Campers at Columbus?

[Sean Barry]

I grew up to age 15 (1965) in Haddonfield, and hid out during much of the summer at my father's warehouse business on Rt. 73 in Marlton, at the edge of the Barrens. I stayed at Camp Columbus just north of Bamber Lake in 1960 and 1961. To say that the camp changed my life is an understatement--I was introduced to natural history, to the Barrens legends, to 18th and 19th century history, to cedar water, to pitcher plants, skunk cabbage, and sundews, to rattlers, to Pineys, to blueberries, and to sand, sand, and more sand during those two or three summers, not to mention to discipline like I had never known. I took the lessons with me and grew them into a life's work. I encountered this group when I did a whimsical search for Camp Columbus on the web, and I see from the lack of apparent information that the place is probably long-gone. I remember that the owner(?) director was a gentleman named Callahan, and it was basically a camp for Catholic boys--we had Mass every morning and longer Mass on Sundays, two activity periods per day (hiking, crafts, swimming, boating, etc), twice-daily cabin inspections (woe betide the cabin with a dust bunny on the floor), and a nighttime assembly that was my favorite part because the naturalist did a presentation nearly every night (we didn't sing "Kumbaya" but we didn't sing hymns either). The naturalist during my time at the camp was a high school teacher from Pennsylvania named Joe Semanchek (sp?), and I will always remember him for introducing me to natural history and to music (he was a fine resonator guitar player).

I'm posting primarily to polish my own memory of a significant but long-bygone time, but also to inquire whether anyone else on this forum might have attended the camp, perhaps might have some knowledge about Mr. Callahan, Mr. Semanchek (sp?), the camp--how long did it survive past my time, what happened to Mr. S? etc. I'm quite sure that if I returned now I would be deeply grief-stricken by all the changes to the Barrens (I live in northern California and last visited NJ in 1980), so I'm content with the memories and with the daily application of those influences in my own life. Still, if anyone has any insight I'd love to hear it.

Sean Barry

[foofoo]

wow! what a first great post. welcome aboard. never explored the bamber lake area camps but im sure someone will have some info for you. also i guess you remember the sand. did you forget about the ticks and chiggers. l.o.l.

[TeeGate]

It is not there anymore. Bobpbx lives near there and can tell you more as I suspect he will. I also remember one other mentioning he went there also so maybe they will chime in.

Guy

[TeeGate]

It is still noted on some topo maps.

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=18...47&datum=nad83

BTW, do you have any photo's??

Guy

[woodjin]

Welcome to the forum. It is interesting to have someone on the forum who had actually attended Camp Columbus. Thanks for the insight into the "daily operations" of the organization. I have heard it mentioned, but have little knowledge it. As Guy mentioned, Bob should have some information.

I was nine in 1980 so it is hard for me to comment but I don't think you would be that dissapointed if you were to visit the pines today. Yeah, there is alot more development, but giving the time frame of 26 years, you might be pleasantly surprised. A look in the photo gallery on the forum might be of interest to you.

So, Joe S. played a resonator? Neat! Blues or Hank Williams stuff?

Jeff

[Sean Barry]

Yes, Joe played the resonator guitar, Hawaiian music as I recall. The priest at the camp also played the acoustic guitar (the first time I ever saw an old Martin guitar). I took those and several other influences and a few years later took up the guitar, then the banjo, then the Dobro, then the mandolin, and eventually parlayed that into 10 years on the road as a professional bluegreass musician, in amongst my carreer in microbiology and herpetology. It wasn't much of a living but I did play all over the US and revisited the Barrens during my travels in 1980.

