Camp Naish - A History

The forests and meadows of Camp Naish provide refuge for hundreds of species of wildlife, including fox, raccoon, opossum, deer, great blue heron, and various species of hawk and owls. During the summer, whippoorwills and chuck-wills-widows provide a nightly chorus of sounds that can be heard throughout the camp.

The rock structure under the camp is basically limestone formations that are es-pecially common in South Camp, attesting to the fact that Camp Naish - and all of Kansas - was once covered by ocean, Sides of hills throughout the camp show the limestone protuberances known as rimrocks, from which the Rimrock trail takes its name.

Theodore Naish, Mrs. Naish, and the Lusitania
The Boy Scouts of America have operated Camp Naish as a long-term summer camp since 1925. The history of the land that is today known as Camp Naish goes back much further than that, of course, into the days when the Kansa Indians visited the forested bluffs for hunting and ceremony. The true story of Camp Naish, however, can probably be said to begin in 1910, the year the Boy Scouts of America was founded, and the year that Theodore Naish, a Kansas City Missouri engineer, discovered the small farming community of Edwardsville, KS.

Theodore Naish was born in Birmingham, England on January 21, 1856, and moved to Kansas City in the late 1800's. He was fond of taking long walks through the surrounding countryside and especially enjoyed the wooded hills overlooking the Kaw River near Edwardsville. Mr. Naish made several acquaintances in the Edwardsville area and eventually joined the Methodist Church there, where he sometimes helped in conducting services since the small church did not have a full-time pastor.

In 1911, Mr. Naish bought 180 acres of land in what is now South Camp. Later that year, Mr. Naish married Belle Saunders, a schoolteacher whom he had met on a trip to Detroit, Michigan. The couple built a summer home on their land in Edwardsville, near the present boundary between Camp Naish and Lake of the Forest, and spent the summer months of the next several years there.

Mr. Naish became a Sunday School teacher in the Edwardsville Methodist Church and frequently brought his classes to the woodlands behind his home for classes and picnics.

In the spring of 1915, Mr. Naish took his wife on a belated honeymoon trip to visit his family in England, which was at war with Germany. The couple booked passage on the luxury liner Lusitania. As the ship approached the Irish coast on the evening of May 7, 1915, it was struck by a German torpedo. As the Naishes stood hand in hand at the railing of the sinking ship waiting to board a lifeboat, the ship gave a lurch and they were thrown overboard into the sea and became separated in the tossing swells. Mrs. Naish was pulled into an already over-crowded lifeboat, where she helped save the life of a badly injured older woman. Her lifeboat was eventually rescued, and after recuperating from her ordeal, Mrs. Naish spent several months in Ireland seeking word about her missing husband. However, no sign of Theodore Naish was ever seen again.

The woman Mrs. Naish had saved proved to be a wealthy dowager from New York, who awarded Mrs. Naish a pension for life in return for helping her. With this income, Mrs. Naish returned to the Edwardsville woods that her husband had loved and lived in for several years.

The Start of Camp Naish
In 1919, the Kansas City Area Council of the Boy Scouts held the first Boy Scout summer camp on land that was later to become part of Camp Naish, near the present site of the South Camp flag mall. Mrs. Naish eventually decided to donate the land that had been so beloved by her husband to the Boy Scouts as a perpetual memorial to him. She offered that land to the Kansas City Area Council in 1925, but by then that council was developing a camp in another location. So, Mrs. Naish instead gave 90 acres of her land to the Kaw Council, and in June of 1926 the first summer camp at "Camp Naish" was held. That year, a camp director and bugler conducted four sessions for a total of 150 scouts. The camp water supply was a well, and hiking, archery, and softball were the major programs.

Mrs. Naish donated another 90 acres of land the next year, and as scout attendance at Camp Naish began to climb rapidly, the present form of South Camp began to take shape.

In the first years of the camp, there was no road on to the property - scouts would ride the train to Edwardsville, then hike in on foot carrying all their gear with them. The first buildings on Camp Naish - a blacksmith shop and a steel storage building - were built in the late 20's using materials carried in by scouts and leaders on foot. In 1930, a winding road, the remains of which can still be seen, was completed connecting highway K-32 with the camp. Also in 1930, the Rotary Dining Hall in South Camp - the oldest building still in use at Camp Naish - was completed, donated by the Kansas City Rotary Club. By 1935, a rifle range had also been constructed and four permanent campsites were in use.

Most scouts at that time came to camp as individuals rather than as members of a unit. The price for a week at Camp Naish in the early 30's was $7.00, or $5.00 for a scout who provided his own meals. Even at that price many scouts could not afford to come, but nevertheless attendance at Naish continued to grow rapidly. To handle the growing number of campers, the Kaw Council continued to purchase wooded land adjacent to the camp, and the boundaries of Camp Naish continued to expand with its expanding program. Many new scouting programs were added, and new buildings were constructed. Many of the buildings that were built during this period are still in use today in South Camp.

In the early years of Camp Naish, scouts had hiked to the nearby Lake of the Forest for swimming and boating activities. Kaw Council officials felt the need for a swimming pool in the camp and in the mid 1940's a major fund raising drive was started. Scouts from throughout the council solicited contributions and gave money themselves, and in 1948 an Olympic size pool was opened in South Camp, where a parking lot exists today. It was named to honor the memory of Christian Kopp, Chairman of the Development Committee. The pool became known as the Cris Kopp Memorial Pool. Scout Billy Deay of Troop 59, Lawrence was the first Scout to swim in the new swimming pool.

