The Road to Beech Mountain, Part 2: Before It Was a Scout Camp
Ashes to Ashes
The Big Bang
Off the Rails
An Epic Shell Game
Up in Flames
A Hidden Fortune?
School’s Out
Another Tragedy
Broken Curse?
Ashes to Ashes
After saying goodbye to leased or shared summer camps, the Orange-Sullivan Council began construction at its new Beech Mountain Scout Camp in the winter of 1940. First to be built was the Trading Post, which would be used for equipment storage during the offseason. It would also be the first building to be destroyed at the new camp.
A 1940 map showing the location of the original Trading Post (labeled as “Store and Storage Building”)
A local Scout troop had received permission to use the building on the weekend of 4-6 October 1940 as base camp for a hike to visit a crashed plane. They returned from their hike on Saturday evening to find the building engulfed in flames and aided fire wardens in efforts to keep the fire from spreading any further. But the building and its contents were lost.
It is perhaps fitting that the Scouts marked their arrival in the area with a structure fire considering that previous groups to occupy the property ended their stay in the same fashion, though with far more tragic results. It all began 125 years ago with the arrival of Patrick H. Flynn, Brooklyn’s trolley king.
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The Road to Beech Mountain, Part 1: The First Camps
1923-1924 – Camp Wanaksink, Orange County Council
1925-1928 – Spruce Ridge Scout Camp, Orange County Council
1927-1928 – Horseshoe Pond, Sullivan County Council
1929-1930 – Spruce Ridge Scout Camp, Orange County Council with Sullivan County Council
1931-1939 – Spruce Ridge Scout Camp, Orange-Sullivan Council
It was gone. As we drew closer to Hodge Pond at the end of our hike, we saw nothing but grassy clearings where the camp buildings had been the year before. No buildings, no piles of debris, no scarred earth showing signs that heavy equipment had been there. Nothing. Beech Mountain Scout Camp was gone.
That was the scene sometime in 1984 or 1985 on an otherwise beautiful day in the Catskills. Our plan had been to tour the camp and then set up a place to spend the night in one of the buildings as we had done the year before when I first visited the recently-closed camp. My father had led several such excursions in the years since the camp was sold. This would be the last. After a brief tour, retracing our path from the previous visit, we went back down the road we came in on, never to return again.
My final memories of Beech Mountain Scout Camp would be tinged with a profound sense of loss for something I had never truly known. Everyone else on that trip had seen the camp in operation, either as a camper, as a staff member, or, in the case of my brother, as a visitor. I only knew it as a ghost town that inspired fond memories in everyone else.
So now, nearly 40 years later, I’ve set out to document what remains of the only camp ever fully owned by the Hudson-Delaware Council (and the Orange-Sullivan Council before it) – its memorabilia. Well, that and one other thing. But before we get to that, there are stories that need to be told about what came before the camp at Hodge Pond. Beech Mountain Scout Camp was the end of a story decades in the making, filled with struggle and triumph and things that would be lost along the way. And the recurring themes remain relevant even today.
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2022 TMR Alumni Reunion
With 2023 Updates
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| Wildcat Trail | Camp Kunatah | TMR Museum | Camp Aquehonga |
Scout camps have been in the news a lot lately. With the BSA bankruptcy and abuse settlement requiring contributions from all councils, countless Scout camp properties have been put up for sale. To make their contribution, the Greater New York Councils agreed to part with the bulk of the Ten Mile River Scout Camps property in a deal that would preserve the land and the Scouts’ access to it while opening up areas outside the active camp properties to the public. It was perhaps the least worst outcome, but it’s hard to see it as anything but a loss.
TMR was very familiar to me in my childhood. Between summer camp at Camp Aquehonga and Junior Leader Training, OA ordeal weekends, and the occasional camporee at Camp Ranachqua, I spent the equivalent of more than two months there between 1989 and 1994. That might not sound like much to anyone who was on camp staff, but taking that many trips down the camp roads leaves an impression on you. Especially when those roads hadn’t been recently repaired.
I didn’t know it at the time, but this photo of the new Camp Ranachqua trading post porch after the June ordeal weekend in 1994 would be my final view of TMR as a Scout. Life got in the way after that, as it does for almost everyone at some point.
What followed at TMR was the continuation of the cycle of change. Skanondo Lodge hosted a final conclave in 1995 before merging the following March into Nacha Nimat. The Hudson-Delaware Council, which had been leasing Camp Ranachqua, gave way to the Hudson Valley Council. The TMR museum opened its doors, figuratively and later literally, to tell the story of TMR and what came before its creation in 1927. And the GNYC eventually resumed operation of Camp Ranachqua and opened TMR’s camps to Scouts from all councils. Another merger brought an end to a quarter of a century of the Hudson Valley Council and Nacha Nimat Lodge. And now TMR itself would be changing.
That was the situation in 2022 as I was working on uncovering the history and memorabilia of the Hudson-Delaware Council and the previous incarnations of Council 392. So I suppose it was only natural that a return to TMR would be part of the process. After all, there was nothing left to visit of the council’s previous camp except empty land. I had heard about TMR’s alumni reunions over a decade earlier and I had wanted to check out the museum for a while. Maybe the time was finally right.
Initially, it was the promise of a trade-o-ree that caught my attention – there were no such events to be held anywhere else in the now Greater Hudson Valley Council. Then the hike to Indian Cliffs and Rock Lake, parts of TMR I had never visited as a Scout, looked interesting. Finally, lunch at Camp Aquehonga would be a great opportunity to see the many improvements that had been made in recent years. It just made too much sense, I couldn’t pass this up.
