Camp Coffman Lives!
February, 1996

With a whoop and a holler, the 13 Scouts of Troop 51 poured out of Algonquin campsite, across the parade ground, and made their wobbly way across the ancient swinging bridge.  Our goal was to reach Camp Coffman’s most famous landmarks, Deer Rock and Balancing Rock, far to the north along the course of East Sandy Creek. We quickly came to the old campfire circle that overlooks the dam and waterfront. Here, every summer Friday night for 50 years, Boy Scouts put on skits, sang camp songs and advanced toward higher ranks and manhood.

As we passed through the circle, I fell to telling Steve Shreffler about how things were back in the late 1950’s, when I was a counselor here for a summer. I also told him some of my father’s stories of Coffman from way back in the 1920’s, when the camp first opened. Those times are lost and gone, and I had thought that Camp Coffman was just as dead, when I read in a newspaper piece by Jennifer Wesner that the old campground was open once again. I went up and had a look around. The place was tattered but still much as I remembered it. Our troop’s first campout was just a week off, and, with a few phone calls, I was able to book a reservation. Now here we were, set up at the best campsite of them all and ready for a weekend of outdoor fun.

Forty minutes up the trail the Scouts discovered Deer Rock. As big as a very small house, this boulder has a large antlered buck carved into its face, the work of J. Staufer in 1877. After examining the rock closely, the patrols were all set to continue hiking up along the river. Then, I shook my head and pointed in a different direction --- straight up the steep hillside behind the rock.

We followed the trail up and up until we came to a wondrous area of giant boulders at the top of the hill. Above us three turkey buzzards wheeled back and forth in the refreshing breeze made by an ocean of air pouring over the ridge top. At our feet, the trilliums were in bloom, and pathways dug by the feet of countless Boy Scouts lead in every direction. Soon you could see boys scrambling through the rock caves, boys sitting on ledges, and boys peering down from the top of Balancing Rock at me sitting in the leaf litter 100 feet below. A dangerous place indeed for fools, but these boys were not fools. Aside from the odd bumped head and skinned shin no damage was done. We left the place as we found it, a sort of ancient monument to nature and to the thousands upon thousands of boys who have discovered its rugged charm.

That is how the weekend started. Later, we waded in the creek below the dam and cooked a delicious camp stew. That evening we sang songs, did skits and made camp pies around a cheery fire. On Sunday morning, we had devotional services up at the old campfire circle and then finished off the trip with an energetic game of Prisoner’s Base on the parade ground. We had a great time at Camp Coffman, and you can too! Just call Dawn or Charlie Earp for reservations. We even left some firewood at the campsite for you!