Camp History

From ISRStaff

Zach Garman, Wilderness Factor director on the 2007 staff, needs help finding history of ISR for his program...

From Zach Garman:

What we are looking for is how the camp was formed.  Which people
were instrumental in doing so and about the different land
purchases.  Also what the different buildings and areas are named
after.  Stuff concerning the first years of camp.  Also maybe
anything major that has affected camp since then.  What we plan
on doing with this information is having a geocache course that
will put all this information together for the participants in an
interesting but still educational way.  Since this is the 100 year
of Boy Scouts we plan on working that in to. 

Map of Camp Wilderness (showing the different acquisitions of land)

You can help by adding your information to these questions...

1) Which people were instrumental in founding the camp?

Hello. I'm Gary Hendzell - ISR Staff in 1981, 1982 & 1983. I was also the District Executive at that time for Spoon River District (Fulton & part of Mason Counties) and lived in Canton. A lot of my local volunteers at that time had grown up through Scouting at Camp Wilderness and personnally knew Bill Ingersoll. If any of the follwing men are still around and you are able to contact them, I'm sure they would have a wealth of knowledge about the early years and formation of the camp.

Gary Roudebush Glenn Bitner Mark Dillefeld Darrell Parsons

2) Who are the various buildings and areas named for?

3) What was camp like in the 1960's?

I can't really say, but I can tell you that they used the eastern portion of the camp more and they used to have jamborees where the lake is. I'd say ask Bill Dunn for help since he knows everything there is to know about the camp considering he's a million years old. Sorry Bill but I heard that story about your jambo at the bottom of the lake too many times...

4) How has camp changed since the 1960's?

One person that would be excellent to ask would be Mike Colemann. He was program director in 68 and camp director in 69 and 70. Tracy Pitzen from Troop 18 was on staff in 70 as a commissioner as well.