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The Shoulder Insignia of Council 392
Update: Jamboree Neckerchiefs and Certificates of Authenticity
Update 2: Rare Finds and a New Mystery
Last year, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the demise of BSA Council 392, then known as the Hudson-Delaware Council, with a look back at the history of the insignia of its Order of the Arrow Lodge, Skanondo 64. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of BSA Council 392, then known as the Orange County Council (one of many). So now we’re going to explore the history of the council’s insignia, absent the more rare and valuable pieces.
After Scouting was introduced to the US in 1910, organizational structures were a bit fluid. Many areas had no organization beyond the community level while others formed informal or formal councils of various sizes. Councils were then known only by their name and location, which must have made things confusing when three Orange County Councils had been formed by 1922. Numbering would come later in the 1920s and wouldn’t be completely figured out until the 1960s. Somewhere in there, the council in question was designated Council 392. As with the origins of most things council-related, the details are sketchy
The Orange County Council would merge with the neighboring Sullivan County Council in 1931 to form the aptly-named Orange-Sullivan Council. Well, maybe not so aptly-named for the Scouts in Pike County, PA, which was part of the council for some reason. The merger made sense because all of the camps used by the Orange County council were in Sullivan County anyway. Though, by that point, many of the camps used by the Greater New York Councils were as well. Sullivan County was clearly the place to be for Scouting in the late ’20s and ’30s.
The final change happened in 1958, when the Orange-Sullivan Council renamed itself to the Hudson-Delaware Council after the two major rivers it spanned (or at least extended halfway into, as was the case for the Hudson). This iteration of the council would be last to bear the number 392, which was retired when the Hudson-Delaware Council ceased to exist after the calendar turned over to 1996 and the Hudson Valley Council was born.
The Many Flaps of Skanondo Lodge
50 years or 64?
Update: This one goes to 15
Update II: Four S4s and a Spelling Error
Update III: First Fake and Final Farewells
In 2021, Order of the Arrow Lodge Nacha Nimat 86 of the Hudson Valley Council celebrated its 25th anniversary. But maybe “celebrated” isn’t quite the right word – not only were we in the second year of a pandemic that had disrupted every aspect of our lives and killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, but Nacha Nimat’s days were numbered. Effective 1 January 2021, the Hudson Valley Council ceased to exist, replaced by the Greater Hudson Valley Council formed by a merger with the Westchester-Putnam Council. Like Westchester-Putnam’s Ktemaque 15, Nacha Nimat would soon be replaced by a new lodge representing the Greater Hudson Valley Council. The circle of life was now complete.
25 years earlier, financial problems forced a similar merger to form the now-defunct Hudson Valley Council on 1 January 1996. That merger involved the Hudson-Delaware Council, Dutchess County Council, and Rockland County Council and their respective OA lodges Skanondo 64, Nooteeming 443, and Munsi 444. It was amid this backdrop of a new council and new lodge that my Scouting career ended. Officially an Eagle Scout in the Hudson Valley Council (by less than a week), the council and lodge I had known for most of my life no longer existed. You really can’t go home again.
Skanondo Lodge left behind a legacy of hundreds of members and decades of service, but all of that predated the ubiquity of the internet. As a result, little of its history can be found online. All that remains is a fairly small amount of memorabilia and few collectors, the former increasing as the ranks of the latter decrease and their belongings are released back into the wild. The circle of life continues.
Formed in the aftermath of the 1931 merger that brought the Orange County Council and Sullivan County Council together into the Orange-Sullivan Council (renamed the Hudson-Delaware Council in 1958), Skanondo Lodge served Beech Mountain Scout Camp until the Hudson-Delaware Council left at the end of the 1980 camp season and then Camp Ranachqua at Ten Mile River Scout Camps from 1981 to 1995. Its successor lodges have continued its mission with new generations of honor campers.
What follows is a rough adaptation of a dream. It has not been reviewed, edited, proofread, etc. All details are as they were in the dream as much as possible. As for what happens next, I have no idea.
Pedro was going to get Maria home. That was the only thought in his head. Sent by her mother to pick her up and drive her home, he was halfway through his mission. Not that Maria seemed to care. “Your mother told you to be home by 5 and you’re cutting it awfully close. We’ve only got half an hour to get through this mess.”
Ahead of them was solid gridlock.
“It’s fine. Mama worries too much,” Maria dismissed his concern while staring out the window into the ordinary yet fascinating daily routines unfolding around them. “She won’t mind if I’m a little late.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you won’t get the angry lecture. ‘Pedro, you’re too irresponsible.’ ‘Pedro, you can’t follow even simple instructions.’ ‘Pedro, you’ll never be good enough for my daughter.'”
Something about that last part brought Maria’s attention back from the city’s vibrant action to the stale interior of the motionless car. “What was tha-“
Pedro grabbed the wheel and steeled himself. “Not this time! Hold on, I know a shortcut.”
The car jerked to the right, down a service alley not meant for regular traffic at a speed that was probably not advisable. A delivery truck forced another abrupt right turn, along with a collision with a pile of boxes.
“It’s okay, we’re good. You good?” Maria didn’t answer, letting the scene play out as the next obstacle drew near. The right front tire dropped into a pothole as the car spun to the right once again to avoid a cart blocking the path ahead.
And then they exited the alley back into the very traffic they were trying to escape. Only now further back than they had started.
Maria remained silent as Pedro prepared to receive his scolding. But instead of that, the ground shook.
read more…Philmont Expedition 727-E1-1994 – 9 August 1994: Day +2: Homecoming / Aftermath
Day +2: Homecoming
It was time to go. Now on our 16th day, the novelty had worn off and we had accomplished all we set out to do. We hiked at Philmont, conquered Baldy, and lived to tell the tale. We saw all the sights Colorado Springs had to offer, at least as many as we cared to see. Anything more was just an unnecessary delay. It was time to go home.
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