Other things I remember about Camp Columbus (sadly, I have no photos):

There were indeed some ticks but I don't remember suffering from chiggers. Sundews in the retaining wall timbers at the dam, prunes with every meal, flying squirrels in the purple martin house, turtles turtles everywhere, sphagnum and British soldier lichen, ancient foundations in the woods where lizards basked, hikes to "huckleberry island," brown streaks on my skin after swimming (cedar water), reveille at dawn. This is starting to come back as I write about it. Top of the list is the very large and very lost timber rattler I encountered one day in the community shower/bathroom in the "cub village." Joe S. caught it and as I recall kept it for a day or two to show the campers--I think it might actually have died during that time. For me it was an incredible combination of fear and exhilaration to find that animal, which was equally afraid and having difficulty getting purchase on the smooth concrete floor to escape. Thanks in large part to that encounter I went on to become a scientific herpetologist but unfortunately the Pine Barrens timber rattler has continued the decline that began during the 1930's when the large den area at Mount Misery was wrecked by the CCC camp that was established during the depression (read about it in Carl Kauffeld's 1959 book "Snakes and Snake Hunting"--there is quite a bit of material about the Barrens, Asa Pittman's bog, Mount Misery, and Crossley). Some may actually welcome the decline, but to me that huge but very timid rattler symbolized the Barrens wilderness and it still does.

As alluded above, the Camp was split into the "cub village" and "senior village," and I think one had to be 12 to be housed in the senior side of the road. The cub village was perhaps six wood cabins (4-6 bunk sets each plus the counselor's bed) with the aforementioned community shower, beteen the road and the lake. The senior village was across the road, along with the assembly hall, the mess hall, the infirmary (Mr. Callahan's spouse was a RN), the outdoor assembly place/fire pit, the snack shop, and the chapel. I already mentioned the two daily activity times and I also mentioned enjoying the nightly assembly best of all. A very tight second were the hikes and they would have been first except that some of the counselors looked at them as a workout/forced march opportunity for the 10-year olds rather than adventures and opportunities for discovery. We learned to find out who was leading the hike and where it was going before rashly signing up for it. The priest also taught and supervised archery, at which I did well because I had already learned from my father. I remember quite a few "carrot and stick" ways of doing things, but overall the Camp was a tremendous experience for a 9-10 year old who cared to absorb everything he could about the natural world.

I also remember the "ghost hunt," which as I recall happened during the sixth week of the seven-week camp season. We were all gathered in the assembly hall just at dusk and told that some of the more popular counselors had seen some ghosts near Cabin X (or Y or Z). The counselors had vanished while chasing the ghosts, and our mission was to find them. We were led though the dark woods in small groups, treated occasionally to the sight of one of the other counselors laying in the path, moaning (I started out the evening not believing a word of it, but my confidence was shaken pretty badly by the end of the adventure). Finally we looped around to the camp and there perched on one of the cabins were two or three "ghosts" with torches. We were quickly led back to the assembly hall, and they turned out the lights so that the ghosts wouldn't be attracted to the hall. Then they switched the lights on and there in front of us were the ghosts, who after a suitable terror interval removed their hoods and of course they were the missing counselors. It was considerably more terrifying than a snipe hunt but I've never been afraid of the dark or of rattlesnakes since my experience at Camp Columbus.

Perhaps another time I'll add some material about other singular experiences, but for now I've probably written much more than anyone cared to know about Camp Columbus. I'm a grandfather now, and I hope sometime to take my grandson to visit the site. There are certainly plenty of ghosts of bygone times to rediscover in and out of the camp.

Thanks for the time you've taken to read this.

Sean Barry

Welcome to the forum. It is interesting to have someone on the forum who had actually attended Camp Columbus. Thanks for the insight into the "daily operations" of the organization. I have heard it mentioned, but have little knowledge it. As Guy mentioned, Bob should have some information.

I was nine in 1980 so it is hard for me to comment but I don't think you would be that dissapointed if you were to visit the pines today. Yeah, there is alot more development, but giving the time frame of 26 years, you might be pleasantly surprised. A look in the photo gallery on the forum might be of interest to you.

So, Joe S. played a resonator? Neat! Blues or Hank Williams stuff?

Jeff

[Ben Ruset]

I have been meaning to go there and see what there is to be seen.

[BEHR655]

Sean,
You can write about your experiences there as much as you want. Great read.

Steve

[TeeGate]

What was your fathers warehouse business on 73 in Marlton? I grew up in Marlton from 1957 off of 73 near the circle. Maybe we can share stories on that area also?

Guy

[foofoo]

more stories!

