Eagle Island Camp, also known as Camp Eagle Island or simply EIC, is a youth

summer camp A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as ''campers''. Summer school is usually a part of the academ ...

and former

Girl Scout Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

camp located on Eagle Island on

Upper Saranac Lake Upper Saranac Lake is one of three connected lakes, part of the Saranac River, in the towns of Santa Clara and Harrietstown, near the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. Upper Saranac Lake is the sixth largest lak ...

in New York's Adirondack region. The site is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

Adirondack Great Camp years

The camp occupies buildings originally built in 1903 as a summer retreat for New York Governor and United States Vice President

Levi Morton Levi Parsons Morton (May 16, 1824 – May 16, 1920) was the 22nd vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He also served as United States ambassador to France, as a U.S. representative from New York, and as the 31st Governor of Ne ...

and designed by architect

William L. Coulter William Lincoln Coulter (1865–1907) was an American architect who came to Saranac Lake, New York, in the spring of 1896 in an effort to cure his tuberculosis, and stayed to design some of the finest Adirondack Great Camps and Cure Cottages ...

. The mainland camp now known as Pine Brook was originally a part of the Morton

Great Camp __NOTOC__ The Great Camps of the Adirondack Mountains refers to the grandiose family compounds of cabins that were built in the latter half of the nineteenth century on lakes in the Adirondacks such as Spitfire Lake and Rainbow Lake. The ca ...

. Camp Eagle Island was included in a multiple property submission for listing on the

in 1986, was listed there in 1987, and was named a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 2004.

Girl Scout years

Eagle Island Camp became a Girl Scout property in 1938, when the Graves family of

Orange, New Jersey The City of Orange is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 30,134, reflecting a decline of 2,734 (−8.3%) from the 32,868 counted in 2000. Orange was original ...

, gave the island to the Maplewood-

South Orange South Orange, officially the Township of South Orange Village, is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village's population was 16,198, reflecting a decline of 766 (4.5%) fro ...

Girl Scout Council. After a series of council mergers, the last council to own the property and operate the camp was

Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey Scouting in New Jersey has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live. The second Boy Scouts of America National Headquarters was in North Brunswick, althou ...

. The Council operated it as overnight camp through the summer of 2008 and voted to sell it on October 11, 2010.

Later years

The camp property, including Eagle Island, two smaller islands, and a staging area on Gilpin Bay Road on the mainland, was purchased on November 6, 2015 by The Friends of Eagle Island, Inc. (now Eagle Island, Inc.), which operates the property as a youth camp.

References

External links

*
Eagle Island Camp, National Historic Landmark summary, at National Park Service
{{Summer camps in New York Eagle Island National Historic Landmarks in New York (state) 1899 establishments in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Franklin County, New York Tourist attractions in Franklin County, New York Eagle Island National Register of Historic Places in Franklin County, New York Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)