Beard

The last, and oldest of the Crystal Lake camps was Camp Beard, which was designated for scouts from the North Shore District. Although it was officially founded in 1921, it used the same dining hall and presumably the areas it that were used by the original Camp White. As a result, there is a disagreement among many campers as to whether Camp Beard should count as the “Original Camp”. For my part, I will treat them as separate camps in this write-up. In 1921, there appears to have been somewhat of a change in this camping culture, as around this time the camps become much more visible in the newspapers, and they begin to be referred to as “camps” plural. 

Because no good maps of the subcamps themselves survive from this time, the physical history of both West and Beard are is rather sparse. But it appears that although the split did create two separate camps, alot of the program at Crystal Lake was shared between camps before they were further developed. For example, Crystal Lake camps appeared to share one shooting range on the south side of the lake. Throughout the 1920s, Camp Beard would steadily gain campers, and would remain strong throughout the great depression and the 1940s. It was around this time much of the camps were going through somewhat of a revitalization, building new kybos and developing program areas further, and from the early 1930s to the late 1950s, the camps would make minor developments, such as new pumphouses or showerhouses. 

By the 1960s, however, it became clear that the facilities were obsolete. According to longtime staff member Joe Sener, the dining hall in particular was in an especially sorry state. The rotted rafters were periodically replaced, and the lower level was no longer in use. According to him, the side closest to the lake was about 3” lower then the other side. In 1968, the Dining Hall was torn down, and the camp would eventually close in 1970. Like Camp West, however, much of the remaining infrastructure would stay there until the land was cleared by developers, and it’s likely some scouts used the land in some respect up until then.