The Emergence of the Camping Movement - reprinted from June 1929 issue of Camping - Reprint

Camping Magazine, Nov, 1999 by Edwin DeMerritte

Following the founding of Gunnery Camp in 1861, other camps began emerging in the late 1800s. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the number of camps was increasing rapidly. In 1910 there were 106 private camps. By 1924, the number of camps had jumped to 1,248, with 713 being private and 535 being organizational camps. Approximately 90 percent of the camps were located in New England.

The rise in number of camps brought the need for camp directors to meet and build a network of support. In 1910, the Camp Directors Association of America was formed, in 1916 the National Association of Directors' of Girls Camps was formed, and in 1921 the Mid-West Camp Directors Association was founded. In 1924, these three groups combined to form the Camp Directors Association, the precursor of today's American Camping Association.

To provide a forum for the discussion of issues affecting organized camping, the Camp Directors' Bulletin (later renamed Camping Magazine) began publication in 1926. The publication was to be devoted to "the best interests of organized camping."

The Future of Camping

Nearly fifty years ago, when the camp movement was first started, parents applied for a place for their boys in the few established camps. The camps then were in the hands of a few earnest men who aimed to give the boys a wholesome, safe, and beneficial outing and hold them up to a standard which augered well for the future. Today, we go to the parents and seek enrollment for their boys in our camps.

Parents sometimes are afraid to send their children to camp because of the lack of moral training in some camps. They fear the results and judge all camps by the failure of one to have and require a moral standard among the campers.

In one case, a boy who had been started right was gotten from a camp by unethical means and after two summers in that camp and one in a school adjunct returned to his former school, a marked boy among his associates because of his vulgarity, profanity, dishonesty, untruthfulness, and disregard of the rights of others.

The remedy for this lies with camp directors, and we must act without hesitation.

A boy who had been refused readmission to a camp went to another camp the next year and wrote from there to his old camp mates a letter in which was this expression. "You ought to come over here. Here you can do just as you damn please and no one says a word."

The ethics of the profession must be loyally lived up to if the future of camping is to be one of moral uplift instead of moral degeneration.

The above statement of a fact is made to open the eyes of those who are desirous of keeping the camp movement above suspicion and to arouse the honest element among camp directors to the ultimate doom of the camp unless a remedy can be found.

Unfortunately, we have to contend with that element whose sole object is the ledger balance at the end of the year.

When a man or woman is ready to barter the soul of the child for filthy lucre, he should be read out of the association, and the public should know the reason why.

The future of the child is of paramount importance. A child received in camp is a sacred trust and must be so considered by the director.

The camp should be only large enough to enable the director to study each child, learn its strong and weak points, and devise a means to strengthen the good and eliminate the bad.

At camp, the child needs constant guidance and supervision and often firm restraint. The rules of the camp should be so clearly defined and posted where all may read that even the youngest may understand and appreciate.

The things not allowed should also be written and posted that all may read. Infringements of these rules should be kindly but firmly dealt with. Save the child if you can. If you cannot, remove the law breaker.

One evil-minded child can do more harm than a dozen good ones can remedy. He works in the dark.

Do not think of the dollar, but of the future of the rest. In this way only will you succeed in holding each child up to a standard.

In dealing with a child you must remember the same method cannot be used in all cases. Temperaments differ. A quiet talk with the child, making clear the good and harm their course of action may do to themselves in afterlife is usually successful. If you can get to the heart of the child by kind methods, you develop a worshiper who follows your teaching.

A wise director will always be ready to give a series of talks to the whole camp which will teach the harm of a careless mode of living and the value of a persistent effort to be courteous, helpful, and always to play the game of life on the square. The seed thus sown may lie dormant for years but the time will come when it will germinate and grow like the biblical mustard seed, and lead to honorable success.

We camp directors have it in our power to elevate the standard of our nation. When so many parents are teaching their children to become law breakers by their violation of the Volstead (National Prohibition) Act, someone must come to the rescue. We, as camp directors, can, without being personal, prove to the campers that national laws as well as camp laws are made for the good of all and that now is the time to lay the foundation for loyalty, integrity, and respect for the rights of others.