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Boy Scouts complete sale of Camp Tallaha
Clarksdale Press Register ^ | 7/15/04 | N/A

Posted on 07/15/2004 9:16:27 AM PDT by RonF

MEMPHIS - The Memphis-based Chickasaw Council of the Boy Scouts has ended a 78-year camping tradition by selling Camp Tallaha, a 173-acre property just outside Charleston, to DMI Fine Timber and Hunting Properties in Lyon. Doug Mauldin, president of DMI, said the property would be developed into an upscale hunting and recreational resort. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. "This certainly was a bittersweet occasion," said Roy Rhodes, scout executive of the Chickasaw Council, the largest youth service organization in the Mid-South, serving West Tennessee, North Mississippi and East Arkansas. "Our scouts have been going there for summer camp since 1926, so it has a lot of great memories and experiences for thousands of former campers and counselors." "However, we had to take this step to help us accomplish something that will be much bigger and better - a new camp at Sardis Lake." The new camp, which will cost between $7 million and $10 million, will be a state-of-the-art facility on a 962-acre site on Sardis Lake near Batesville. The camp will be about 65 miles from Memphis.

...

The Chickasaw Council gained access to the Sardis Lake property after three years of negotiations with the federal government . The agreement stipulates the Scouts will lease the property for 50 years at a cost of $1 per year. The agreement includes an option to renew. "We plan to create a camp that will be a national showplace," said Rhodes.

(Excerpt) Read more at zwire.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: boyscout; boyscouts; bsa
I don't know why they needed to sell the one camp to build a showplace at another. However, in many cases Councils have to upgrade the facilities at a Scout camp to attract campers. Kids won't use pit toilets and gang showers anymore; if there's no flush toilets, and if they have to shower in front of another kid, they won't go. Plus, they want more sophisticated program options.

What makes me nervous about this, though, is that the Council won't own the new camp's land. Instead, they are leasing public land and improving it. Has this Council taken a look at what's going on elsewhere in the country, such as in Desert Pacific Council? Some homosexual-rights advocacy organization will hook up with the ACLU and seek to overturn this lease as it gives special privileges to a discriminatory organization.

Even if the Council wins (and that's no piece of cake), they'll have to blow big money in legal bills. I wonder what their thinking process was on this?

1 posted on 07/15/2004 9:16:27 AM PDT by RonF
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To: RonF
Tallaha? I never went there.

I went to Kia Kima and couseled there for two years. Was a great camp once they fixed it up around 1982. (Eagle Scout, Troop 260, Excellent Northeast District, Memphis)

2 posted on 07/15/2004 9:26:54 AM PDT by amadeus
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To: RonF

It is difficult to get people in Tennessee to realize that what is happening in California is relevant to them. They think it will never happen in their state. Only, then it does.


3 posted on 07/15/2004 9:56:14 AM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Legislatures are so outdated. If you want real political victory, take your issue to court.)
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To: RonF

"Councils have to upgrade the facilities at a Scout camp to attract campers. Kids won't use pit toilets and gang showers anymore; if there's no flush toilets, and if they have to shower in front of another kid, they won't go."

That is truly a sad state of affairs. Scouting used to be about learning how to "rough it", get back to nature, comraderie etc. How soft are we getting as a nation? Any wonder we have so many obese kids these days, stay at home and play your gamecube instead of busting your a** in the woods.

Be prepared!


4 posted on 07/15/2004 10:16:32 AM PDT by Ignatius J Reilly
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: RonF
Kids won't use pit toilets and gang showers anymore; if there's no flush toilets, and if they have to shower in front of another kid, they won't go.

Another problem with old camps is that local and state regulations eventually require upgrading facilities, ie outlawing pit toilets, and requiring centralized running water, not well water located at each campsite. Councils have had to sacrifice older camps and put the money into other, more modern camps owned by them.

Vanity part of this post:

Anyone here attend Camp Harrison H. Child located near Plymouth, Massachusetts? It was sold to private investors sometime in the last 2 decades. I don't know the whole story why it was sold. I don't live in that part of the country anymore.

6 posted on 07/15/2004 11:04:03 AM PDT by A. Patriot
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To: A. Patriot
Anyone here attend Camp Harrison H. Child located near Plymouth, Massachusetts? It was sold to private investors sometime in the last 2 decades. I don't know the whole story why it was sold. I don't live in that part of the country anymore.

As it happens, I did. Camp Harrison H. Child Scouting Reservation was near Manomet, Massachusetts, about 15 miles or so from the Cape Cod Canal.

In fact, in 1967 my father was Assistant Camp Director (and the DE of Massassoit District), my oldest brother was Quartermaster, my older brother worked in the Nature area, and I was a JST (Junior Staff in Training) on the Waterfront. Mom lived in a cabin all summer down on the far end of Morey's Hole (the reservation's lake) next to Camp Nelson Sly (one year she filled in as Nurse for a couple of weeks); it was called Ben-Dan-Lou after the 3 guys who made a deal with the Council wherein they paid for and built a cabin for the reservation to use at the far end of camp, as long as they could use it during hunting season and hunt the property. I was a camper there in 1964, 1965, and 1966, camping there all summer (9 weeks) since my Dad and my brothers were on staff.

My understanding is that Old Colony Council grossly mismanaged their finances in the 80's and had to sell off half the property to developers to stay solvent. Old Colony Council merged with Samoset (Squanto ?) Council. The "Old Colony Council" name was retained. The other half of the property was merged with Camp Squanto (Samoset Council's camp); the camp retained the Camp Squanto name. If you do a search, there are still some old logs of discussions on this extant.

7 posted on 07/15/2004 11:45:28 AM PDT by RonF
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