User:Corkpyre/sandbox

Introduction
Camp Resolute is located in Bolton, Massachusetts on the E. Paul Robsham Jr. Scout Reservation. Founded in 1919, Camp Resolute serves as the summer camp for the Knox Trail Council.

Geography
Camp Resolute is situated on 325 acres of land encompassing Little Pond.

History
In the first three years of the Council, it had grown from two towns, Framingham and Marlboro, to nineteen towns. We had had makeshift camps the first three summers, so the Executive Board decided it was time to search for a permanent campsite. Two committees were appointed, the President, Hon. Edward F. Brown and Ralph Whitman to search the northern area and John M. Merian and Joseph Mundy of Framingham to search the southern area.

Ed Brown and I were lucky to look over what is now Camp Virginia on West Pond, Bolton, but we told the owner, Mrs. Hamilton; “This is not large enough for our needs.” She responded, “My sister, Mrs. Townsend owns 150 acres across the way on Little Pond.” We made an appointment to see it, and it was a case of love at first sight. On the following Sunday afternoon, the Executive Board met on the plateau in the rain, looked out on the pond and voted unanimously to purchase it. If my memory serves me right, the price was $60 per acre, or $9,000 for the 150 acres. In the present market one shoreline lot would be worth more than that.

This was about April 1st, and it gave us a challenge to get a building ready for the camp opening on July 1st. I sent to National Headquarters, then in New York City, and they sent me a plan for a 40-foot x 48-foot dining hall with a big stone fireplace on one end. It so happened that, while in high school, I had studied architecture at the Marlboro Public Library, so I automatically became the architect of the hall. Two years before, while I was at church in Northboro with the Scouts, Hugh Smith came to me at the close of the service and offered to build a stone fireplace in honor of his school mate in England, Lord Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting. I asked him if his offer was still good and he said, “Yes, absolutely.” Within a few days, he was camping out at Little Pond, and the Scouts (mostly Troop 4, of Marlboro) aided by an army mule and a stone drag were bringing from our own walls the 50 tons of stone needed. As the fireplace progressed, the men of this Council, including President Brown, Russell Frye, President of the Marlboro Peoples National Bank, Henry Warren of Ashland, inventor of the Telechron clock, and many others put in the rest of the foundation.

Gar Bason, District Governor of the Kiwanis Club and our first Council Commissioner laid the floor. He then got the Framingham Kiwanis Club to send up Jern Howards a carpenter to frame the building and tie it into the fireplace. This done, the leaders, Scouts, and I boarded it in and roofed it. Most of the shutters came from the Mount Waith Camp meeting grounds in Framingham, the gift of Rev. Henry Bray.

On the day that we were to top the big fireplace, it was 100 degrees in the shade and speaking both for Mr. Smith and myself, I suggested that we postpone the toppery. “Nothing doing,” was Mr. Smith’s reply. “This is the perfect day to top the chimney.” So it was completed, and at the Dedication it worked beautifully. Waldo B. Fay, a member of the Executive Board from Southboro, called and said they were rebuilding their kitchen at Fay School, and offered us a large hotel range and a huge refrigerator. These we installed in the basement kitchen, the food went up in a dumb waiter or small elevator.

The Charlestown Navy Yard sent out notices of the sale of surplus navy tables and benches. We bought the whole lot and sold one-third to the Greater Lynn Council, and one-third to the Greater Worcester Council (now Mohegan), and our third cost us very little.

We were fortunate in our water supply, because we could drive a well point at most any spot and come up with nice spring water. For the latrines, the gritty section of sandy gravel made wonderful cement. Scoutmaster O’Connell, of Marlboro, a lineman for the Marlboro Electric Company got his pals to help him run the line from Route 85 to the dining hall. The only cost being for the pole, wire, and fittings. The Council did not have to pay one cent for labor for the whole camp project except the $50 a week I was receiving as Scout Executive.

With the water front layout completed and the boats coming from Maine, we were ready to open camp. Kiwanian, Arthur Young, head of the Framingham Coal Co. (in the quiet season) sent up men, horses, plows, and harrows and they laid out and seeded an athletic field.

The Camp Committee decided to have the Scouts compete in naming the Camp, and to give a free week at Camp to the winner. The yacht “Resolute” had just won America’s Cup, and Kenneth Post of Troop 2, Marlboro, entered that name. “Resolute” it was and Post had his free week, and “Resolute” opened its first session, a successful one. Running the whole width of the property is an abandoned embankment, which was supposed to carry the Hudson and Lancaster Steam Railroad.

In 1924, Normand Lindsay, Scoutmaster of Troop 1 of Marlboro, built a building for the washing of mess kits, with plenty of running hot water. The Council purchased 6 1/3 acres of the Ordway land along the road heading into Camp, and had a public beach for the people of Bolton and Hudson, and on the other end (nearest camp) a large bunk house for the subdivision. This is now the site of the caretaker’s cabin.

When it was rumored that a dance hall was to be built on the end of the pond nearest to Route 85, the Executive Board voted to buy a 40 to 50 foot strip along that section. Later, when the 20 or more acres of the Sargent property came on the market, the Council was not in a position to finance it, so the Scout Executive got a group of interested men to take one or more shares and formed the Little Pond Associates. This formed part of the southeast section of the shoreline, and contained about six cottages. One end was reforested by the Scouts with white pine seedlings, which are now large trees. This section was soon taken over by the Council. This purchase left only one small section of the shoreline owned by the Persons family.

At the Camp, a large wing was added to the dining hall, which contains a modern kitchen, with a walk-in refrigerator, and underneath are garages. Also, a very fine Administration Building has recently been completed. In 1969, the cottage across the pond was dedicated to one of our finest presidents, Andy Maish of Framingham. In 1971, the large dining hall was dedicated to Ralph H. Whitman, founder and builder of Camp Resolute. A new open air pavilion, Buster’s Place, was constructed in 2005 to house the handicraft program of the camp. The summer of 2006 saw the debut of a brand new waterfront feature - AquaLaunch which proved very popular with campers and leaders alike. The summer of 2008 saw the completion of Magee Village comprised of four staff cabins behind the Administration Building. The waterfront also received new boat docks and the dining hall floor was replaced. In 2009 the dining hall tables and benches were replaced and bulletin boards dedicated to Bob Clausen, long time staff member, were erected in each campsite. The summers of 2009 and 2010 were highlighted with the complete renovation of our two shower houses into state-of-the-art facilities complete with individual stalls.