A certain “magic” surrounds Camp Raven Knob in Surry County, an area Boy Scout official said during a meeting this week when the camp’s 70th birthday was celebrated with the help of an 87-year-old scouter.
Yes, it does boast 3,200 acres of forestland and facilities including 36 campsites; a lake for swimming, boating and fishing; a large dining hall; a climbing tower; a shooting sports area for archery, rifles and shotguns; a chapel; and more.
Plus there are all kinds of programs and activities built around those physical attributes which make them come alive.
Yet that still doesn’t answer the question posed by District Executive Chris Lawson of the Old Hickory Council of Boy Scouts of America, which owns the Raven Knob reservation located about 12 miles west of Mount Airy near Lowgap.
“What is the magic of Camp Raven Knob?” Lawson said Tuesday during a Rotary Club of Mount Airy meeting at Cross Creek Country Club.
“The magic of Raven Knob is the people,” the scout official answered during his presentation marking its 70 years of existence.
Lawson said about 120 staff members are needed to run the sprawling camp, which operates year-round although most local residents know it most for summer programs geared toward Boy and Cub scouts.
This includes camp sessions of about eight weeks, which attract not only youths from across the region but other areas of the nation — and world, boosted by the staff’s specialized expertise and dedication.
The official of the Old Hickory Council mentioned that an international scouting event in August will include about 1,200 visitors, a testament to Camp Raven Knob’s popularity both domestically and abroad.
Longtime need fulfilled
Demands for such facilities are why Camp Raven Knob originated in the first place, according to an article in the July 20, 1954 edition of The Mount Airy News.
Area scouts had been relying on two camps located elsewhere for their activities, which totaled 330 acres.
“Those 330 acres cannot begin to meet the needs of scouts in this region, if the scouting program continues to expand as it is at present,” the article states, quoting an area official who said the Surry County site was sorely desired to meet the demands.
The Old Hickory Council paid $45,000 for what was then known as Raven’s Knob Park, the equivalent of about $516,000 today, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
Money for the acquisition came from a fundraising campaign.
Scouting officials announced plans in 1954 for improving the existing facilities at the site including a dining hall and kitchen. Such changes were to be based on guidance from representatives of the national Boy Scout headquarters who planned to visit.
Youths in the Old Hickory Council began using the lake, wooded and other facilities for the first time in the summer of 1954.
At that time, Camp Raven Knob had 750 acres, which gradually was expanded to reach the present 3,200.
The Old Hickory Council includes the Seven Rivers District containing Surry County and its acclaimed camp.
“Blessed” to have it
“I’ve seen a lot of changes on it,” longtime scouter Denny Shelton said of the property after this week’s presentation by Lawson.
Shelton and Lawson were among several persons attending who wore uniforms. The gathering also featured a display of scouting mementos.
“When I was a scout, they didn’t have Raven Knob,” recalled Shelton, a Mount Airy resident who at age 87 has logged more than 60 years in the Boy Scout program and been an example for generations of youths.
Despite it not being available when he was a kid, the 1955 graduate of Mount Airy High School has since come to love Camp Raven Knob and considers it a special place.
Shelton says he sometimes goes there when no one else is around just to enjoy its quietness and abundance of wildlife — which might include encounters with a deer, grouse or other animals to be found.
Scouts in this area should feel “blessed” to have such a camp “here in their backyard,” he added.
“I’m just glad to have been part of it,” Shelton said.
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