Goshen Scout Reservation

Goshen Scout Reservation is a Boy Scout reservation designated to camping, swimming, hiking and other various activities. Goshen is home to six Boy Scouts of America resident summer camps located near Goshen, Virginia, and is owned and operated by the National Capital Area Council. The camps are all built around Lake Merriweather.

Goshen first opened to Scouts of the National Capital Area Council in the summer of 1967. It today has six different camps with over 4,000 acres (16 km²) of land.

Background

Lake Merriweather was named for Marjorie Merriweather Post, an ardent supporter of Scouting in the Washington, DC area. The individual camps bear the names of other significant individuals or corporations who supported National Capital scouting as well. Camp Marriott owes its name to the Marriott International hospitality corporation while Camp PMI refers to Parking Management Incorporated (better known as PMI), a large parking company in the DC Metro region.

Goshen borders portions of the George Washington National Forest and other state parks. The reservation is about a 45-minute drive southwest of Harrisonburg; and about a 30-minute drive northwest of Lexington. The town of Goshen itself lies approximately 3 miles to the west of the reservation.

A common treat at the Goshen Scout Reservation is a fly-over by Air Force or Navy aircraft as crews conduct practice bomb-runs on the Goshen Dam. Sighted planes include C-5 Galaxies, F-16 Falcons, F/A-18 Hornets, F-15E Strike Eagles, and even a V-22 Osprey. The planes fly at low altitude and are quite impressive.

A Goshen Boy Scout Reservation shirt is shown on the fictional character Kim Bauer during season 1 of the hit drama 24.^[1]

Goshen Scout Reservation was considered one of the finalists as the location for future National Scout Jamborees, a National-supported High Adventure Base, or a National-supported Leadership Center.^[2]

Facilities

Within Goshen there are three Boy Scout camps, two Cub Scout camps, and one high adventure camp.

Camp Baird 

Camp Baird is the base camp for the Lenhok'sin High Adventure program. Scouts can choose from a traditional backpacking trek, a Civil War week, a canoe trek, or a "COPE and Rope" trek. In a traditional trek scouts hike from outpost to outpost during the week and experience various activities with significance to history or high adventure sports. Scouts are on the trek from Monday morning to Friday afternoon. Throughout the week, crews may be found at the outposts, which are scattered around the reservation. LHA is recommended for scouts at or above the age of 13, and in decent physical condition. Crews should be well prepared for their week of backpacking and must have a minimum of two youth and two adults, no exceptions. Units with numbers above 14 may be split into two individually functioning crews, so if a crew intends to bring more scouts on Trail, plans should be made to bring more than two or three adults.

Camp Bowman 

Camp Bowman is a camp for Boy Scouts and is differentiated from Camp Olmsted by the fact that Bowman scouts prepare their own meals using the patrol cooking method, rather than eating in a cafeteria setting. Camp Bowman is the only camp at the Goshen Scout Reservation that is run almost exclusively as a patrol cooking camp. Camp Bowman was the first camp to be built on the Goshen Scout Reservation hence their slogan, "Bowman, Bowman Number 1!" Camp Bowman is also the only camp to use its original camp sign, a source of pride for the camp staff. The camp is located directly across Lake Merriweather from Camp Olmsted.

Camp Bowman has a rich history of teaching Scouting values for over forty years. Various mementos can be found in the Admin Building, including gifts from several foreign staff members who were part of an international camp staff exchange program as well as staff neckerchiefs from early camp years. Every staff photo is on display, along with photos from the first year camp was open, as well as the medal given to every camper from the inaugural year.

Camp Bowman is the only camp in Virginia with an action archery course, where scouts participate in shooting at aerial, moving ground, field, and long distance targets. In addition, Bowman is the only camp on Goshen Scout Reservation with a rabbit clay trap on their shotgun range.

Camp Marriott 

Camp Marriott is one of the seven camps on the Goshen Scout Reservation. Most scouts who attend during summer months are between the ages of 11 and 15. Camp Marriott is well known for being one of the few scout camps left that continues the tradition of patrol cooking. However, to create ease for the scouts, heater stack meals are prepared in the camp kitchen to be picked up and prepared by the scouts at their own separate campsites.

