The Boy Scout Camp in Mansfield has been closed for a while, and I saw a “for-sale” sign up and I called the agent. She said it was under contract and the listing price for the 105 acres was $410,000. Avery Hand was a banker and I believe he donated the land to the Boy Scouts. Well soon someone else will own this beautiful property.
I walked in the main entrance past the house where a caretaker used to live. (The signposts are still there – twelve of them, such as: trustworthy, loyal, friendly, clean, reverent. The camp is arranged differently and the only remnant of my camping days was an old wooden bridge over a ravine, leading to the area were we set up tents for weekend camping. (There were some old latrines scattered around and a large tree limb fell on one and pretty much destroyed it).
Now the cabins are up front, before you get to the parking area - more in the interior. The old lodge and pool are gone, now just grassland. In fact there isn’t a lodge at all, just a metal pole building with a kitchen and an area for meals – nothing like the old lodge with its large stone fireplace. A newer pool was built next to the parking area.
I remember when Mike went to camp there, and on a night when parents and siblings were allowed in, they had some skits and some boys jumped in the pool grasping for the greased watermelon. What fun.
I walked the mowed roads into the interior of the camp and found the area where I spent a cold weekend at winter camp, alongside a ravine in the woods. I remember it snowed 8 inches that night but the bacon smelled good sizzling in the iron skillet that morning. Another area I recognized as a tent campsite where we would send the younger scouts out from the wooded camping area into the open field adjacent to us, to look for snipes!
Walking along I also remembered this smaller trail I traversed for the first time on my first night after induction into the Order of the Arrow. (Yes, Chief Chingatchcook, make this one brave!) They led us along in the dark along this trail and a leader would point to one of us and say, you sleep here. The rest would go along and I could hear them telling other scouts to sleep there – in the woods with only our sleeping bag and pack. Ah yes, under the stars – I loved it!
I made the loop back and went down the back way to the archery area and the rifle range. Then I went out onto Orweiler Rd. and back to my car.
Below the camp is a bird sanctuary. I remember a trail from the camp down through the woods to a spot where we went canoeing on Clearfork Lake. That trail would have come through the area now occupied by the sanctuary. I just learned that the bird sanctuary bought the land just last week!
2 comments:
Thanks for another very interesting posting. Steve. I can imagine how it felt to return to a place where so many memories were created when you were young. I don't remember much about the layout of the camp, but can recall being there on parents' night. I remember one skit. Scouts kept coming up to a leader with various papers. He would ask, "Do you have the necessary papers? He would look at the papers and shake his head. After several scouts had showed up with various papers, one had some toilet paper. The leader said, "Good! Now we can all go." That's a funny way to recall visiting the camp, but I knew then that the experience was very meaningful to you. I guess it still is. Do you know, with the sale of that land, is there another camp site or is that part of scouting just part of history?
I'm not aware of anothe scout camp nearby, except the one north of Delaware on US 23. At least the land will still be appreciated by people who enjoy nature and birdwatching! Possibly they'll use the cafeteria building for a bird hospital? I smiled when I read your words about the necessary papers - and I remember it well.
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