Wurth's Camp for Boys

 Former campers remember

We have a couple of family pictures, that have been inserted among the memories, since nieces and nephews and their children also had the opportunity to enjoy the camp on weekends or the off season.

We were delighted to get an email from Walt who found our family history page when he did a google search for "Wurth". Here's what he told us:

I was 8 or 9 years old at the time and that was decades ago.
My memories of that summer are starting to return. I remember:

...the huge campfires and the echoes in the little valley over the hill behind the cabins. ( This is the area where the campfires were built.)

...a recreation hall with an odd kind of pool table that used dowells for poolsticks and golf balls for pool balls;
holes in the table had a particular number of points for getting a ball in that particular hole.

...Mr. Wurth's extensive collection of mounted butterflies.

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Doug found us at the Adirondack Museum site when he was searching for "Adirondack camps". He gives us a great overview of life at Wurth's Camp for Boys.  

I was just thinking about that camp recently, since I came back through the Adirondacks on my way back from visiting my brother in Maine. (Climbed Cascade.) I went to Wurth's Camp in 1954 and although my memories are sketchy I remember having a great time there.

Hiking. I remember going on many hikes, often up mountains, and often singing songs along the way. Although I hadn't been back to the Adirondacks for many years that camp helped instill a love of hiking and backpacking that has taken me to many parts of this country.

I seem to remember that we climbed Marcy at camp. Is that possible that a bunch of young kids where able to do that? Or did we just talk about it as we climbed many of the lower mountains with shorter approaches?

I also remember swimming in the river.

Oddly the tether ball court also sticks in my memory.

Your mention of working in the kitchen has also stirred some memories of the mess hall
although I can't quite put my finger on them.

Besides your great uncle, I remember a younger man probably in his mid-twenties at the time (or younger- I was only 10), who lead most of the hiking trips.  I think he may have been your great uncle's son.

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Bob found us in 2007.  He tells us:

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Barbara remembers. It was in 1954 that my cousin Shirley and I spent the summer there working as the cook's helpers.

Mrs. Suppley was the cook.

I liked to ring the big dinner bell that was just outside the kitchen door.
The sound rang through the whole camp to call us all to table.

Johnny Humbert was the main camp counselor. I think he was from NYC.
The other couselor was Kirk.  

On Saturday nights, just before the campfire, we had a candy sale in the mess hall. We were all allowed to choose 5 cents (or maybe it was 10 cents) worth of candy. In those days, 5 cents bought a candy bar or a hearty hand full of penny candies.
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Konrad found our site in 2008.  His mother picked Wurth's Camp on the recommendation of Henry Schroeder Turnmeister of the NY Turn Verein.  Today he is enjoying retirement  in the Carson Valley of the East side of the Sierra, a long journey from Manhattan where he was born in 1939.  Konrad tells us:

I've been trying hard to remember about Camp Wurth. I know years I was not at camp, 1951 and 1955 because I spent those summers in Germany, the years I attended I can't remember.

I remember long bus trips on Adirondack Trailways, and being very homesick the first summer at camp [I think I didn't last the entire summer so this might have been 1950], Mr Wurth spoke with my mother who came and took me home.

I know I was part of the work group that chiseled the diving board anchor holes into the big rock by the river, and I was at camp when the large round wash sink with the foot pedal was installed in the shower building.

There was an old panel truck to take us to Schroon on Sundays for church services, but not every Sunday.

 I ate in a large dining hall and I remember the food was good, but only spaghetti comes to mind.

There was a long road winding thru the forest to get to Route 9 and when it rained it got very muddy.

The camp had maybe 20-40 boys, but for the life of me I can't remember a single one by name or nick-name. My nick-name was "Foureyes" because I had thick glasses.

At camp I was introduced to 'capture-the-flag', a great game that got pretty aggressive.

There were hikes far from camp to a mountain that had a fire observation tower, I remember climbing up into the tower observatory more than once, and round metal trail markers nailed on trees.

I remember overnight camping at a lake [Paradox ?], I rolled down the hill in my sleeping bag and wound up with my lower half in the lake.

Then there was the time I was picked as one of three people to go downriver looking for a lost rowboat, it took all day and was really neat because of the adventure of it all. River hikes were fun.

I wish I could remember more about people. Mr. Wurth smoked a pipe and I liked to sit near him at night because it kept the horrible mosquitos away.

I remember a lady in the kitchen who I think always wore a blue kerchief on her head, from your web page photos I think this might have been June [?].

That is it for now, maybe more will come back to me down the road.

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To see a few more pictures, click Camp pictures

Camp is sold.

When Mr. Wurth retired, he sold the camp to a family, who used it as a private camp.  They allowed former campers who ventured there to come on the property and reminisce.  Later, it was sold to someone else who posted "No Trespassing" signs.  Has anyone been there in recent years to update us? 

Thank you for visiting this website.  We hope it inspired you to reconnect with happy times
at Turners or Wurth's Camp for Boys.

This website is always a work in progress and we welcome your contributions, or just drop us an email  to say "Hi!".

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