Take a look at this photo, which started circulating online at least four years ago (perhaps first on Facebook and then Reddit). Do you recognize the men? The “uniforms”/vests? Indian Guides? The setting? The era/year?
Do you know who these men are? Names and where they were from? Does anyone know the source of this photo and when it was first uploaded online?
Post here or email me at OCCKtruth@protonmail.com. Thanks.
Gerald Richards, second row right?
Photo appears on web page titled “Michigan’s Pedophile Child Killer and Pornography Ring” at winterwatch.net.
It illustrates an article titled Children of the Snow” (5-May-2019) by Russ Winter
And is that Frank Shelden, back row middle, in the fishing hat?
Thanks, Mary. While Shelden seemed to be partial to those fishing hats in other photos, that guy does not strike me as being dough-bodied/pear-shaped enough to be him. And the newspaper photos of Richards showed a freakishly thin face, nervous-nelly type. But I have no idea. It was interesting to me that in the circulation of this photo online over the years (since 2019 that I know of), I did not see anyone name the grown-ass men in this photo. Somebody must know who some of them are.
Random comments:
1. Shelden loved the ‘lumberjack’ shirts – almost ubiquitous – I am unclear when he went ‘bald’ or shaved his head but I have multiple images of him, some originals from Indian orphanage visits and I have to say the man front of the image, on right of the image as we view it, looks more like a ‘Shelden’ (including images I have seen of Alger jr) to me. In multiple pics Shelden (even when more body fat) FD Shelden shows a heavy jaw, (not good at describing faces but I can show images) – there was a pic of him aged mid 40s where he had fully receded hair and same heavy lower jaw, long jawline, deep ‘smile’ lines on outer face – this (man on right) pic with hair and moustache is so similar to FDS BUT inconsistent with all other images – and the guy at rear ‘could be’ him but looks a bit different.
2. I have a photo of F D Shelden with boys in India wearing a very similar hat to the man at rear in the hat in this image. That was in 1990 approx and he is much fatter and fully bald –
3. I can see how that could be Frank in the fishing hat – his expression and posture are hard to see through and it could be him – or not. It is not a classic shelden ‘look’ despite the hat.
4. (unrelated in a sense) – In an interview with Shelden (I forget where but I will have it on file) Shelden was asked why he always wore these lumberjack style ‘outdoorsy’ shirts – it is now disturbing, but would not have been then, in that era before OCCK, that he said it made him seem more manly or outdoors type as a leader for young lads he was mentoring and guiding (not verbatim at all but comment along those lines) – as a ‘big brother’ so to speak althoug later the official organisation denied he was one of their volunteers.
5. I’ll send a couple of ‘new’ (to you) images to you cathy at occk truth email address.
Cathy, I agree about Shelden. Sometime ago I sent you a photo of him circa ‘73, maybe. He was very gaunt looking, actually, so that makes me wonder when this group photo was taken in relation to the one I sent you.
And Richards? If it is him, it’s the best photo taken of him!
Yes, I remember the photo, Mary and I received other photos of that freak last night and will post. I guess I was focusing on that photo of him in his “man about town” write up in the Ann Arbor area right before charges were filed against him in Port Huron.
Agree about the other monster, Richards. He probably the photographer.
That article, “Michigan’s Pedophile Child Killer and Pornography Ring” on winterwatch, is a perfect illustration of how public conjectures turn into rumors and theories, which are then publicly repeated as though they were FACTS – about OCCK this time, but it has happened with many other historic cases as well.
Russ Winter is not directly responsible for the misinformation in that article, for the most part. Some of it belongs to a general ‘paranoid conspiracy theorist culture’, collection of falsehoods and fantasies that have been around for decades. Some of it, the lying fraudulent “witness” and false informant Richard Lawson was responsible for. Some of it actually comes from statements made by police investigators in OCCK case. Where it is particularly relevant, I will call out the source (to the best of my knowledge)
1) “There was a very active pedophile ring on Cass Avenue in Detroit that supplied young children to Oakland County and Fox Island abusers. If these abusers were using other people to pick up the children, it is possible that Christopher Busch and Gregory Greene were procurers as well as a active participants”
In all the police reports that have been so graciously shared with us here, there were no statements by either Greene or Busch, that either of them “procured” child victims for any other abusers, or knowingly “shared” any of their own victims with any other abusers – except for, each other.
