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April 26, 2001 |
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Save Camp Glen Gray
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In the autumn of 1908,
Montclair resident Frank Fellows Gray returned from
Great Britain, enthused with the concept of establishing
a "miniature military cadet troop" in Nishuane
School. Gray was emulating a concept begun earlier that
year in England by Sir Robert Baden-Powell.
Over in England, Sir Robert’s idea quickly evolved
into the Boy Scouts, and Frank Gray followed by
establishing a Scouting group in Montclair. Some
residents through the decades have maintained that the
Boy Scouts of America truly began in Montclair, N.J.
In 1912, Baden-Powell visited Montclair, and in
recognition of Gray’s pioneering effort, bestowed his
own name on the Montclair troop, which became Montclair
Troop 4 of the Boy Scouts of America. The "Troop
4" designation indicated, in those days, that it
was the fourth registered Boy Scout Troop in our nation.
The following year, Gray became commissioner of the
Montclair Scout Council.
Seeking a large, undeveloped tract on which the Scouts
could camp and learn about the wonders of the natural
world, the council in 1916 formed a search committee.
The committee found a site in the Ramapo Mountains about
20 miles north of Montclair.
Piece by piece, the council purchased an 820-acre tract.
In 1917, the tract was dedicated as Camp Glen Gray,
named for Frank Fellows Gray, the Montclair resident who
was a pioneer in initiating and developing the Boy
Scouts of America.
For more than 80 years, generations of Scouts from
Montclair have learned outdoor skills and have fostered
a camaraderie at Camp Glen Gray. Senior citizens and
boys barely in their teens can share the cherished bond
of having experienced, in their lives, the campfire
gatherings and the hikes along paths wending through the
forested camp.
Three years ago, the Essex Council of the Boy Scouts of
America merged with its counterparts in Bergen, Passaic
and Hudson counties to form the Northern New Jersey
Council.
The council has now decided that Camp Glen Gray, one of
the nation’s oldest Boy Scout campsites, is
"redundant," and also less accessible than
some of its other nine camps for physically disabled
Scouts.
While an executive of the Northern New Jersey Council
told The Times that the council hopes to sell the Camp
Glen Gray tract to an organization that would preserve
the land as open space, it has received bids from
developers hungry for the chance to develop at least
some of the acreage.
There’s a very good chance that, without prompt and
substantive action on the part of Montclair residents,
the Northern New Jersey Council soon may end its
involvement with Camp Glen Gray.
People who want to show their support for preserving
Camp Glen Gray, or who have some or all the estimated $4
million needed to purchase the tract from the regional
council, can reach Friends of Glen Gray on the Web at
www.glengray.org. The group was formed to halt the sale
of the camp, or ensure it is sold to an entity that will
preserve it.
Ours is an age where society is moving very fast, very
fast…too fast.
Many of the traditions and standards that have elevated
our nation and have helped enrich our culture are being
discarded as our cell-phone society zips along. Moral
and ethical tenets that stood the test of centuries all
too often now come second to trendiness. The statues of
accomplished women and men become defaced with graffiti,
their homes torn down by a society that forgets their
greatness, or all too often doesn’t care to remember.
The efforts of citizens who, more than 80 years ago, set
out to establish an everlasting preserve in which
thousands of boys and men could savor the uplifting
spirit of nature are on the line right now.
The Montclair Times urges the leadership of the Northern
New Jersey Council to preserve Camp Glen Gray. The
council should not cast aside a forest and camp that
embodies the legend and lore and love of Scouting.
©North Jersey Media
Group Inc. 2001
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friends
of Glen Gray 