CAMP READ ASSOCIATION

In 1948 the Fenimore Cooper Council serving White Plains, Bedford and Brewster areas, purchased the property, the original Adirondack Great Camp of C.L. Collins.  The property, known as The Hermitage, at the northeastern tip of Brant Lake became Camp Curtis S. Read.  The original Camp Read, given in Curtis S. Read’s memory by his mother, was located at Long Pond in Mahopac, NY. It was sold to the Town of Carmel for a town park. The proceeds, and a substantial gift from Sarah Lester of Scarsdale Troop 1 were used to buy the new property at Brant Lake.

Fred Smith, Council Scout Executive, was checking out the new property and looking for a Ranger to manage the property year-round.  It was a stroke of luck that Art Boland, who had been working for the Heller Farm nearby, met with Fred for an interview.  Art’s Scouting background helped him land the job.  Fred made a choice that would turn out to be very fortunate for hundreds of future staff members and thousands of future campers that would follow. For Art became not only the Ranger, but a major contributor of program ideas that set the tone for what would become the "magic" of Camp Read.  (This is a story in itself, so stay tuned for future additions to our story page.)

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The new property included 750 acres of land bordered by the Adirondack Park and grew to 946 acres with the purchase of the Heller Farm Property (now the STEM Ranch).  The original property had one small pond (Chub Pond or Rogers Lake - now Buckskin Lake, as we know it), and several buildings. It had been a Great Camp in the 1920’s called The Hermitage, owned by Col. Clarence Lyman Collins.  There was no Ranger’s House or garage when you first came into Camp. In fact, the original entrance to the property was closer to the shores of Brant Lake where stone pillars still stand as the entrance to the Hermitage property.  The second set of stone gates are just before the Ranger’s House and the third “gates” were inundated when the Waubeeka Dam was created and are now in the middle of Waubeeka Lake.  On the top of the third stone pillar “gates” was a sign engraved: “Don’t Give Up Hope” designed by Hap Simmons and placed there in the early days of camp.

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The sign originated from the fact that in those days the ride up the Camp road was through dense forest for almost the entire two miles. The 3rd gate and "Hope” sign was about a third of the way up the camp road and just when you thought you’d never get to the end, you’d arrive at camp. Hap also made the signs on the inside of the latrine doors: “Now to the Washstand, … Just Like at Home”. But those came later. 

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The first structures you came to after the “Don’t Give Up Hope” Gates were in a clearing on the left side of the road.  A log cabin, originally known as the “old farm house”, was the first residence for Ranger Boland and his wife, Shirley.  The cabin was dedicated to the Bolands in 1999, and renamed “Boland Lodge”.  There were also two old barns, one of which is still standing.  Once the Ranger’s House was built where it stands now by the shop, the old farm house was used for pre-staff lodging.  Meals were served courtesy of Shirley Boland at the Ranger’s House.

As you continued up the camp road, the next structure was a little house on the left just past the road on the right that leads up to the Butler Building, Climbing Tower and the primitive camp sites that are all that remain of the original Camp Tomahawk.  This house was built by the Lesters as a “doll house” for their daughter.  It was 1½ stories high with 2 sections downstairs and a sleeping loft upstairs.  The doll house was converted to become the first Health Lodge with an examining room and another section with beds for sick campers.  When the dam was built to create Lester Lake, (the zip line pond, as it is known today), the Waterfront Staff used the “doll house” for living quarters until the new cabin (now mountain bike wash and storage) by Lester Lake was built.  The “doll house” then became the Cook’s Cabin for the Tomahawk Kitchen Chefs.

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Just a hundred yards or so up the road on the right was the main Great Camp Building, Col. Collins' old summer residence, which later came to be known as Lester Lodge. The stone wall that enclosed the rose garden still remains and surrounds the Bill Brucker Sr. Office (Summit Office, formerly Camp Tomahawk Office). Lester Lodge was the original Camp Read Office and had a large room that became the Staff Lounge, complete with a window to the Trading Post. A large porch ran across the building’s front offering wonderful views of Mt. Stevens. Living quarters for the Camp Director and his family were on the second floor. The other side of the main floor was used as the Nature Lodge. Butch Smith, Fred’s son, was the first Nature Director.