One of the things about modern Boy Scout camping is the uniformity of the experience. Some camps are set in more glamorous settings; Treasure Island in the middle of a river, Treasure Mountain in the foothills of the Grand Tetons or Emerald Bay on Catalina Island 26 miles into the Pacific Ocean. But a modern camper in Pennsylvania will have a similar experience to one in California or Florida. The Scouting program has been refined over a hundred years. The activities at one camp mirror those at others. Camps built after about 1930 are laid out in a similar manner. Buildings have the same design because they were often constructed from plans provided by the BSA Engineering Department. There was a tremendous exchange of information about what Scout camps and camping should be. Camp songs are even similar.     Troop 1 Princeton, Ill. camp circa 1918. Four adult leaders, thirty boys and fourteen children, about half girls. Troop 1 was a direct service troop (not under a council) and scout camping was whatever the unit leaders decided.   In the earliest years there was no BSA Camping Department or Engineering Service. Early handbooks had tips on how to build a fire, construct a lean-to and information on scout games but the method, length and location of the camp was up to the local leaders. Early scout troops were often large. Taking a large group on a weekend outing is one thing but providing for a group of thirty or more for a two week camp could be a challenge. Early reports on scout camping sometimes describe catastrophic experiences. Camp sites that were poorly selected and flooded by heavy rains. Camps often ran short of provisions and scouts might go hungry. Scout leaders might bring their families, including young children. If scouting was to grow it couldn’t have the troop fold after summer camp. By 1911 the Chicago Council insisted that troop summer camps must get council approval and meet a set of guidelines. Upon reading the requirements and the many things that needed to be done or that could go wrong, Scout leaders often realized that taking scouts to a relatives farm for a two week camp might not be as easy as they thought. But troop camps like the one above continued to be a hit or miss proposition well into the 1920’s. Chicago was the leader in scout camping. L.L. McDonald, the Chicago Scout Executive, was selected as the first National Director of BSA Camping in 1918 primary because Chicago had established the record for Scout camping. After 1918 national headquarters started developing programs to determine what scout camping should be. About 1915 the idea of scouting professionals was developing. In most cases men selected had been outstanding scoutmasters. E.U. Goodman of Philadelphia, J. Rucker Newberry of Texas, H. Roe Bartle of Kansas, E. F. McDonald of Chicago, F.O. Belzer of Indianapolis, Art Roberts of Cincinnati, etc. It was decided that local Councils were the way to administer Scouting. Councils started forming in the earliest years, with paid professional men as head of the Council. Councils saw exceptional growth in the 1920’s. The country was recovering from WWI, the economy was booming and Scouting was growing. The primary responsibility of the local Council was “service to units”. Of upmost importance was developing a local camp which would serve local Scouts. Travel was difficult and most Scouts camped at locations in close proximity to their homes. Scouting professionals were almost exclusively “program men” who had been successful Scoutmasters. This was a difficulty in that each leader favored what he had experienced. Men from the big cities loved full service camping on tents with platforms. Others preferred “primitive” camping sleeping on the ground cooking your own food. L.L. McDonald as National Director of Camping had his work cut out for him trying to bring some continuity to Scout camping. Contrast the modern camps with those from the early years and the modern scouter will be surprised at how very different things were. In Owasippe the Camp, it’s noted that in 1916, Owasippe had a dining hall and kitchen capable of feeding 250 scouts in one sitting. There was a fully equipped woodworking shop. A camp photography studio complete with running water to develop film as well as tennis courts and baseball diamonds. In Scouting Memories, J. Rucker Newberry describes a 1924 Beaumont, Texas Council camp situated on Beech Creek, the camp site was primitive. Scouts cooked their own food, boiled water and performed night watch duty. Scouts swam in the creek alongside snakes and the camp occasionally ran out of provisions. The area had a large population of razorback hogs which ventured into camp at night searching for food. There was a night patrol that circled the camp with lanterns and clubs. Early Boy Scout Councils were doing their best to provide scouts with an outdoor experience, but there were varying ideas of what Boy Scout camping was, or should be. Summer camping experiences varied widely by council. Chicago's Camp Owasippe in Michigan. The camp had the best of everything as early as 1915.   Owasippe was the model camp for early Boy Scouting in the mid-west. The leaders of the Chicago Council had a head start on other camp because of the Council Executive Board. The Council President was the President of the Chicago Board of Trade. The Board of Trade financed construction and the maintenance of Owasippe. After Mr. White passed away he was replaced with the President of the Quaker Oaks Company. Because of the high caliber (wealthy) benefactors Owasippe was built and expanded. Camping was a relative new idea in 1910, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford had popularized the theme of traveling into the woods and “roughing it”, the YMCA had held summer camps for about 10 years, but just what activities a Scout camp should provide was undecided. YMCA camps had sports and competition, these seemed like logical themes. Baseball, Volleyball, high jumping maybe even wall scaling. Camps in larger councils lead the way. The BSA was slow to develop printed material, the US Army served as a model. The military had experience feeding people in the woods. The BSA developed booklets in the mid-1920’s. The BSA Engineering Department was in operation at the time of the 1935 Jamboree. Harvey Gordon was a graduate engineer who was a scouting professional. He was from Philadelphia, he helped modernize Camp Treasure Island, building their first dining hall in 1926. Gorden was in charge of physical arrangements at the 1935 and 1937 Jamborees. The BSA Engineering Department had been developing plans for camps since the late 1920’s. Scouters visiting different camps are often surprised at how similar structures are, they often fail to realize that camps were often built to specifications developed by the BSA.   Many camps developed camper manuals to help scouts navigate the camp experience.These manuals are helpful to understand the various camp programs.    Community support for Scouting was always strong. Service clubs like Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary and others as well as volunteer Scouters could be counted on to pitch in for almost any camps needs.    Summer camping experiences varied widely by council. There was a debate among Scout leaders about how “adventurous” summer camp should be. Chicago built a camp for the sons of affluent families in the wilderness of western, Michigan. In the early years Scouts took a ship across Lake Michigan. What an adventure, boarding a huge ship, crossing lake Michigan and marching into the woods, the likes of which most Scouts had never seen. This fulfilled the requirement that a Scout is Brave. In a couple of years men would be doing the same only heading for WW I. Camping at Owasippe was truly an adventure in the early years, but as more middle class boys became Scouts the cost of transportation became a hindrance. After lake steamers declined Chicago was faced with the task of efficiently and economically transporting large volumes of Scouts to camp. Ultimately trains were chartered and used into the mid-1960’s. Most council camps were developed in somewhat close proximity to the council headquarters city. Transportation was a problem.     These 1917 photos shows Scouts unloading at White Lake and hiking through Whitehall, Michigan.     Paul Myers Goshen, Indiana gimogash@comcast.net