BRANT LAKE 1949 - PRESENT

Following the instructions given to us by Fred Smith and Joe Cooke, we arrived at the entrance to the new Camp Read late in the afternoon the last weekend in August in 1948.  Not sure just where to go, we accosted a young man who was working near the entrance.  That was how Bob Johnson and I met Art Boland.  Having been told the new camp Ranger was a “local,” we expected a weatherworn ridge runner with a beard.  Forever afterwards, Bob and I have referred to Art as “the man without the beard.”  Anyway, Art told us to drive up the only road in to the lodge.  “You’ll go for quite a while,” he said, “but just about the time you think you are lost, you’ll come to two pillars, one on either side of the road.  Don’t give up hope, you are on the right road!  Just keep driving and soon you’ll be at the main lodge.”  

Well, we did that and just about the time we were wondering where we were, we came to the pillars.  We honked the horn of the old Dodge truck, shouted “Don’t Give up Hope!” and soon arrived at the lodge.  From that day to this, anytime either of us or any of the old guard passes those pillars (in later years – that pillar), we still honk the horn and say those words – Don’t Give Up Hope!  And, incidentally, we never did! That night we slept on the very soft down mattresses in the lodge – a far cry from the surplus army cots in the surplus army tents we had become accustomed to at Camp Siwanoy for most of the summer.

  Art came by early the next morning and helped us unload the truck.  Then he gave us a tour of the carriage house with a buggy in fairly good condition, the large building that would be our dining hall, and the race track with the monument to the previous owner’s favorite horse.  There was even a viewing tower on the track from which one could see all the action or as Art explained, could have seen the action, before brush and brambles crept in to gradually obscure a clear view of the track.

  Later that day, Art invited us down to the house he, Shirley and the kids shared with the porcupines.  Meeting Shirley was one of the highpoints of the trip.  What a graceful lady and a perfect mate for Art.  We have all remained close friends ever since those first days at Camp Read in the Adirondacks. 

John Farley

20 August 2001