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It was 1974, and the Hublers had been living in Taylorsville for almost a year. Bill left his machinist job in Pennsylvania behind and moved the family to North Carolina at the close of the 1973 Camp season. Bill found full-time machinist work in Statesville but unfortunately, he had to work long hours at this job and his availability for the Camp was limited. By the time summer camp rolled around, Bill’s employer refused to give him the time off necessary for directing the summer camp sessions and Bill resigned from his job in order to be free for Camp work.

In August 1974, after a busy summer, Bill expressed to the other Board members his growing conviction that it was time for him to begin working at the Camp full time. The number of people attending Camp was growing, the camper base was expanding, and there was a need for follow-up with local children and youth. In addition, there was a lot of building and property maintenance to be done. In November, Bill and Nancy Hubler became full-time missionaries at the Camp.

Around this time the Camp changed its name to “Hickory Cove Bible Camp” to accompany the anticipated expansion of the Camp. With the name change came changes to the property. Jim and Gary Hubler, sons of Bill and Nancy, along with Dave Lackey from Stony Point, funded and built the “Trading Post,” a small Camp store for selling candy, t-shirts, postcards, and other items. The kitchen underwent several improvements, among them a commercial dishwasher, new sinks and tables, and an enlargement made by removing a wall which had formally partitioned a spare bedroom. Both the boys’ and girls’ dorms were also expanded during the 1970s to provide more sleeping accommodations.

The ministry of the Camp was also expanding. The Camp sessions had gone from a few weeks of summer camp to a schedule of evangelistic and discipleship weekends for adults and weekend retreats for children and youth, in addition to the summer program. 1975 marked a triple increase in camper days from 1972. To help with the increase of Camp use, Howard and Hazel Bailey moved to the Camp from Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Howard served as the Camp caretaker until 1980. The trailer they brought to Camp remained long after they left and served as the Camp office in the 1980s and 1990s.

During the 1970s, Bill Hubler expanded the publicity of the Camp through promotional events such as a booth at the county fair where staff members served ice cream and handed out Gospel tracts, as well as local Sunday School work. In 1978, the Camp purchased a bus for transporting Sunday School children to Camp and for taking campers on off-campus outings.

Also under way during the late 1970s was the construction of a swimming pool. Up until that time, all of the Camp swimming had taken place in the lake. In addition to the two-story diving tower built in the early 1960s, there was a raft where lifeguards could keep watch over swimmers. Because the lakebed drops off so quickly, non-swimmers had a very narrow space along the shore to swim, designated by a rope strung through milk carton floats. Like many other camps, Hickory Cove made use of a buddy system for safety, with buddy checks every few minutes to ensure that everyone was okay. Eugene and Fred were lifeguards in the early days but, over time, others such as “Splash” had taken over the job. Bill Hubler and Paul Hartman earned their lifeguard certification in 1978 when the amp opened the swimming pool. At this point, most of the lake swimming came to a close, the rafts were removed, and a boathouse was built in 1982. Paul Hartman helped build this boathouse over the old swimming raft. When Bill moved to Camp, he brought his own boat; in time, the Camp was able to purchase a larger boat. A donated pontoon boat provided another opportunity for campers to enjoy the lake.

Bill and Paul’s wives were also very involved in the Camp work. In addition to assisting her husband in his administrative duties, Nancy took on the management of the kitchen, serving family-style meals with campers seated around the tables on wooden benches. June served as a nurse, both before and after the Hartman’s move to North Carolina. Originally there was a medicine cabinet which moved from room to room depending on where the nurse was staying. In 1974, Fred and Roy Witt and Alfred Jackstadt tiled the floor and put cabinets in the current nurse’s station. In addition to these duties, Nancy and June had many other responsibilities, such as washing the bed linens every weekend in the summer.

Barb Martin (now Taylor), a school teacher from St. Louis, came to work at Camp for three weeks during the summer of 1975. Barb had visited Hickory Cove during her spring break the previous year with her friend Jean (Claar) Bassett. Barb had been praying about what to do with her summers off, and she became a fixture at Hickory Cove’s summer sessions until 1997. At first, Barb served as a counselor, but as the years went on, she served as the Camp secretary and administrative assistant. Her first office was the end of a dining room table and a manual typewriter with carbon paper for making copies. Eventually her office moved to the first bedroom of the recreation building (now office building), a bedroom in the mobile home, and finally the mobile home living room. Barb was a familiar face at the Trading Post each day. She also served at times as Camp photographer, teacher, and pianist for chapel singing times.

