Historic Camps of Bethel
Historic Camps of Bethel/Cruso Timeline
Camps offer a variety of teaching opportunities for students in settings other than the typical classroom. Bethel/Cruso has been home to six camps and camping programs: Camp Daniel Boone on Little East Fork, Camp Henry at Lake Logan, Camp Hope in Cruso, High Valley Camp at Springdale in Cruso, Land of the Sky Wilderness Camp (LOTSWILD Camp) in Burnette Cove in Cruso, and Wellsprings Adventure Camp at Camp Hope in Cruso.
Ruben B. Robertson developed the first camp in the area a century ago.
1926
CAMP HOPE
- Established on twenty-five acres that eventually grew to one hundred acres of land on the East Fork of the Pigeon River
- Ruben B. Robertson purchased the land and donated it to Champion Paper and Fibre Mill with the express purpose of creating a camp for boys and girls.
- The camp was named for Hope Robertson, Ruben B. Robertson’s wife.
- A club formed to finance amenities at the camp: club house, cabins, athletic field, baseball diamond, basketball court, tennis court, shuffleboard surface, swimming pool, and an open-air pavilion. Campers also hiked, swam in the nearby Pigeon River, learned about nature, some were involved in scouting, built campfires, and participated in woodcraft.
- The Canton YMCA was overseer of the camp.
- Boys camped from July 19 – August 1; girls camped from August 2 – August 14.
- The fee was $5 per week.
1932
HIGH VALLEY CAMP
- High Valley Camp developed out of the New College Community Experience of New College Branch of Columbia University’s Teacher’s College.
- The program at Springdale in Cruso was a significant social and educational experiment for training future teachers enrolled at Columbia University in New York City.
- Dr. Thomas Alexander, Columbia University professor, instituted a program in which Columbia teachers in training would be involved in five areas of preparation:
- (1) study academics and write a thesis
(2) spend at least one summer working on a farm in NC
(3) study abroad and learn a foreign language
(4) incorporate workplace training
(5) participate in a year’s internship that involved teaching under supervision - Teachers in training would not only receive excellent instruction tools at their college, work, and international experience, but their training included encountering the difficulties of real-life rural experiences on a working farm.
- A camp concept accompanied the New College program, with some faculty and students from the school also serving as staff in some capacity at the camp.
- High Valley Camp opened as a part of the New College program in the Springdale/Cruso area five years after the initiation of the college program.
- Months of operation: June – August
- Campers boarded in cabins with eight bunks per cabin.
- Primary activities included participating on a working farm by tending animals, keeping a garden, hiking, soccer, and baseball.
- The camp sometimes involved local children with sports activities on the weekends.
- A July 4th fireworks festival became a community event for campers and local people.
- Campers and local children participated in musical shows at Cruso School.
- The camp bonded mostly out-of-state students with the local population.
- The program was in operation for twenty-seven years, closing in 1961.
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1941
CAMP DANIEL BOONE
- Established by the Boy Scout Council of America, Daniel Boone Council, the camp utilized a 700-acre tract of land on Little East Fork in Bethel to create one of the most highly attended Scouts BSA camps in the Eastern United States.
- Camp Daniel Boone is situated on the Robert Lee Ellis Boy Scout Reservation.
- Robert Lee Ellis was a Coca-Cola Bottling Company president who donated the land for the camp.
- The camp includes the following facilities: Dining Lodge, Vance Lodge (training facility), Osborne Lodge (ranger’s house), Damtoft Lodge (health lodge), Reuben Robertson Lodge (camp program lodge), Boonesboro Village (living history museum), Chip’s Chapel, and Lake Allen.
- Summer camps operate for nine weeks each summer.
- Unit campouts may use the facility throughout the year.
- Camp Daniel Boone hosts 5,000 Scouts each summer for different councils around the U.S.
- High Adventure Camp includes whitewater rafting and kayaking, a fifty-four-mile backpacking adventure to Shining Rock, mile-high camping, and other activities.
- The most up-to-date estimate available is that over 50,000 Scouts and 19,000 adults have been a part of Scouting in NC since 1920, including 4,200 Eagle Scouts.
- Camp Daniel Boone continues today and includes Girl Scout troop programs