There were no statements in the police reports, by the Busch victims contacted in Det. Williams’ investigations, that THEY were ever “pimped to” or “shared with”; any of the Cass Corridor pedophiles who associated with Richard Lawson, nor any of the pedophiles known to be associates of Richards or Shelden, nor that they had ever been to North Fox Island.
2) “The Michigan State Police report also indicated that he was active at North Fox Island. The report made reference to Christopher Busch having a suitcase of pornographic photographs on North Fox Island”
This is several conjectures, stated as facts. It is understandable, that some people got a false impression like this, from poorly worded news reports and from the way the same pornographic materials seized from Busch’s house – by Waldron – are described with different terms in different reports.
From the police reports, “6-30-09 **Interview of Detective Tom Waldron**…He said that after they arrested Busch, they searched his house and found ropes, shotguns, marijuana and a suitcase with child pornography. Waldron described the pornography as being 8-10, 8mm type homemade movies [reels] involving children having sex in a tent in a wooded area”
This information is the root source for several conjectures; a) the fact that they are “homemade” 8mm movies, must mean they were shot by Busch himself, or by Busch & Greene together. In fact, NO reports state that Busch or Greene filmed these themselves, nor did either of them claim to have filmed these movies, in their police interviews. The origin of these movies remains unknown, b) because these films depict children “in a tent” – “in a wooded area” -, they must have been filmed on North Fox Island! But Waldron made no such statement, and the films were soon after taken away by FBI for analysis. There is NO record of any report from FBI, about the films.
No one can truthfully claim to know, WHERE these movies were filmed, by whom, nor whom the child victims were. There is no documentation linking them to NFI, or Richards, or Shelden.
Around the same time, in 2009, the police investigators are puzzling over news reports from 1977, which state that 3 (sometimes 4) men were arrested in connection to a child sex ring in Flint. Some of these news reports named Busch & Greene, at least one named Bennet as well. All are described as having sexually abused dozens of young boys. Sometimes they are said to have taken lurid photos of the boys, and one news article states that Busch was in possession of “eight ROLLS” of film.
“Rolls”, implying unprocessed film from a still shot camera, like a 35mm. In fact, these are Waldron’s 8 REELS of movie film. There is only ONE documentation for seizure of film, NOT commercially produced, from Busch, and it is Waldron’s 8-10 REELS of movie film.
Det. Williams, et al, are puzzled because Flint PD has no record of Busch & Greene being arrested together, nor with Bennet as well, for involvement in a child sex ring. And that is because, they never were!
Greene was arrested for abusing Baseball boys, and he ratted out Busch for abusing a Flint boy who was a friend of Busch’ nephews. Then Busch and Greene are brought in for interviews and polygraphs, AS potential OCCK suspects actually.
Busch, Greene, and Bennet (also two others who were never charged) are linked, as suspects in “a child sex ring”, because some child victim (presumably, a 12 yo boy that Busch & Greene will both be charged for abusing), named ALL of them as men who had abused him at some point in the past. It seems likely, that this boy also disclosed Greene having taken polaroid pictures of him, (Greene confessed to a stash of polaroids, retrieved by police), and perhaps Busch as well. Hence, they are all said to have “taken photos” of the boys they abused.
Then, there is this;
Traverse City Eagle
Saturday, March 12, 1977
“…State police seized 18 rolls of film from a Marine City man [Richards]
who was named in the corporation papers of Brother Paul’s Childrens Mission, an alleged homosexual pornography ring involving young boys in Port Huron and on North Fox Island off Grand Traverse Bay. Photographs allegedly taken on the island have been reproduced in hardcore pornographic magazines, police said earlier. Two principals of Brother Paul’s, F r a n c i s D . S h e l d e n a n d D y e r Grossman, are still being sought by state and federal authorities on criminal sexual conduct charges. Flint police also confiscated eight rolls of film from Christopher Busch, 25, of Birmingham, one of three men arrested and charged with criminal sexual conduct involving 10 to 14-year-old boys…”
Note, that this report does NOT say, that Chris Busch was “involved in a homosexual pornography ring involving young boys in Port Huron and on North Fox Island off Grand Traverse Bay”, only that he also had “film” confiscated.
And this;
On February 22, 1977, The Detroit News ran an article headlined: “Oakland County link probed in sexual exploiting of boys.”