Camp Marriott contains twelve campsites. There are two rifle pavilions, a shotgun range, and one archery range. The waterfront area is one of the largest on the lake, with close proximity to the administration building. The Ecology area offers three separate teaching areas that immerse you in the outdoors, the Pan Zoological Park that is full of local flora and fauna, and a highly regarded nature trail. Camp Marriott has long running traditions, excellent program, physical layout, and a fair distance from Camp Post.

Camp Olmsted 

Named after General George H. Olmsted, Camp Olmsted is unique among the Boy Scout camps on the lake in that it is the only one with a dining hall where troops and the staff take their meals. It also is the only camp on the lake with a Tech Center where technology related merit badges are taught. In addition to the Tech Center, the camp offers Shooting Sports, Handicraft, Ecology, Scoutcraft, Trailshead and Aquatics areas. A program that is unique to Camp Olmsted is the X-Pride program, which provides an opportunity for older scouts to participate in high-adventure activities while the younger scouts in their troop work on merit badges. X-pride scouts participate in activities such as rock climbing, GPS orienteering, and an overnight trip to Viewing Rock. In 2010, Olmsted introduced a new program area, Culturecraft, which focuses on Fine Arts Merit Badges such as Theater, Music, Art, Cinematography, Architecture, Sculpture, and Photography. The camp contains 20 camping sites, and one staff site. In addition, it is the only camp on the lake that offers over 60 merit badges; many of these not traditionally seen at a summer camp, such as Communications, Radio, and others in that sort of field. Olmsted is the largest camp in Goshen, not in amount of land, but number of scouts that attend and staff members.

Camp PMI

Camp PMI 

Camp P.M.I. is a camp for 9-10 year old Webelos Cub Scouts located in the Shenandoah Valley near Goshen, Virginia, about 200 miles (320 km) from Washington, D.C. Every summer, 2000 scouts and leaders visit Camp P.M.I. for a week of adventure, hiking, and scouting.^[3][4]

Camp Ross 

Camp Ross is one of two Webelos camps at Goshen Scout Reservations. It is one of the newest camps on the lake having been closed after the 1978 camping season due to decreased overall Reservation attendance. Ross was reopened in 1981 as a Webelos camp and has operated as such until present day. The camp currently has 11 campsites but was originally built with 10, expanded to 12 and subsequently one was closed due to poor drainage. The camp takes a quite a large area at the entrance to Lake Merriweather where it is fed by the Half Calf Pasture River.

The camp is the farthest one away from Camp Post. The campsites that the campers sleep in are arranged in arch formations around the central dining hall, staff site, shower house, and activity areas. The farthest site is site five which is about 3/4 of a mile walk from the center of camp. In the southwest corner of the camp there is a large white pine forest that was planted by scouts in the 1960s to reforest the area. Since the planting of the trees they have been logged at least once to thin out the underbrush. One can still follow the old logging road back into this area where it meets up with the Anderson trail which in turn goes all the way around the lake through all seven camps. The White Pine meets the lake at a very steep grade and one can look straight across and see the waterfront of Camp Marriott. Within the White Pine there is a cemetery containing four graves that date back to the 1850s although it is quite overgrown it is of much interest to many staffers and used as a topic for ghost stories with the scouts. The camp has several activity areas for the Webelos scouts including Aquatics, Scoutcraft, Nature, Handicraft, Archery, and BB Gun Shooting.

Other camps 

• Camp Post is the central administration area, home to several intercamp programs such as Project COPE. It includes a climbing tower and ropes course.
• Family Camp is a now unused camp which can be used upon request by individuals and groups. It is located almost directly across from Camp Ross waterfront and functions as the Camp Baird Waterfront as well as the Lenhok'sin Caving Outpost during the summer.

See also

• Goshen Pass
• Goshen Pass Natural Area Preserve

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National Capital Area Council.

• Camp Bowman Website
• Camp Olmsted Website
• Camp Marriott Website
• Camp Ross Website
• Camp PMI Website

References