Yawgoog Scout Reservation (Camp Yawgoog) (pronounced ) is a reservation for scouting located in Rockville, Rhode Island and operated by the Narragansett Council of Scouting America. Founded in 1916, Yawgoog is the fifth oldest Boy Scout camp in the United States. At the camp an eight-week program is run every summer where Scouts stay for a week with their troops. The reservation is divided into three camps: Three Point, Medicine Bow, and Sandy Beach.
History
In 1916, after inspecting some twenty ponds in Rhode Island, Scout Executive Donald North recommended the deserted Joseph Palmer farm property on Yawgoog Pond as a permanent reservation for Scouting. The piece was leased to Rhode Island Boy Scouts (RIBS) in 1916 and purchased in 1917. According to local mythology, Yawgoog and Wincheck were the names of two Narragansett Native American chiefs. However, there is no historical record of any such chiefs or sachems with either of these names. The water rights to the pond, all of their equipment, fourteen mill houses, a store, and approximately of unimproved land were obtained in 1953 when the Rhode Island Boy Scouts purchased a controlling interest in the Yawgo Line and Twine Company. The reservation continues to be separately owned by RIBS though the camp is run by the Narragansett Council of the Boy Scouts of America. In 1917 the RIBS, and BSA merged to form the Greater Providence Council, making the RIBS a trustee organization just five years after its conception. Chief Yawgoog serves as the mascot for the camp. He is usually portrayed in a cartoon, shirtless, wearing leather Native American trousers and moccasins, smoking a calumet, holding a canoe over himself and appears as if he is about to set off canoeing.
The reservation is also associated with creating the first Totin' Chip axe-safety program. John Page, nicknamed "Johnny Appleseed," created the program in 1950.
The Apprentice in Training (AIT) program was started in 1956 in an effort to better train incoming staff members. The AIT corps, the first of its kind, was later renamed the Counselor-in-Training (CIT) corps and set the standard for subsequent programs across the country. In 2018, the CIT program was revised and renamed the Yawgoog Leadership Experience.Yawgoog program guide, 2019
The reservation is divided into three distinct camps. Each camp operates independently and has a dining hall, waterfront, and trading post. Yawgoog campers used to set up tents as part of one centralized camp on what is now Tim O'Neil Field, which is located in Camp Three Point. In 1924, Yawgoog was divided between Upper Camp and Lower Camp, and three camps eventually emerged.
Yawgoog is normally active during the summer for eight weeks of operation. During the off season tent camping is allowed at various campgrounds and cabin camping is allowed in any of the four cabins available. These spaces are available for troops who wish perform outdoor events when summer camp is not in session.
In 1965, the architect responsible for the building work was D. Thomas Russillo.
On May 13, 2020, the Reservation announced that it would not be opening for the 2020 summer camp season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first season the Reservation has not opened in 104 seasons.
Landscape
Yawgoog is located in the southwestern corner of Rhode Island—the closest town Hopkinton, RI, which sits at 41.44N -71.79W. The terrain of the reservation is fairly flat, with only one hill (Hill 407), located in the southwestern corner of the reservation. Most of the reservation is forested and consists of deciduous and evergreen trees. On May 4–6, 1930, the camp suffered a forest fire. Much of the forest was destroyed and subsequently replaced with white pines due to their ability to grow quickly. Remnants of the fire are unnoticeable today. There are six main trails that are marked throughout the reservation, and named by colored chevrons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, White) which mark each trail. Trails run through the camps, as well as out through the wilderness to various sights and ponds of the reservation.
The reservation includes three ponds—the main pond is Yawgoog Pond, which serves as the nexus for the three camps for most water and boating activities. To the south, and connected to Yawgoog Pond via a dam and "long cove" is Wincheck Pond. And, to the north of Yawgoog Pond is Hidden Lake (accessible by hiking the "Hidden Lake Trail"), found after the forest fire. Hidden Lake was acidified to the point that there is no longer any fish or plants living in it after all of the debris created by the forest fire that exposed it was bulldozed into the lake. There is also a trail to nearby Long Pond further south (and downstream from Wincheck). There are several islands on Yawgoog Pond, including Cranberry and Submarine islands in the north corner of the pond, Ant and Schooner Islands which are adjacent to the largest island, named King Phillips Island. King Phillips Island has periodically hosted "adventure camps" over the years but has been largely disused over the past 20 years.
The reservation covers roughly 1,800 acres of land which partly extends into Connecticut.
Organization and traditions Each camp is usually run by a camp director, assistant camp director, and two program commissioners, with three for Camp Sandy Beach (aside from 2021 due to outstanding circumstances), all of which answer to the Reservation Director (currently Jonathan DiLuglio). As there are three distinct camps, each has its own songs, cheers, history, and traditions. Each campsite within a camp has a short motto. With the exception of each camp's waterfront and dining lodge, all program centers are available to campers from all three camps.
At the end of each week of camp, all of the troops from all of the camps form ranks and do a ceremony called the Camp Yawgoog Dress Parade.