“An investigation into the alleged sexual exploitation of young boys, which already has produced three arrests in Flint [Greene, Busch and Douglas Bennett], will be extended into Oakland County.
Oakland County Prosecutor L. Brooks Patterson confirmed today that information developed in the Flint Investigation suggests that some of the victimized boys had been procured in Oakland County.
An officer in the juvenile section of the Flint police department, who was instrumental in the arrests, said yesterday Oakland County authorities have asked his help in determining whether sex crimes were committed in their jurisdiction.
Police Officer Thomas Waldron said it is his understanding that Oakland County is faced with a large number of complaints similar to those made in Flint, where an estimated 50 prepubescent boys were allegedly forced to commit sex acts with men, with each other and before cameras.
But, Patterson said he is unaware of any increase in the ‘usual number of scattered instances’ of homosexual complaints in Oakland County. Waldron was scheduled to meet with representatives of the Oakland County prosecutor’s office today.
Patterson emphasized that the cases are seemingly unrelated to the murder of Mark Stebbins, a 12-year-old Ferndale boy, sexually molested and then killed early last year.
Waldron said Oakland County investigators have interviewed two of the men arrested in Flint, have given them lie detector tests and have concluded the men are not suspects in the Stebbins case. . . .
Genessee County Prosecutor Robert F. Leonard said yesterday the defendants may have passed boys from one to another, and the scheme may have had ‘nationwide’ ties. He said his office is investigating the possibility the defendants may have been linked to Grosse Pointe multimillionaire Francis D. Shelden, missing since allegations that his youth camp on a Lake Michigan Island near Traverse City was a homosexual haven became public last year.
Busch is free on $1,000 cash bond, while Bennett and Green are in Genessee County Jail in lieu of $15,000 and $75,000 bonds, respectively. No date has been set for the trials of any of the men.
Flint police have also obtained a warrant against a fourth man allegedly involved in the scheme. He is reported to be out of state”
Again, Genessee County Prosecutor Robert F. Leonard is investigating…”the possibility”, that the defendants (Busch, Greene) may have been linked to Grosse Pointe multimillionaire Francis D. Shelden.
But ultimately;
AP News
February 20, 1977
“FLINT—(AP)—More arrests are expected in an investigation of alleged sexual exploitation of juvenile boys, an assistant Genesee County prosecutor said Saturday.
Three Flint men have been arrested and a fourth is sought on charges that they forced adolescent boys to commit homosexual acts.
Assistant Prosecutor Lenore Ferber said as many as 75 more boys may be questioned as the investigation continues.
The three Flint men are charged with using gifts, threats and physical force to persuade more than 30 boys to engage in sodomy, oral sex and lewd photography sessions.
Earlier, Prosecutor Robert F. Leonard reported there appeared to be no connection between the three Flint men and Francis D. Shelden, the missing Ann Arbor millionaire whose 835-acre Fox Island near Traverse City was linked to magazines depicting homosexual activity involving young boys.
Shelden, missing since last summer, is sought by State Police on criminal sexual conduct charges.
Three of the defendants in the Genesee County case are Christopher Busch, Douglass Bennett and Gregory Greene.
… The men allegedly picked up boys as hitchhikers and by working as counselors in community service groups. One of the defendants worked for a time as the coach of a youth baseball team, a source said.
Leonard said the three arrested men were not part of an organized ring, but he acknowledged that some of the boys had been passed from defendant to defendant.
… Leonard said the inquiry began eight weeks ago [approx. Dec. 26, 1976] after a school principal noticed a man hanging around the school and talking with boys. After seeing one boy leave with the man, the principal contacted police”
“Prosecutor Robert F. Leonard reported there appeared to be NO CONNECTION between the three Flint men and Francis D. Shelden…”
There is a lot more, to be corrected in Winters’ article.
Bob Kenney
I believe the man in the second row on the right is Gerald Richards.
Marney’s book has an excellent picture of him on page 150. On page 151 is a picture of Frank Shelden.
Richard’s picture on p. 150 is somewhat formal with his hair slicked down, whereas the camp picture it is somewhat mussed up. But other than that it looks like him. If it is him, I would suspect the boys could be some of the Brother Paul’s Childrens Mission victims.
As for Frank Shelden, the picture on p. 151 makes him looks chubbier than he really was. In the FBI warrant they list his measurements as 6.0′ ft. and 175 pounds. Thin but not skinny.
