Hello! I'm sure many of you researching Owasippe have your own questions regarding the camp, and this page is to help you in that. Every week, I'm going to try to answer a question I get, and posting the answer here. Feel free to ask about anything camp related, and I'll do my best to answer it! You can email me at
So they're really two ways to view this question. They are:
Why did boy scouts feel as though they needed camps
Why did these camps have to be in the woods
Let's start with the first question: Why did boy scouts have camps? To understand this, you have to understand Baden Powell's original vision for scouting. To combat the "present drifting into hooliganism" that he saw among Edwardian youth. And to do this, he saw his experiences in the military as a good model to change boys for the better. He took the ideas found in Aids to Scouting, a small manual for army scouts he had written while serving in South Africa. The book included games and contests to help improve memory skills and powers of observation and deduction; and when he returned to England, he found that it was being used by youth leaders as well as military men.(Peterson)
And with this, he sought to emulate the army experiences by setting up a military-style camp on Brownsea Island, similar to how armies would have encampments at forts and on marches. When scouting was brought to America, and picked up influences from The Woodcraft Indians and Sons of Daniel Boon, the "Camping" and outdoor skills were emphasized further. Which answers the second question. Why were they so into the outdoors? Because the American precursors to scouting were focused on cultivating outdoor skills. These three main programs would come to make up the BSA we know and love today. I hope this answers your question. Anyone has any others, please feel free to email me!
Source:https://scoutingmagazine.org/issues/9909/d-wwas.html