Stop # 4: Old Parade Grounds (@ Health Lodge Road sign)

Things Change…Parade Grounds, Amphitheaters and Waterfronts

Depending upon one’s age, this spot will bring back different memories. The original summer campfires were held in an amphitheater down across the field and a little further into the woods. For years, on the middle-Saturday of the two-week sessions, Scouts would march down and assemble in the field, where Buckskin Lodge #412, Order of the Arrow, would hold its Ordeal tap out. The tap out would later shift to Sunday evening campfires at the program shelters.

Over the years, there were a varying number of waterfronts in different locations. At one point, with numbers surging, there were waterfronts for Tribes and Chiefs camps, and the newest addition, Buckskin. There were also religious chapels on the south side of the lake. If you look towards the COPE course, with all its challenges, the maintenance building used to be a bakery and a commissary that supplied all the food needed for the dining halls and the heater stacks that were delivered to the campsites because the dining halls were not big enough to handle all the scouts in camp at the same time.

The Manor House, mentioned in the trail stop at the dam, stood on this field. Among other things, it would house the Trading Post, which later moved to the other side of the lake, and eventually to its current location by the Long House. The first Health Lodge was also located here. With the Manor House’s large porch overlooking the lake, it was a general meeting area and gathering place for most departing hikes.

DIRECTIONS: From this sign, head towards the Health Lodge. At the rear of the building and off to the left, you will see the Red Trail markers.