Clements Scout Ranch

There are some places that simply refuse to change. For some of us, one of those places is Camp Cherokee at Clements Scout Ranch in Athens Texas, a very scenic place for a Summer Camp

I wish I had the skill to describe the beauty of the camp, the way it appears to be a movie studio set of what people think a summer camp should look like...but I don't so I hope the pictures do the camp justice.

At the parking lot, looking at the Perryman Lake, the largest of the 3 lakes on the property.

Two views of the Chow Hall, this is the same Chow Hall I ate in as a young Scout in the 70s.
This building was torn down last year and a new two story, airconditioned building replaced it. Note the open sites which were wide enough for a breeze to cool the place...if there ever was a breeze.

On Thursdays, the camp has family days and does a fairly decent barbeque, moving the benches and tables from the Chow Hall out into the area next to it called the Pines.

The camp is large enough that the staff area is well separated from the Troop areas. This is a shot looking across the lake at the Staff Camp. Their tents have electricity and are larger, of course, they live in them for about 6 weeks.

Want to make any Scout or Scouter nostalagic? Heat up some old canvas...old musty canvas. The tents are made to last....I think may have used the same tent as a kid and as an adult.

Of course, everyone remembers the latrines. Clements improved most of their facilities years ago to include flush toilets in most of the sites and every latrine actually had a water heater for hot water. In the summer that wasn't needed in the afternoon, but a morning shower definitely needed it. The Camp has actually built larger multi-troop shower/latrine facilities to augment the site capabilities.

I have pictures of the different activity areas that I'll post another day. Hope you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane. I've been to enough Summer Camps to know this is fairly representative of the beauty of Scout Camps.