100th Anniversary Slideshow

Camp Alleghany Is In It's 67th Year

By: Russell F. Lilly 

CALDWELL--Nearby Camp Alleghany for girls is home each summer for about 400 girls who come to enjoy the adjacent Greenbrier River as well as many camp activities and traditions. The campers, eight to 16, include many whose mothers and older sisters have attended Camp Alleghany, which has been in operation since 1922. Director S. Cooper Dawson Jr. is in his 26th summer here. He has been involved in camping in Greenbrier County since he was a boy attending Camp Greenbrier. Mr. Dawson purchased the camp from Nancy Worthington, the sister of founder William Worthington, in 1963. He was previously involved in the operation of Camp Greenbrier for boys at Alderson with T.S. Garnet and Evan J. Male, who purchased it from Mr. Worthington and Dr. Walter Mullihen, the founder of the boys camp in 1898. Blue and gray teams compete for honors and recognition on the camp's banner as they have for 67 years at Camp Alleghany while taking part in archery, canoeing, riflery, dramatics crafts and other activities. The 180 acre site rings with laughter and camp songs, as well as a special language the campers use. Upstarts are the 8 to 12 year old junior campers, while figaro flip flops are four year campers. "Hops" are mealtime waitresses, who serve "bug juice". Local campers include Genny Morrison of Lewisburg, a tennis teacher, who also is the camp bugler. Girls attending include those from the Eastern United States and several foreign countries. They live in tents in separate junior and senior camp. About 80 pct. Have attended the camp before. Camp fire ceremonies, vespers, movies, plays and a Miss Ugly contest that always seems to leave everyone in the junior camp in giggley fits are among the many evening activities. The senior camp drama group is working on "Pardon Me, Is This Planet Taken," a satire using Star Trek characters. Yale second year student Will Tanner is the ferryman who rows visitors across the Greenbrier. (There is a barge used for delivery of supplies, and a challenging overland Jeep trail.) I Sarah Batla, of Arlington, Va., entering her sixth season, said camp was "tons of fun." She enjoys dance and archery, and looks forward next year to being a junior counsellor. The camp site itself was a turn of the century timber camp as well as farm. Director Dawson likes to recount the history of the place to visitors, and refers them to "Riders of the Flood," a saga of area timbering. The title refers to the custom of floating timber on the river down to the lumber mill at Ronceverte. There are 80 on the staff, ranging from a physician to the skillful cooks who seem to find little trouble tempting young appetites. Sessions run from early June until mid-August. Tennis, gymnastics, camp crafts and riding are among the many athletic programs. "Camp is a good place to make friends, learn confidence and meet a lot of people your own age," Mr. Dawson III remarked to a guest. Mr. Dawson Jr. is a member of the local Rotary Club, and hosts the club annually at its mid-June meeting. He also draws on his lifetime of camping along the Greenbrier River to serve as an ambassador for the region. Surveying the river valley from his hillside office, he asked a visitor, “Who could ask for more.”