With the booster nozzle bells mounted inside the belfry, the steeple is attached to the chapel. Now the exterior is sealed, giving the volunteers a chance to work indoors, protected from the harsh winter weather. Much slow and tedious finish work remains.

Army Chief of Chaplains, Major General Patrick Ryan, made a special trip to Red Canyon to formally dedicate the unfinished chapel in January 1958. Because the chapel was hand-made with no funds, the General was delighted about the dedication. The news media noticed this. When Gen. Ryan left RCRC, he went to Ft. Bliss where he dedicated a commercially built chapel. The news media was there too. Newspaper articles about the General's dedication of the RCRC chapel made the front page nationwide. The Ft. Bliss chapel dedication was buried inside the papers. Tempers flared at Ft. Bliss because the chapel at that little camp, The Gulch, had received top billing, upstaging their chapel ceremony. I imagine there were some wide grins at Red Canyon.