I always thought Shelden was the guy to the right of the man in the fishing hat, but I’m not sure.
One thing to keep in mind, there has to be an unseen adult who is taking this picture. Perhaps that Shelden creating a momento for his pedophile clients.
This looks like a pic I saw in a documentary about New Orleans Boy Scout troop 137, K bar B ranch. Going to do more research to be certain.
Thanks, Lisa. I appreciate it.
I have seen the picture on this website: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/conspiracy-north-fox-island-the-oakland-county-child-killer-part-1/
where it is listed as supposedly being on North Fox Island.
I’m not sure if that’s helpful or not, but wanted to share just in case.
It does, thank you. The date of that episode is June 3, 2019 and the “photo source” appears to be Reddit. I recall seeing it on Reddit, but couldn’t find it today when I looked.
the image appears here – I had it before this site posted it – I am unsure where I originally found it but (as said in a separate reply to your occk email address) I am quite satisfied that this is indeed a North Fox Island group image, and indeed Frank Shelden (I believe) is there in the image.
I am checking my own research records for more – I found this image and circulated it some time ago hoping to find more info on the connection between Frank Francis Duffiel Shelden and the sickening Catholic priest Rev John Robert Thwaytes who ran the orphanage in Malbazar India, where I first met Thwaytes – and after his death discovered the decades of sex tourism he had hosted and taken part in – with sickos such as Frank Shelden and Dr Frits Bernard MULTIPLE RIMES ANNUALLY visiting Malbazar on sex tourism – al during the time while Shelden was a wanted man in USA he was enjoying privileges at the orphanage with his old pal Thwaytes who (while born bred UK) of course was ORDAINED AT MARY GLADE SEMINARY only short distance from OCCK scenes and from his paedophle buddy Shelden.
reverse image search today found this – but I saw it before somewhere and used it in my inquiries – cannot yet advise fully where I first found it – but I am working on it.
cheers from downunder Australia Adrian Millane
aka Ade O’Maolain on fake book.
https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/conspiracy-north-fox-island-the-oakland-county-child-killer-part-1/
Thank you, as always, Ade.
@Adrian/Ade – read your Letter to Interpol, August 15, 2016, on farcebook.
I believe the correct expression would be; Good-on-ya!, mate!
Thanks for caring.
The vests remind me of the boy and Girl Scouts adjacent group- the campfire boys and girls. I grew up in Troy and they were definitely around metro Detroit in the late 1970s- early 80s.
The yellow head band on one of the little guys reminding me of Indian Guides. I just didn’t get the sense from the photo that these were a bunch of dads camping with their young sons.
A friend refreshed my recollection this evening. I first saw the photo when it was sent to me as a screen shot from the OCCK Facebook page. It appeared under a post by a man named Shane Waters in February 2019 with the following: “The person who provided this photograph to me had a hell of a story to tell. I am going to repeat his story, though I do understand tha . . . [rest is cut off in screen shot].” On February 23, 2019, Shane Waters posted on the same page that: “Everything is not always as it seems. Here I will share the secrets to the North fox island picture I posted earlier. The kid who I obtained the photo from was an incredible artist and only got better as years went on. The North Fox Island Photo I posted earlier may not appear like it, but it is actually a collage. there are many secret art pieces hidden in it by the talented kid.”
I am not on Facebook (or any social media–thanks, trolls), so I cannot confirm if the posts are still on the OCCK FB page, or if it even still exists. Keep in mind that Children of the Snow premiered on Investigative Discovery on February 18 and 19, 2019. The day or two before the show aired on ID, local station WDIV presented a four-part short series on the OCCK case using a bunch of their previously unreleased photo footage and new interviews, including of two men who had the misfortune of going to Shelden’s “nature camp” when they were boys. So the February 2019 post of this photo on FB makes sense.
Based on what people have provided above, the photo makes it to some post on a Reddit thread and later onto the “Episode Info” page of the Crime Junkies podcast about N. Fox and the OCCK cases (June 3 and June 10, 2019).
So it seems to make sense that in the wake the WDIV series and Children of the Snow this photo was shaken loose. For me the question is who are these men in the photo? Like I said, I just don’t get the sense these are a bunch of good dads taking their sons on a camping weekend. Whoever initially provided the photograph knew exactly what that was. We don’t need to know the boys’ names–we need the names of those “dads.”
And I want to point out that some could be the actual dads here.
