Musser Scout Reservation is a

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

camp located along the

Unami Creek Unami Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of Perkiomen Creek in Lehigh, Bucks, and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania in the United States. ...

on over of

Marlborough Township, Pennsylvania Marlborough Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,178 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Upper Perkiomen School District. History In 1741, Marlboro Township was partitioned from the ...

. The Reservation is made up of three distinct camps: Camp Delmont, Camp Hart, and Camp Garrison. The reservation is part of the largest contiguous forest in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The camp is owned by the

Cradle of Liberty Council The Cradle of Liberty Council (#525) is a Boy Scouts of America council created in 1996 with the merger of the former Philadelphia Council (covering the city and county of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) and the former Valley Forge Coun ...

. The Cradle of Liberty Council, Natural Lands, Montgomery County Lands Trust, and Montgomery County signed a perpetual

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gove ...

permanently protecting over of the Musser Scout Reservation.

History

Prior to 1996, the Philadelphia Council owned and operated Camp Hart, while the Valley Forge Council owned and operated Camp Delmont. Subsequent to the merger of these councils in 1996, these adjacent camps joined to create a new reservation. Initially, this merged Scout camp was called "Delmont-Hart Scout Reservation". Later, the camps were renamed under "Musser Scout Reservation", to honor the late son of

Pete Musser Warren Van Dyke "Pete" Musser (December 15, 1926 – November 25, 2019) was the chairman of the Musser Group. He was the founder of Safeguard Scientifics, a venture capital firm that invested in technology companies. At the peak of the dot-com bu ...

, a financial contributor who had a son that enjoyed camping there as a scout.

Camps

Camp Delmont

Camp Delmont was named after the two counties that made up the original Delmont Council (DELaware and MONTgomery Counties Council, later known as The Valley Forge Council). For many years, Delmont consisted of two camps: Camp Cedar, which focused on one-week camping, and Camp Pioneer, which focused on two-week camping. As such, Delmont was a "Scout Reservation," since included more than one camp. In later years, as Valley Forge Council focused summer camp on

Resica Falls Scout Reservation Resica Falls Scout Reservation is a camp in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania operated by the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America. History In 1955 the Philadelphia and Valley Forge Councils purchased the property jointly. Dedicat ...

, Camp Cedar was used for residential Webelos summer camp and Camp Pioneer was allowed to return to nature. Summer Camp was first held there in 1916. As part of the Cradle of Liberty Council's contribution to the Scouting BSA victims support settlement, Camp Delmont is currently expected to be contributed as part of the total $6.8 million settlement. This does not include Camp Hart or Camp Garrison. So far this is non-binding, however the council's Executive Board unanimously approved the council's participation in the proposed settlement. (Email from Daniel Templar, Scout Executive of Cradle of Liberty Council, August 23, 2021) This is part of the greater Scouting BSA tentative settlement

Camp Hart

Hart Scout Reservation was first opened in 1930, and has been in continuous operation since the first summer of operation. The property was provided in an endowment by Dr. , and he is honored in the titling of the Camp. There are two distinct areas of Camp Hart divided by the Unami Creek. The western portion of the camp currently hosts Cradle of Liberty Council Leader training programs, and acts of the focal site of the council Cub Adventures summer resident camp for

Cub Scouts Cub Scouts, Cubs or Wolf Cubs are programs associated with Scouting for young children usually between 7 and 12, depending on the organization to which they belong. A participant in the program is called a Cub. A group of Cubs is called a 'P ...

and

Webelos Cub Scouting is part of the Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), available to boys and girls from kindergarten through fifth grade, or 5 to 10 years of age and their families. Its membership is the largest of the five main BSA d ...

Camp Garrison

Camp Garrison was named after Walter R. Garrison, a major contributor to the building of the camp. The camp opened in 2000 and operates the Cub World summer program entirely devoted to the Cub Scouting program. There were four themed encampments: Fort Akela, Safeguard Castle, U.S.S. Cradle of Liberty, and the Native American Village; however, the Native American Village was taken out of commission.

External links

Musser Scout Reservation on ScoutWiki

Cradle of Liberty Website

Montgomery County Lands Trust & Musser Scout Reservation

References

{{Summer camps in Pennsylvania Local council camps of the Boy Scouts of America Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Protected areas of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania 1996 establishments in Pennsylvania Summer camps in Pennsylvania