By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

Camp Wilderness, north of Park Rapids, has been enjoyed by scouters from Otter Tail County for many decades. Today there are two camps, one for Boy Scouts and the other for Cub Scouts.

Not long ago this writer returned to Camp Wilderness north of Park Rapids and visited the Delaware campsite. That was my first campsite as a member of Our Lady of Victory Boy Scout Troop 312 in 1959, when Tom Donoho of Fergus Falls was our scoutmaster.

Amazing is that the same name is used several decades later. The camp sign, of course, has been changed periodically over the years.

I was also at Camp Wilderness again in 1960 and in the early 1990s, both summer and winter, when sons Mark and Paul also were Boy Scouts and loved Camp Wilderness as well.

Accompanying me to Camp Wilderness was Dick Barsness, former scoutmaster for OLV Troop 312. Before visiting the Delaware campsite we made the long trek down to the waterfront and visited the new amphitheater that overlooks Bad Axe Lake.

We both remembered amphitheater campfires from prior years. That’s where scouts for many decades have sung words to the Wilderness Camp Alma Mater, “Deep among the pines and birches, lies the camp we love, here we hike and camp together, beneath the stars above.”

The late Dr. Norman Baker of Fergus Falls is considered the father of Camp Wilderness, which began operations northeast of Park Rapids in 1946. He also was instrumental in helping to start Maplewood State Park five miles east of Pelican Rapids near South Lake Lida.

People young and old alike, after first traveling by vehicle down the winding road into Camp Wilderness, long remember the wooden signs describing the 12 points of the Scout Law: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.

Camp Wilderness provides youth members, their families and volunteer leaders with memorable experiences in scouting. We cherish wonderful times among those pines and birches.