The sub-reddit that photo was posted to, was banned (along with all of it’s contents, that’s why you can’t find the photo “on” reddit anymore).
It was banned, along with other reddit-based conspiracy forums, because it was full of conjectures, falsehoods, fantasies and other forms of misinformation – much of which was also unsubstantiated slanderous and/or defamatory claims about well-known persons having committed horrendous sex crimes, abductions, murders, etc., etc.
About this; “The kid who I obtained the photo from was an incredible artist and only got better as years went on. The North Fox Island Photo I posted earlier may not appear like it, but it is actually a collage. there are many secret art pieces hidden in it by the talented kid”
Sounds to me like a confession, that the photo in question is not the original version of it. Badges on the vests may be extraneous “additions”, that’s a good place to “hide” artwork, but it’s possible that the vests themselves, the headbands, perhaps even some of the children or adults themselves – were not even in the original. I’d be cautious about drawing any conclusions from it, at all.
I didn’t know old 70s photos could be edited and still look like old 70s photos, but I’m not an expert. (Guessing the decade). The person that posted that claims there’s hidden artwork in the drawing believed to be Mark Stebbins, in the tiger painting on Busch’s,wall, and several other places. He tries pointing it out but I personally don’t see it. But maybe that’s my untrained eye.
@KP – I’m no expert on manipulation of images, either. I assume, it would be easier to manipulate a digital image of an old 70s photo, than the original photo itself (and afterward, make a digital image of it).
Thank you for the additional info; the Stebbins drawing, Busch tiger painting, etc. At the least, then, we could agree that the person who originally posted the photo believed the image was manipulated?
Whether or not that was factually the case?
Would still give me pause to “take it at face value”.
I believe he said; “things are not always as they seem”? Could also be referring to a photo of some men, who might have had a superficial resemblance to Shelden or Richards, and labelling/ describing it as “a North Fox Island” photo – when it was not that?
I am as curious to know the truth as anyone else might be, so please do carry on with efforts to ferret that out. I’d just say, don’t rush to judgements. The poster of the photo specifically warned “us” not to.
1) The post is still on the OCCK Facebook page. February 23, 2019 by Shane Waters.
2) I never followed reddit much but I found this comment on reddit about the Children of the Snow episode (link below).
“There were apparently no more than 6 boys on the island at one time, however in the picture posted by TheraKoon some time ago of Frank Shelden with 5 other men, there are 8 boys in the picture. In my opinion, none of the boys look like Michael Farquhar, who’s teenage photo is shown in the documentary. I’m not at all saying Farquhar is mistaken or lying, just in that one particular photo he does not resemble any of the boys.”
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/OCCK/comments/av8u3t/a_few_thoughts_on_children_of_the_snow/
3) Like others, I cannot remember where or when I first saw this picture. I thought it may be longer ago. Possibly from Helen’s web site. However you are spot on with questioning who these people are. I happened to be looking at the picture last week wondering why these faces were not put through some sort of facial recognition software.
4) The top right corner of the picture seems to have a white building. I don’t recall ever seeing a building of that construction type on the island. It makes me think this photo was somewhere else.
This picture is so upsetting. You’d think little guys at camp would be smiling and happy. But some of these faces are haunting. Pure evil.
I’m also going with Indian Guides. The last boy on right in the front also has a yellow band under his hair and it looks like a feather is coming up from the back. The boy next to him may also be wearing a yellow band.
I’m troubled by something.
Do we all believe – that Francis Shelden and Gerald Richards, and their CSA (child sexual abuse) victims, had some kind of involvement in the commercially produced and/or distributed CP ‘industry’ of the 1970s?
I do, and I have believed that for a very long time. Many decades before I was aware of the OCCK case, even.
I have believed that, because pornographer Richards claimed this was the case in his testimony before the “Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency” in 1977, and because he also “confessed” this in news articles of that time.
I have also believed that, because of verifiable documentation in various forms, that specific commercial child sexual abuse images ‘products’ from that era contain either still photos or film, generated by other ‘branches’ of the Better Life Monthly pederast conspiracy (linked to each other by a string of evidence from one to another to another, and by Richards’ testimony).
I could tell you the titles of specific products that Boy’s Farm residents appeared in. I could tell you the titles of specific products, that images created by Halvorsen, Woodall, Cramer and Sialle appeared in. I could tell you the titles of specific products that were created by Wake, Berta, Bell and/or “The Doctor”, in Chicago.
