Camp Eagle Island

Camp Eagle Island, also known as Eagle Island Camp or simply EIC, was a resident summer camp located on Eagle Island in Upper Saranac Lake in New York’s Adirondack region. The camp property, including Eagle Island, two smaller islands, and a staging area on Gilpin Bay Road on the mainland, was purchased in November 6, 2015 by The Friends of Eagle Island, Inc.,(now Eagle Island, Inc.) a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization whose mission has been to acquire the historic property to continue serving youth and otherwise maintain the site in the public benefit.

Eagle Island Camp
Nearest citySaranac Inn, New York
Coordinates44°16′27.84″N 74°19′57″W
Built1902
ArchitectWilliam L. Coulter
MPSGreat Camps of the Adirondacks TR
NRHP reference No.86002941
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 3, 1987[1]
Designated NHLAugust 18, 2004[2]

The camp occupies buildings originally built in 1903 as a summer retreat for New York Governor and United States Vice-President Levi Morton and designed by architect William L. Coulter. The mainland camp now known as Pine Brook was originally a part of the Morton Great Camp. Camp Eagle Island was included in a multiple property submission for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, was listed there in 1987, and was named a National Historic Landmark in 2004.[2][3][4]

Camp Eagle Island became a Girl Scout property in 1938, when the Graves family of Orange, New Jersey, gave the island to the Maplewood-South Orange Girl Scout Council. In time that council became the Girl Scout Council of Greater Essex County, which merged with a Hudson County council in the late 1990s. The last council to own the property and operate the camp, Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey, came into being from the merger of councils from Hudson, Essex, Union, Somerset, Hunterdon, southern Warren, and parts of Middlesex counties. Eagle Island last operated as a resident camp in the summer of 2008. The Council board voted to sell the camp at a board meeting on October 11, 2010, although it took more than five years to find a buyer in the Friends of Eagle Island and complete the sale.

When operating as a residential camp, Eagle Island offers sailing, canoeing, swimming, hiking, campcraft, and various crafts. The camp had many traditions, including the singing of particular songs and a sequence of evening activities during each two-week camp session that included staff introductions and a final-night campfire, and ice cream sundae party. Facilities include a large dining hall, a modern shower house, and a recently renovated boathouse.

The camp had a capacity of about 140 campers. The camp season, for children ages 8 through 16, ran from early July to mid-August. There were also special adult and family events such as Work Weekends, Women's Weekend (a camp-like experience for adult women), and Family Camp.

Eagle Island, Inc. resumed camping on Eagle Island in 2019 with two one-week sessions of Day Camp programming. Overnight, Family Camp, Women's Weekends, Work Weekends in additional to Day Camp are planned for 2020.

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. "Eagle Island Camp". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 2007-09-08. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  3. William E. Krattinger (October 2002). "National Historic Landmark Nomination: Eagle Island Camp" (PDF). National Park Service. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. Gobrecht, Larry E. (July 1986). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Great Camps of the Adirondacks" (pdf). National Park Service. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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