Campfire ring restored at historic Scouting site

It’s been 115 years since the first experimental Scout summer camp took place in the United States.

In August 1910, 120 boys arrived in Silver Bay, N.Y., by train and steamboat for a two-week stay on the shore of Lake George at the Silver Bay YMCA property. One of Scouting America’s founders, Ernest Thompson Seton, led the camp’s programming.

This past summer, the Silver Bay YMCA, with the help of the Order of the Arrow’s Kittan Lodge, rededicated the camp council ring at the New York property. The council ring features a campfire ring and wooden benches.

Camp history

The 1910 camp marked a gathering of boys involved in Seton’s youth organization, the Woodcraft Indians and boys from early Scout troops. Implementing the model set forth a couple of years prior by Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell, they all camped and practiced Scoutcraft.

Like Baden-Powell’s Brownsea Island camp in 1907, this experimental encampment helped put Scouting’s tenets into practice in the U.S.

Over the years, the campfire site fell into disrepair until 1947 when a new ring was built. You can watch a recap of the site’s history, thanks to this video by Mountain Lake PBS:

The ring restored

Earlier this year, the Silver Bay YMCA held a rededication ceremony for the council ring. Seton’s granddaughter, Dr. Julie A. Seton, attended the event, along with staff from the Twin Rivers Council.

The restoration marked a yearlong effort by the Silver Bay YMCA staff and maintenance team, Kittan Lodge, the Silver Bay YMCA Council and Sean Longacre, who helped assemble the benches. The OA lodge members removed the wooden benches, and new benches were built and placed encircling the campfire ring.

The renovated historic site can now better serve visitors as a gathering place for the future.