[TeeGate]

more stories!

Is that a negative comment or a positive one?

Guy

[Sean Barry]

It was called National Supply and Equipment, in business at that location circa 1960-65 (before that it was in Gibbsboro). True to my father's way of finding a deal and not being shy about it, the building was an 19th century white church on about 1/2 acre. It was just north of the northeast corner of Braddoch/Kresson Road and Rt. 73, across the highway and north of Kresson Lake. I remember quite clearly that we drove out Kresson Road from just outside of Haddonfield to get there, and that to a young boy it seemed to take an eternity. I assume that the creek that flowed out of the lake was Kresson Creek but whatever its name I used to fish under and alongside the Rt 73 culvert and if you like bullheads that was definitely the place. My father died very young (46) of a cerebral hemmorhage in 1965, and my mother leased the property out until about 1977. She then sold it, but I still have the original skeleton key to the front door of the church and there may be a photograph somewhere--if I find one I'll post it. I haunted the creek and also usually walked out Braddoch road when I was out at "the office," and found many interesting critters and plants out there. It wasn't deep into the Barrens so I didn't find anything uniquely of the Barrens but I still kept busy and made lots of inroads into my incipient natural history education.

We moved to southern California after my father died (my mother was from there, we needed a place to live, and the church/warehouse in Marlton wasn't well-suited), and though I was down there at a fairly good time in that the extreme rape of every flatland and foothill buildable spot didn't begin until the 1970's, I don't believe that I could ever have gotten as much from my wanderings in SoCal as I did in those distant times in the New Jersey woods. SoCal has (even now) some great places and six species of rattlers (most of which are abundant), but even in solitude I missed and still miss the Barrens feeling.

Plus, in a nutshell New Jersey has a treasure trove of significant history that I appreciated even as a small boy, and California has history (missions, gold rush) that it should do its best to forget.

Thanks to this forum for giving me an opportunity to revisit those times.

Sean Barry

What was your fathers warehouse business on 73 in Marlton? I grew up in Marlton from 1957 off of 73 near the circle. Maybe we can share stories on that area also?

Guy

[TeeGate]

Sean,

If I am correct the church was located right next to a man my dad worked with named Mike Jarvis. His house was the NE corner property at 73 and Braddock's Mill road. The house the last time I went by was crumbling.

Here is the house and if I am correct your place may be right above the arrow. Not sure.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.855...16115&t=k&om=1

Guy

[bobpbx]

Very nice writing. I especially liked:

Sundews in the retaining wall timbers at the dam, prunes with every meal, flying squirrels in the purple martin house, turtles turtles everywhere, sphagnum and British soldier lichen, ancient foundations in the woods where lizards basked, hikes to "huckleberry island," brown streaks on my skin after swimming (cedar water), reveille at dawn. This is starting to come back as I write about it. Top of the list is the very large and very lost timber rattler I encountered one day in the community shower/bathroom in the "cub village." Joe S. caught it and as I recall kept it for a day or two to show the campers--I think it might actually have died during that time. For me it was an incredible combination of fear and exhilaration to find that animal, which was equally afraid and having difficulty getting purchase on the smooth concrete floor to escape.

You are in luck. I ran across a photo of the camp with the boys assembled outside the main hall. It might have been the late 60's. I know the guy who has it. He lives 200 yards from the camp site. I will try to post it tomorrow nite. Check back.

PS: they now call it 'blueberry island'.

[Sean Barry]

Guy--

Ah, Braddock Mills Road, not Braddoch Road. I'm about 98% sure that you are correct asbout the location of the property. I remember the short road that bordered the church property, and I still also remember (how I do is beyond me) the house along Rt 73 between the church property and the creek. Is the church still extant (beyond all unlikely things)? If so, I still have the key....


Thanks again

Sean Barry

Sean,

If I am correct the church was located right next to a man my dad worked with named Mike Jarvis. His house was the NE corner property at 73 and Braddock's Mill road. The house the last time I went by was crumbling.

Here is the house and if I am correct your place may be right above the arrow. Not sure.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.855...16115&t=k&om=1

Guy