Camp Three Point
Camp Three Point, named for the three points of the Scout Oath, was the first of the three camps to be founded. First named Camp Bucklin, it has been deemed "The oldest and most tradition-filled camp" and also "The Camp that was once Yawgoog in its entirety." Today, Camp Three Point features the Challenge Course, the Bucklin Building, the Eagle Badge program, the Arthur Livingston Kelly Environmental Education Center, The Three Point Waterfront, the first New Frontier Center on reservation (no longer open), and the 407 Outfitters, the reservation's largest trading post. Camp Three Point also hosts the Protestant Chapel and the Jewish Synagogue. It is home to the reservation's first basketball court and includes a dam which has become a popular fishing site for scouts. It is also home to the Memorial Bell Tower, which tolls at noon each day in honor of those Scouts who died serving their country. Camp Three Point's camp colors are orange and yellow. Its mascots are Danny the Deer, a mounted deer head who resides in Sharpe Lodge. And also Henry the Dragon, one of the first mascots created by camp but dissolved after years of forgetting about him. Henry is a green dragon who can shoot orange flames out of his mouth, he loves to tell the scouts a song or two once and awhile. The Sharpe Lodge was built in 1924 to serve as the original Bucklin Building. The Sharpe Lodge was fully refurbished in the late 1980s. After the 2019 season, the original Sharpe Lodge was demolished and replaced with a wholly new building, including an improved kitchen, a larger dining hall, and staff space.Yawgoog orientation presentation, 2021
The fifteen Campsites at Camp Three Point are named after famous figures in Yawgoog history or old Scouting nicknames: Donald C. Dewing (Scoutmaster of Troop 82 Providence for over 50 years), Edward Banister, Forty-Niner, Frontier, Musketeer, Oak Ridge, Pioneer, Santa Fe, Sleepy Hollow, Tuocs (Scout spelled backwards), Wells Fargo, Slade, Street, Scott and Zucculo.
Camp Medicine Bow
After the founding of Camp Three Point, the popularity of the reservation grew to the point where a second camp was needed. Built around Rathom Lodge in the 1920s, Medicine Bow encompasses the center section of Yawgoog's developed land. It houses the only three provisional sites on the reservation: the Counselor-in-Training Corps (CIT), the Baden Powell provisional camp, and the Webelos' provisional Camp (moved from Feinstein Youth Camp in Pascoag, Rhode Island in 2007). In addition to provisional sites, Camp Medicine Bow offers many program centers. These include the H. Cushman Anthony Stockade (Crafts Center), the Medicine Bow Waterfront, the Ashaway Aquatics Center (Yawgoog Yacht Club), and The Robotics Center. It also hosts the Armington Memorial Health Lodge, and the Saint John Bosco Catholic Chapel. It is also home to the reservation's motorboat, "The Charlie Brown", which patrols the pond for capsized boats. Medicine Bow's colors are red and black, and its mascot is Elmo the Elk, who presides over Rathom Lodge during meals. Camp Medicine Bow's nickname is "The Heart of Yawgoog","the best camp in Yawgoog", “the cream between the two Oreo cookies”, or “The camp that is always awake, but never stops dreaming.”
The fifteen campsites of Camp Medicine Bow are named after Native American terms with two exceptions: Baden-Powell Provisional Camp and Campsite Dan Boone. The other camps include Cautantowit, Manchose, Manitoo, Minnikesu (Yawgoog Leadership Experience), Netop, Neimpaug, Red Wing, Sequan (Medicine Bow Webelos), Waskecke, Weemat, Wetoumuck, Wunegin, and Wuttah.
Camp Sandy Beach
Located farthest from the reservation's main entrance, and somewhat to the north of Medicine Bow, lies Camp Sandy Beach. It was built in the late-1920s around Jesse H. Metcalf Lodge. Today, Sandy Beach calls itself the "youngest and most spirited camp" as well as "The Powerhouse of Yawgoog." It is also the largest and best of the three camps within the Yawgoog Reservation. Sandy Beach maintains the Lane-Bliven Rifle Range, the David Anderson Archery Range, the Trap Range, the Sandy Beach Waterfront which includes the current Adventure Island, the current New Frontiers Program, the Scoutmaster Essentials Program, and the Campcraft or Outdoor Skills center where Scouts learn the traditional skills associated with Scouting like Wilderness Survival, Orienteering or Camping. Sandy Beach's colors are blue and yellow, and their main mascot is Jim the Moose, though they have several other mascots including two bananas, a rock, and a "crazy" crocodile. The camp also once housed the Reservation Baker up until 2019, when the position was moved to Camp Three Point. In 2022 the position was once again returned to the Sandy Beach Bakery.
Camp Sandy Beach's eighteen campsites are named after famous Americans in history and include the following: Abe Lincoln, Audubon, Backwoods, Davy Crockett, Donald H. Cady, George Washington, Jim Bridger, Paul Siple, James West, John Glenn, Frederick Douglass, Lewis and Clark, Neil Armstrong, Norman Rockwell, Richard Byrd, Silver Buffalo, Teddy Roosevelt, Ida Lewis, and Earnest Seaton.
One campsite used to be named Camp Baden-Powell, after Boy Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell. It comprised a circle of tents around a field with a flagpole at its center. The former Baden-Powell site now houses the current Neil Armstrong campsite.
Prior to the 2021 camping season, Campsite Ida Lewis was added and Campsites Jim Bowie and Kit Carson were renamed respectively to Paul Siple and Frederick Douglass.
Three other, now defunct campsites, exist in Sandy Beach as well, those being Paul Siple (distinct from the former Jim Bowie site), Bill Cody, and Ernest Thompson Seton.
Awards