Camp Lewis A Bayonne camper goes back in time
Stories and photos Pat Bonner
C
amp Lewis recently celebrated its 75th birthday. For years, it was a big part of the civic life of Bayonne and also of the lives of the thousands of Bayonne boys, like me, who camped there. How has it weathered? Are the Boy Scouts still relevant and worthwhile? How does the actual camp compare with my memories of it? I went up there on an overcast day, 58 years after I first camped there, to look for answers to these and other questions. On December 30, 1943, the Bayonne Boy Scouts purchased a 189-acre tract from the Union Council of Boy Scouts for $1. Ida and William Rosenthal, founders of Maidenform, the famous bra company, donated funds to set up a Boy Scout camp on the site. The camp, which opened in 1944, is named for their son Lewis, a Columbia University student who died at age 23 from pneumonia and meningitis. A plaque with a likeness of Lewis is on the parade grounds. The Rosenthal Family as well as other Bayonne businesses have been strong supporters of the camp.
Scouts Honor As I turned into the camp from Upper Hibernia Road in Rockaway, New Jersey, I began to see signs in the woods with the words trustworthy, loyal, helpful, and friendly. I remembered the 12 points of the Scout Law. It began to come back, the quiet forest, so different from the streets of Bayonne, the fun things we did here, a sense of freedom, nothing but good memories. I realized that it would take a lot to make me dislike this place. Today the camp is owned and operated by the North Jersey Council of Scouting. The Boy Scouts now are called just
28 • BLP ~ SPRING 2020
Scouts of America, and the troops are open to girls. Camp Lewis is used primarily by Cub Scouts in the summer. Older scouts use the camp on weekends during the rest of the year. Last summer, 490 Cub Scouts of both genders and parents camped during the three-week summer session. It’s no longer limited to Bayonne kids, but 13 Bayonne Cubs camped this summer.
On the Waterfront The centerpiece of the camp is still Lake Good Turn, named for the Scout slogan: Do a good turn daily. It is much smaller than I remembered but just as picturesque. There was no lake on the site when the camp opened. At that time, Bayonne businesses pitched in to make improvements at the Camp. Exxon and its union laborers constructed the lake and
pumped water into it for that first season. It has filled naturally since then. The floats were pulled out of the water when I was there this summer, and there is a new swimming pool. Scouts are still taught to swim there, as I was in 1961. Fishing, boating, and canoeing are also offered.
Food Stuffs The dining hall also looked smaller, but it’s the same fieldstone building, opened in 1948, a gift of the Rosenthal family. Scouts still sing at most meals, and the Three Jolly Fishermen live on to entertain another generation of children. The food selection is much more varied than the hot dogs and burgers we lived on, and there are options for most diets. Traces of Bayonne throughout the camp include plaques in the dining hall commending the Bayonne Order of the Arrow; my pack, Pack 25; and the