And there are others, not directly involved with Better Life conspirators, that a combination of academic research (by others), police investigator reports, court documents and private communications with victims, have enabled me to nail down commercially marketed products for.
But not, for Richards & Shelden. After all this time, I still can’t tell you – backed by verifiable documentation – WHAT ‘product lines’ they produced materials for.
Why would you want to know that? Because, verifiable info about the materials their photos and/or films ultimately were marketed under, would make it possible to discriminate the wheat from the chaff with regard to all the myriad speculations and claims, from all sorts of persons, about that.
We could know, with certainty, if they created images (ultimately destined for the commercial market) on North Fox Island for example – and if so, what degree of severity; from posing to – who knows? Did they really record child rape there, for example? Or was it just still photos, the kind of simple posing and ‘fake’ sex acts described both by Richards, and by his primary victim. Knowing what material they created would also tell us much about where the models (victims) came from, and even if some perpetrators brought their own victim/models with them or if the images only depicted the standard crowd of “Gerry’s Boys”.
You’re raising an interesting point, RD1. The Petoskey News Review, dated 18-Feb-1977, reported the following: “State police have tentatively linked several pornographic magazines to North Fox Island. . .Det/Sgt. Don Chappel of the Traverse City Post said Thursday persons who have been on the island or are familiar with it have identified about 10 photographs from pornographic publications as having been taken on the island. Some of the pictures depicted homosexual activity involving young boys, Chappel said.”
Important word here is “tentatively,” and I’ve found nothing that after that moves the needle either way.
@MarydeYoung – well, I have to eat a little crow here…because I found the source of those claims, in the Gorzen reports and the FBI files. Where I called their informant “useless”. Perhaps not, after all.
Between those sources, here’s the story;
– Police investigators tracked down the person listed as “Secretary” in the incorporation papers for “Brother Pauls…”, an elderly gent named Gordon Lindsay. He tells them, he “did some of that boy stuff” when he was in the army (WW2?) , but not for many years. He denies knowing Francis Shelden or ever having been to North Fox Island, but voluntarily surrenders his collection of boy-sex pornography, magazines and films, to them. There are 26 magazines, described only as; “color magazines showing boys having sex”. No titles, publisher, or other description.
The investigator flips through them, and thinks some photos might have been taken on an island. No explanation for why.
[Note, an unspoken assumption here, that if there were photos of boys having sex in an island setting, in a commercial CP magazine, they would surely have been taken on NFI. After all, how many such pictures could there be in the world of commercial CP?]
Later, that investigator takes the mags to Chief Jack Mol (!) of Charlevoix Michigan PD. and asks him to look through them. He does, and declares that; “yes, some of these pictures were taken on NFI”. Again, no explanation for that conclusion. BUT, he is Chief of police in that area and claims to have met Shelden once, even spending some time with him on SOUTH Fox Island. (Hmmm…), So I won’t dispute that Mol seems as qualified a witness to make such a claim, as any other person would likely be. With the exception of the presumed photographer, Gerald Richards, of course. He is in custody and supposedly co-operating with police, but I see nothing about any attempt to have Richards verify, the publication as a buyer, or the boys as his victims. Mol said yes it’s NFI, and from that point on the claim goes undisputed by anyone.
It might be worth pointing out, that by mid-1976, there were at least 250 volumes (issues 1- ? 100 in some cases, of various titles) of commercial CP “color magazines with boys having sex” in circulation, counting just the output of the two bigger producer-distributors overseas; “COQ International” and “Color Climax Corp”. Impossible to say, about the volume of similar materials produced domestically by that time.
Let’s just say, if one pan holds “10 photos from some magazines” said to be on NFI, and the other holds boy-sex publications King, Roy Ames of Texas, output prior to 1975…when 4 TONS of materials produced by Ames were seized from his warehouse-studio…the second pan crashes through your table.
How many pictures with similar outdoor settings could there be, in 1976?
I also think they are Indian Guides. The man and boy on the right appear to have the “aims award” badge that you can see here: https://fugitivekatcreations.com/products/vintage-uniform-vest-indian-guides-y-princess-ymca-girl-scouts-campfire-girls-vest-with-tooth-bead-multiple-patches
The top right corner doesn’t appear to be a white building but rather the beginning of a lake or beach. It reminds me of the parks along Lake Huron.