The Boy Scout motto is simple and memorable — Be Prepared.
So it makes perfect sense that planning has already begun for the centennial celebration of Treasure Valley, the scout camp that opened in 1926 and will feature its 100th season of camping in 2025.
Aaron Langlois, coordinator of the centennial event and head of the Treasure Valley Alumnni Association, estimates that counting summer camp and the many other year-round events Treasure Valley hosts — counting campers, hikers, visitors, etc. — Treasure Valley has had hundreds of thousands of people pass through its gate on Pleasantdale Road in Rutland.
That is where various friends of the reservation met Saturday to begin discussions on how to celebrate the centennial.
Normally, a news story like this has a dateline saying where it originated. In this case, that’s impossible. Treasure Valley extends into four different towns — Paxton, Spencer, Rutland and Oakham. The biggest chunk is in Oakham.
For most of its existence, Treasure Valley was operated by the Mohegan Council, based in Worcester. In 2018, the Mohegan Council and Nashua Valley Council merged to form the Heart of New England Council. The new council’s offices are at Treasure Valley.
The former Nashua Valley Council reservation, Camp Wanocksett in Dublin, N.H., remains open and is also approaching its centennial.
Treasure Valley is a year-round camp and has never closed. It has survived the Great Depression and World War II, membership peaks and valleys, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes and the Coronavirus.
Virtually every scout who spent part of a summer at Treasure Valley remembers his or her first time there, the name of the campsite, how cold the water of Browning Pond was for the swim test on Day 1, what was on the breakfast menu.
The camp has meant a lot of different things to a lot of different campers. Everybody has a story. Langlois, 46, is originally from Webster and had this to relate: “I was raised by my grandmother. My mother was an addict. This place was really a safe haven for me. Mike McQuaid, Charlie Thompson…I knew all those people growing up.
“They raised me and that’s honestly why I am still in the program, because there are kids like me who are in horrible situations and they come to a property that…you don’t have the lights. You don’t have the noise. You just have peace and safety. You’re learning and you’re having fun, so I’m not surprised it means so much. There are so many stories that people can’t put into words.”
McQuaid is a former camp director who has written a history of Treasure Valley. Thompson is a former president of the Mohegan Council and a Treasure Valley trustee. Both were on hand Saturday.
Treasure Valley opened for camping on July 1, 1926, with 100 scouts in the tents. It originally had 525 acres and has expanded to about 1,600 acres. The property was purchased for $17,000 from Arthur Monroe of Spencer, the money raised in 1925 by a group of Worcester civic organizations.
Records show that as far back as the 1700s, the land was owned by Harvard College. After that, it was farmed by the James Browning family, thus the name Browning Pond. The Browning Homestead, which dates to 1773, is where council headquarters is today.
The camp was named Treasure Valley sometime between April and June, 1926, and the name has stuck. Before TV opened, the Mohegan Council held summer camp at Glen Echo in Charlton.
Treasure Valley has evolved through the decades. Today’s trees were nowhere to be found then. The property was mostly open field and the land had to be re-forested. Campers washed in Browning Pond and carried water back to their campsites from a solitary pump at Pine Point.
For decades, the sanitary facilities were from the middle ages, their nicknames being Aunt Tillie and Uncle Funnel. However, at least in the ‘20s, the eating was pretty good. Meals were prepared by Chef Logan, Boyardee being occupied over in France, apparently.
Treasure Valley is still off the beaten path, which is one of its charms. It was more so when it opened and Worcester troops were known to have hiked there from the city, much of the trek being uphill, at least on arrival day.
Attendance peaked at 2,600 campers in the summer of 1959 and the Baby Boom years were always busy. Changing demographics and a nationwide scandal involving sexual predators have reduced those numbers.
“Scouting has a rich history of doing a lot of good,” Langlois said. “We also have some black eyes, and I believe that the future of this organization is dependent on continuing to engage, fostering that memory from 40 or 50 years ago.
“We as an organization have learned from our mistakes. We’re rebuilding trust and this property is that constant that will allow us to re-engage. I really hope this 100th anniversary is a boon for Treasure Valley and for scouting in general.”
Langlois’s first summer at Treasure Valley was in 1987. He has seen changes in both the camp itself and the boys and girls who use it.
“Certainly, there are distractions today,” he said of the scouts, “but once you get down to it a campfire is a campfire, chopping wood is chopping wood. Singing in a skit, going swimming, sailing and rowing are all things that we have done going back to the Twenties.
“Dealing with the peer pressures, the bullying….all of that stuff has certainly evolved but at the end of the day, the values that scouting has taught for 114 years are the same.”
Langlois is the vice president of hospice for VNA Care. He lives in Oakham where he is a selectman and member of the Board of Health. None of that is coincidental with his involvement with Treasure Valley.
“When I met my wife,” he said, “I let her know that if we get married we are going to live in Paxton, Rutland, Oakham or Spencer.”
There were multiple suggestions Saturday about how to celebrate the anniversary. Langlois wants the celebration to include activities with the camp’s four host towns.
“We will compile a list of the great ideas,” he said, “and prioritize the projects, explore different options for events, and set up a schedule of at least a year to see how we can celebrate this anniversary.”
Perhaps they can track down Chef Logan while they are at it, or at least dig up some of his old recipes. There will definitely be no shortage of memories, stories, and artifacts to sort through.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
