The 2026 camp occupied open ground at the Knife River Training Center, a fenced campus outside Albany built to train equipment operators. It had two zones:
Tent City held the sleeping tents, the medical tent and shade center, an administration tent, the shower trailer, portable toilets, generators, water and the mess hall, which the plan called the chuckwagon.
Builder City held about 20 build sites, generators, tool storage and a materials yard, with a nearby building for indoor rotations.
In mid-May the tent provider walked the site with village leads to map it. The provider brought tents, set-up support and a full day of training for staff on set-up, take-down, packing and maintenance, and recommended where the camp needed generators and cooling. Suppliers dropped kits and large equipment before students arrived.
That pre-staging paid off immediately. Knife River’s staff said the camp was up and running far faster than they expected, and the program director said the camp stayed “perpetually” about six hours ahead of schedule from Monday afternoon on. Students raised Tent City in about four hours. “What took, I think, a professional team an entire day took our kids four hours to do,” said Ashley Brown, the activity and volunteer coordinator, “and they did it in 90 degree heat.”
What a site must offer:
Open ground for both zones, with room to grow. Knife River’s staff said the camp could have gone bigger.
A fence and a gate that locks at night, with visitor check-in.
Indoor space to fall back on in heat, smoke or rain, within limits (see below).
Parking in sight of camp but away from the host’s daily operations.
A host team willing to check in every day.
Lessons from the site host and leadership:
Pre-stage materials, and stage build materials even earlier. The hosts wanted the lumber on site sooner.
Draw a hard line around the host’s buildings. Students and adults drifted into indoor restrooms, coffee and ice. It strained the host and undercut the simulation. “Your generosity in giving us the indoor space was actually detrimental to the kids figuring out how to manage themselves,” Taylor told the host. For next year he proposed tented outdoor classrooms and “a very hard line of demarcation.”
Agree on water, ice and power in advance. The host suggested filling coolers with ice each morning and setting them outside, rather than sending students into its kitchen.
Build on a hard surface. Builders left nails behind in a gravel area the host uses for vehicles. Asphalt is easier to sweep.
Mind the distances. Walking between sleeping quarters, build sites and classrooms took longer than the schedule allowed.
Plan the unglamorous services. Signage on day one; dumpster delivery and pickup times confirmed in writing (in 2026 the hauler arrived before the gates opened, and later tried to take the dumpster on the morning of pack-up); portable toilets and showers that work; ladders; a water trailer; and the right machinery to lift finished units onto trailers.
Tell students what sleeping will be like. Days were hot and nights cold, and the cots came with emergency blankets, not bedding. Tell students to bring a sleeping bag.
Knife River’s staff offered one idea for making arrival more dramatic: let students show up to an empty field, then have the convoy roll in. “A lot more logistics planning on your end,” one said, “but it would have been kind of cool to just see everything come in, roll off the trucks.”