Camp Eagle Island

Camp Eagle Island Camp Eagle Island, also known as Eagle Island Camp, is a resident summer camp located on Eagle Island in Upper Saranac Lake and now owned by the Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey, part of Girl Scouts of the USA.

The camp occupies buildings originally built in 1903 as a summer retreat for former United States Vice-President and New York State Governor Levi Morton and designed by noted architect William L. Coulter; it was built by contractors Trombley and Carrier. The mainland camp now known as Pine Brook was previously owned by Morton. 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.^{1 2}

Camp Eagle Island has been a Girl Scout camp since 1938, when the Henry Graves family of Orange, New Jersey, gave the island to the Maplewood-South Orange, New Jersey Girl Scout Council. In time that council became the Girl Scout Council of Greater Essex County, New Jersey which merged with a Hudson County council in the late 1990s. Further mergers in 2008-09 created Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey, which now owns the property. Camp Eagle Island ordinarily offers sailing, canoeing, swimming, hiking, campcraft, and various crafts. The camp has many traditions, including the singing of particular songs and a sequence of evening activities during each two-week camp session that includes staff introductions and a final night campfire and ice cream sundae party. ³

Camp Eagle Island did not open for the 2009 summer season, with the Girl Scout Council citing several safety issues with the camp that need to be corrected. They hope to reopen for the 2010 summer camp season. ⁴

Interior of the Main Lodge

Dining Hall viewed from the Main Lodge Dining Hall Dining Hall roof beams Dining Hall fireplace Staff House Staff House Outbuildings Ampersand Mountain, Upper Saranac Lake, from boathouse

• Prospect Point Camp

• Girl Scout Council of Greater Essex and Hudson Counties
  

• Camp Eagle Island Unofficial Homepage
  

• Friends of Camp Eagle Island Official Homepage
  

• Eagle Island Camp, National Historic Landmark summary, at National Park Service
  

• Reminiscences of camp life

Comments:

2010-01-09 15:20:10   Latest plan is to reopen Eagle Island as a resident camp summer 2011, and on a limited basis for 2010, while further renovations proceed. See current Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey website http://www.gshnj.org and click on Eagle Island Camp update to read of the current progress and future plans. —173.70.10.191

2010-01-10 09:12:15   Thanks! If you have any photos and/or memories of Eagle Island or other Saranac Lake topics you'd like to share, drop us a line at <mail AT historicsaranaclakeDOT org> or at Historic Saranac Lake, 89 Church Street, Saranac Lake, NY 12983. And remember, the world of your childhood may not seem much like "History" to you now, but fifty years from now it will definitely qualify! —Mwanner