By 1982, the Camp summer season had increased to two elementary-age camps, one intermediate camp, one high school camp, and a family camp. The off-season schedule had expanded to two weekend teen camps (one spring, one fall), one weekend junior camp, and a marriage weekend, in addition to various rentals. A typical day at Camp consisted of breakfast, morning chapel, Bible classes held at picnic tables around the property, recreation time, lunch, rest hour, swimming and boating, supper, evening chapel, and a snack and maybe games before bed.

More improvements to the original dining hall building were also underway. The walk-in cooler and freezer were installed in 1982, along with an addition to the dining hall to house it. The Camp also added a concrete slab for a picnic area outside the kitchen. Another ongoing project during the 1980s was the Administrator’s home. With the help of many volunteers, the home was ready for the Hublers to move into in 1986. Joe and Leah Deviny of Charlotte lived at the Camp for two years and Joe, an experienced carpenter, contributed heavily to the completion of the Administrator’s home. Paul Scanzillo also contributed to the completion of the home.

In the mid-1980s, Gus and Janet Marquardt began bringing children to Camp from Florida. Bill met the Marquardts on a trip to Florida, and soon they were bringing van loads of children across the 600 miles between Orlando and Taylorsville every weekend of the summer. Janet, who stayed at Camp during the week to lifeguard and serve in other areas, would leave Saturday morning with a bus full of returning campers and meet Gus, who had a van full of arriving campers, in South Carolina. They would exchange campers and then Janet would return to Hickory Cove and Gus to Orlando. Others, such as Bob Disher and Tom Berg, continued the Marquardts’ work of bringing campers from Florida well into the 2000s.

In 1988, Paul and June Hartman, who had been traveling to Camp almost every summer since 1963, felt the Lord calling them to move to North Carolina. With 40 years of work at an aluminum plant in Pennsylvania, Paul was able to retire. So he and June put their house on the market to see if it would sell. Within three days the house was sold. Soon after, they found a home in Taylorsville where they still live today. Summer was just around the corner, so the Hartmans quickly moved into their new home and began to help the Hublers prepare for summer. One of the first projects Paul helped with was a new Trading Post building, one that is still in use now. June served as a nurse and teacher, and helped in many other areas. During her first year living in North Carolina, she remembers washing every window on the Camp property.

The Hartmans’ move to Hickory Cove was just in time, as 1989 turned out to be a difficult year for the Camp. During a women’s retreat that spring, a tornado hit the Camp and took down several trees. In the fall, just prior to a one-day Bible conference, hurricane Hugo made its way inland as far as Alexander County. The evening Hugo came through, Paul and June Hartman remained in their home in town, while Bill and Nancy Hubler took cover with Roy and Irene Witt in the recreation building for safety. The next morning, Paul and June tried to get to the Camp, but were forced to park their car on the road and climb through the fallen trees to get to the Camp property. When they arrived at the recreation building, they saw that a large tree had fallen over it, damaging the roof and causing a small flood inside the bedrooms. Trees had fallen on several other buildings and caused minor damage. So many trees were down that it was difficult to see from one building to the other; about 165 fallen trees in all. In addition, the boathouse floated away in the storm, so Paul and Bill had to paddle it back into the cove.

Despite the extensive damage and scattered debris, the Lord provided many volunteers to help with repairs and clean-up. Helm Rink, who hadn’t heard about the hurricane damage and the conference cancellation, showed up at the Camp that weekend and immediately pitched in to help. The Camp’s power remained off for a week, so Paul and June brought hot water to the Camp from their home each day. It took many hours of work, but with the help of willing volunteers, including Dan and Phebe Martin of St. Louis, Missouri, the Camp was eventually brought back to normal operating conditions.

In addition to the Camp building repairs, Hickory Cove began work on a maintenance building (completed in 1993), as well as a pool building constructed with the help of Paul Scanzillo. In June of 1992, Hickory Cove erected the flag pole that stands beside the dining room. At the suggestion of Don Thompson, Jr., this flag pole was put in place to honor the staff and campers of Hickory Cove who served during the Persian Gulf War.

During Bill’s tenure, session directors volunteered to direct week-long sessions of Camp. These directors managed the daily schedule, organized activities, helped recruit and coordinate staff members, and served as speakers during chapel time. Also during this time, the Board of Trustees was very involved in the growth and development of the Camp. Among the Board members involved at this time were Art Hart, Bob McGarty, Richard C. Todd, Tim Gessner, Gary Hubler, and Don Thompson, Jr..

In 1995, after serving at Hickory Cove in some capacity for over 30 years, Bill and Nancy sent the Board of Trustees a letter announcing their retirement as they moved on to other ministry opportunities. They served as Camp advisors for a brief period of time before relocating to Charlotte. Mark and Emily Wickham, who had participated in Camp sessions for a number of years, took over the administration of the Camp at the end of 1995.

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