Not-for-profit restoring former Boy Scout camp in Jefferson County
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A nearly century-old former Boy Scout camp in southeast Indiana is undergoing a restoration led by a group of former scout leaders and camp staff members.
Camp Louis Ernst was established in 1929 just south of the town of Dupont, but has seen the deterioration or demolition of many of its original facilities since the 1980s.
The not-for-profit Friends of Camp Louis Ernst has been working for the last three years to restore or rebuild those facilities and make the camp accessible to scout troops, youth groups and civic organizations.
Keith Baker, vice president of Friends of Camp Louis Ernst, told Inside INdiana Business because the camp hasn’t been a full-time summer camp since the 1970s, the group has a leg up on the restoration effort.
“We’re not a typical summer camp that provides games or provides activities; we just make those facilities available,” Baker said. “So we don’t have the budget requirements that a lot of places have; and we’re really in pretty good shape. Our support base for the rebuild of Louis Ernst has just come forward in the last year and a half, and some of our restoration work is because of some very generous corporate grants to restore some of the existing buildings.”
Baker said in 1973, the Boy Scouts of America decided to consolidate most of the scouting activities in southern Indiana into one council based out of Bloomington.
A few years after that, Camp Louis Ernst stopped being used as a summer camp and became known as a “primitive camp,” which led to many of the facilities falling into disrepair.
The Friends of Camp Louis Ernst came together about 20 years ago to help keep up the camp, Baker said, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that the group formed the not-for-profit to take over ownership of the camp.
“We’re all former leaders, professional people that came up through there,” he said. “We learned about leadership and a lot about the outdoors through Camp Louis Ernst, and we’re just honored to come back and try to restore the camp for kids of the future.”
The not-for-profit has slowly been making improvements to the camp, including re-establishing electrical power, replacing the roof to the dining hall, applying new gravel to camp roads, and replacing broken water hydrants.
The group is also working to build back the plumbing and adding internet accessibility to the camp, as well as establishing designated camping areas and a trail system, and creating two cooking shelters, a primitive water station and outdoor showers.
Among the additions planned for the camp is an educational center that could be used for a variety of purposes, including environmental education, as well as organized activities for school groups, YMCAs, and scouting troops.
Baker said the not-for-profit is currently in fundraising mode for educational center project. Parts of the effort have already begun, including removing the foundation of the previous building that was on the site. He hopes to begin construction on the education center this summer.
“We will not ever be a campground again as far as the summer camp, but we are booking up almost every weekend for youth groups,” he said. “Although we’re really wanting to stay involved with scouting—I would say probably 80% of our constituents who use the camp are going to be involved with with Boy Scouts of some kind—but we really want to open that up for all youth groups for outdoor environmental education.”
Future use of the camp, the group said, will not be limited to area Boy Scout troops; it will also be available for other organized programs such as Girl Scouts, 4-H, Boys & Girls Clubs, church youth groups and civic organizations.
The not-for-profit has received tremendous support from local officials in Jefferson County and the nearby city of Madison, Baker said.
“We had a meeting recently with their mayor, their economic development director and their parks and rec director,” he said. “One of the reasons that they see, I think, the value of having a location like that, a youth development area, so close to Madison and the river area is it’s just accessibility. Kids today don’t have those kinds of parks and those kinds of facilities to enjoy. So, they have contributed money. Local government folks down there have been trying to find a way to make sure that we go forward.”
Baker said the group’s fundraising goal for 2024 is $40,000. Friends of Camp Louis Ernst is accepting tax-deductible donations at its website. You can find more information by clicking here.