Holding up the fort

Photos by LAURIE EDWARDS

The DeGerolamos and Mintzes stand inside the tepee they're building at SML Community Park.

Friends and siblings (back row, from left) Alec, 11, and Gretta DeGerolamo, 9; (front row, from left) Trey Mintz, 8; Madison DeGerolamo, 5; and Sydney, 9, and Tobey Mintz, 8; have been building a tepee together at SML Community Park. Other area children also play in and have added new branches to the tepee.

Contrary to what some children who visit Smith Mountain Lake Community Park may think, the tepee off the walking trail was not built by American Indians. Its beginnings stem to three children from New Jersey.

Over Thanksgiving weekend in 2008, Alec, 11, Gretta, 9, and Madison DeGerolamo, 5, along with their parents, David and Suzanne, visited their grandparents Ron and Mary-Ellen DeBacco of Moneta.

Alec said they walked the trail at the community park and found a tree that had fallen over on a small strip of natural beach.

"We had the idea to make it like a tepee," he said.

Alec and his sisters spent about an hour scouring the woods for fallen branches to prop up on the fallen tree. They used about a dozen.

Almost two years later, the teepee is comprised of dozens of branches and logs, and it's not just the DeGerolamos who are adding to it. They brought Sydney Mintz, 9, and her twin brothers Trey and Tobey, 8 -- children of Derek and Meredith Mintz of Huddleston and grandchildren of Danny and Wilma Turner of Mariners Landing -- into the fold last year.

"It's really fun," said Tobey.

The children worked on it every chance they got, but they soon noticed others' handiwork.

"Every time we come down here, something new had been created to the fort," said Sydney. "It's kind of like we encouraged other kids to build on."

Mary-Ellen DeBacco said she's talked with fellow members of the Moneta Garden Club whose grandchildren are among those adding to the teepee. She said some believed American Indians left the structure behind.

Bobby Pruitt, Franklin County's park systems manager, said he presumed it had been built by two Rocky Mount women who often fish in that area. He said the county has no plans to remove it because it doesn't appear to be a safety hazard.

The tepee is small, but all six of the DeGerolamos and Mintzes can stand inside together. Sydney said they like to arrange small sticks in the center to resemble a campfire, but they never light it. Sometimes they find charred logs inside, but they don't believe anyone actually burns campfires inside the tepee. Alec said it just wouldn't make sense because the tepee might catch fire.

Mary-Ellen DeBacco said she's surprised that visitors have respected the structure. Mother Nature destroyed a portion of it during a spring 2009 flood, however. The children were undeterred when their work washed away; they just added to what was left, said DeBacco.

Gretta said they like visiting the park after a storm because it leaves behind new materials.

"When a storm comes, after it comes, there's more sticks," she said.

Alec said they encourage other children to add to and enjoy the tepee they conceived.

"We want them to know it's free to everyone," said Sydney. "It's kind of like our secret fortress, but everybody knows about it."

The tepee is off the walking trail at SML Community Park, located at the end of Parkway Avenue in Moneta.