At a time when our cities were becoming increasingly crowded and playgrounds were nearly non-existent, the YMCA of New Jersey developed one of the first organized boys' camps in the United States. In 1901 Camp Wawayanda was founded by Charles C. Scott on Lake Wawayanda in northern Sussex County, New Jersey, on land loaned for that purpose. The Camp was situated on an island reachable by a barge which was set in motion by the passengers' pulling on a large rope permanently fixed from bank to bank. This property was sold in 1917 which made it necessary to find a new site for the camp. A suitable property was found in Andover, New Jersey; through far-sighted leadership of several YMCA friends, Camp Wawayanda was relocated. This new site offered a natural lake (New Lake Wawayanda) one mile long and a quarter mile wide, 330 acres of forest land and open campus bordering the lake. For 40 years thousands of boys enjoyed the high quality camping offered by the YMCA at Andover. Today many men of prominence throughout the United States look back upon Wawayanda as a major building block of their lives. In 1954, due to the encroachment of commercial enterprise, the Andover site was sold. In the next three years, the New Jersey YMCA rented the Steven's Institute Camp at Johnsonburg, New Jersey, while a new location was sought.
In 1957, a select group on Camp Wawayanda board members traveled to the Julius Forstmann estate in the heart of the Catskill Mountains in New York State to look over an exciting piece of property that was to be for sale. This resulted in the purchase of a completely isolated mountain valley property of over 2,200 acres situated between the ridges of Wildcat and Doubletop Mountains. Located 110 miles northwest of New York City, Frost Valley was accessible only by dirt road. The Valley was surrounded by 240,000 acres of "forever wild" Catskill Forest Preserve.
Due to the magnitude of this project, the Trustees and the Central Atlantic Area Council of YMCAs formed the Frost Valley Association, Incorporated, and charged the newly-created Frost Valley Board of Directors with the responsibility of Frost Valley's development and management. Frost Valley was a collaboration of several YMCAs throughout the Tri-State area that did not own their own resident camps.
The Board members found at the Forstmann estate everything that contributes to good camping and recreational activity: high elevation, open fields for play and games, woods and trails for hiking, beautiful streams for fishing and exploring, mountains for climbing, wild life for study and lookout points for inspiration.
The substantial cobblestone buildings on the property were immediately converted for resident camp usage. The calf barn became the office; the tractor shed, an arts and crafts center; and the cow barn, a recreation hall. Lake Cole, twenty-five modern cabins, and a dining hall were constructed in 1958 and 1959 to complete the new Camp Wawayanda for boys.
The Forstmann Conference Center was immediately established to serve YMCA, YWCA, school, scout, family, youth, club, and church groups for conferences and retreats. The "Castle" and related lodges, being winterized, were in great demand almost immediately.
1962 brought the establishment of Wawayanda's sister camp, later named Camp Henry Hird. A dining hall, recreation hall, program office and 20 modern cabins were built. Like its brother camp, the project was an immediate success.
Frost Valley was incorporated in the State of New Jersey in 1968 as a separate YMCA. In this capacity, Frost Valley was established to serve numerous YMCAs and YWCAs for their camping and conference needs. This collective planning provides a higher quality program and more extensive usage of facilities.
Realizing the educational opportunities available at Frost Valley with its fine facility, friendly staff, abundant wildlife and natural setting, schools throughout the New York area began sending students and their teachers to Frost Valley in 1969 for week-long resident experiences. With this school usage of the facility, the Frost Valley Environmental Education Center was inaugurated. The Environmental Education Center has now expanded to a full school year schedule.
In 1968, the Teenage Adventure Camp commenced with the development of the Catskill Explorer program under the direction of Bud Cox and the continuation of the Canadian "Trailblazers" canoe trip under the direction of Digger Short. Currently, the Adventure Camp sends teenager in small groups on backpacking, canoeing, and bicycling trips of two to six weeks in duration throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
In 1975 the Frost Valley YMCA joined with the Tison family to establish the Tison Trust, a wilderness preserve of 640 acres along the East Branch of the Neversink River. This property is being used to teach trailless camping to our future counselors. Through the support of John Giannotti and Rutgers University a series of cultural events has been held on this property and will continue as part of the Summer Sunday Series.
In September 1978 Frost Valley purchased and added an additional 1628 acres along the East Branch of the Neversink River. This neighboring estate belonged to the Straus family and relates to Frost Valley via a town road over the top of Wildcat Mountain. Acquisition of this property means the virtual joining of all Frost Valley lands and an unprecedented opportunity for program expansion. ...But still traditions abound. The names of the villages for instance are nearly as old as Wawayanda itself, nearly as old as camping in America. Each has its own tale. The very notion of the village is a native of Wawayanda; two directors, leaders in the early camping movement, "Batchie" Holbein and John Ledlie, created the idea of decentralized camping back at Andover in the mid-twenties. Ledlie and Holbein went on to assemble and publish a book of camp counseling which, in the many years since, still stands as a definitive resource on the subject.'
Document URL: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/fv-history.html
Last modified: Thursday, 13-Nov-1997 23:25:13 EST