Nineteen thirty-nine marked an important milestone in the history of Camp Naish. An honor camper society known as the Order of the Arrow had been founded at Treasure Island Scout Camp in 1915, and had been slowly spreading since that time. In 1939, the first OA elections in the Kaw Council were held at Camp Naish. Several scouts and leaders were inducted into the Order that same summer, and Tamegonit Lodge #147 was officially chartered. A young Arrowman named Elmer Horseman was chosen as the first Tamegonit Lodge Chief, and remained in that office for the next three years.

National Prominence for Tamegonit Lodge
The Order of the Arrow had continued to grow, not only at Camp Naish but nationwide, and by the early 50's, it consisted of hundreds of lodges and almost a half million members. During the 50's, two events directed the national attention of the Order to Tamegonit Lodge and Camp Naish.

In 1954, a Tamegonit Arrowman and Camp Naish Staff member, James R. Feil, was elected to the prestigious office of National Order of the Arrow Chief. Four years later, in 1958, Tamegonit Lodge hosted the biennial National OA Conference at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence. Thousands of delegates from throughout the nation gathered for the week-long conference, and the Camp Naish Arrowmen hosting the event demonstrated that the spirit of scouting and the Boy Scout camping program was alive and well in the Kaw Council.

The Beginning of Central Camp
During the 1940's and 50's, as membership in the Boy Scouts increased throughout the nation, attendance at Camp Naish each summer also continued a steady climb. During this same period, Don Baldwin, Kaw Council Executive, was continuing an aggressive program of purchasing additional land for Camp Naish, with the vision of eventually opening a second camp on the property. By the late 50's, thousands of Scouts were camping at Naish each summer in 10 sessions, and South Camp simply could not meet the demand.

In 1959, a road connecting South and Central Camps was completed, and summer camp was held in Central Camp that year for the first time. There were no buildings in Central Camp at that time - all activities were run out of large army tents, and scouts hiked to South Camp to use the pool and rifle range. The Central Camp Dining Hall was opened for use in 1960, and other buildings were added throughout the next decade. The newest building in Central Camp, the Handicraft Lodge, was built in 1971.

In many ways, the 1960's were the heyday of Camp Naish. During this time both South and Central operated at full capacity, camping as many as 8,000 scouts in 8 sessions in each of the two camps. Tentative plans were made to add a third, North Camp to the reservation, and to construct a large lake for waterfront activities. The 60's were also a time of growth for Tamegonit Lodge, which inducted as many as 800 new Arrowmen in a summer. During this time the OA Coup Thong was first introduced in Tamegonit Lodge, and many of the present customs of the lodge were started.

The early 1970's saw a dramatic decline in the number of scouts nationwide, and attendance at Camp Naish began to decline sharply. Rather that opening a third camp, plans were instead made to close down South Camp, and Boy Scout summer camp was held there for the last time in 1973. The financially ailing Kaw Council was merged with the Kansas City Area Council in 1974 to create the Heart of America Council, and although the new council's largest summer camping operation was else-where, Boy Scout summer camp continued to be held at Camp Naish - newly christened the Theodore Naish Scout Reservation.

Camp Naish in the 1980's
Tamegonit Lodge had experienced a decline in membership and interest during the 1970's, but during the early 80's, there was a tremendous upsurge in enthusiasm for the lodge. The burst of enthusiasm for Naish on the part of Scouters and Arrowmen continued to grow, finding a voice in 1983 slogan, "Camp Naish Pride". The early 1980's saw the introduction of many new programs at Camp Naish. In 1981, Tamegonit Lodge constructed an 11 mile backpacking trail - the Rimrock Trail - at Naish to help draw units to the reservation, and in the summer of 1981, the lodge also began a modest outpost program as a supplement to the traditional Boy Scout Summer camp program.

In 1984, Camp Naish's newest program, Project COPE - an acronym for Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience - was started. Project COPE is a difficult high adventure program for older scouts designed to increase their trust, self-confidence, and teamwork abilities. In its first year of use, 135 scouts and leaders took part in a two-day Project COPE course as part of their time at summer camp.

New facilities were also constructed at Camp Naish in the early 80's. As part of a council-wide capital improvement campaign, a new road, ranger's home, maintenance building, and shower house were constructed at Naish, as well as a new entranceway into the camp. The new facilities were used for the first time during the summer of 1983.

Naish in the 1990s
In 1989, Tamegonit Lodge broke ground and began a fund raising drive to build a center for the Order of the Arrow at Naish, called the Great House. Construction began immediately on this building and by 1993 it was nearly completed. Tamegonit Lodge now uses this building for all lodge meetings, LEC, OA Coordinator Office during summer camp, and in general, as an indoor meeting location at camp (with air-conditioning!).

Since that time, the council has also began capital improvement projects to build new latrines in each campsite and to build new staff cabins in central camp. Additionally, features such as Cub-World are being constructed in the northern end of camp and are nearly completed.

The 1990's have marked a dramatic change in program as well. Naish now offers a Boy Scout Summer Camp program with nearly 50 merit badges, over half-a-dozen outpost programs, the OA, and COPE. Camp Naish continues to grow in facilities, program, spirit, and tradition.

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