From WikiBPSC

[edit] Bear Paw Camp - The Early Days

It is 1945, and World War II is raging. The Nazi armies are fast becoming history but the “Japs” are still putting up fierce resistance in the Pacific. Even before the U.S. entered the war following the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 our entire nation had been mobilized to help England, France, and Russia resist Hitler’s “blitzkrieg” invasions across Europe. Now, in 1945, virtually every able-bodied single young American male between the ages of 18 and 35 is in uniform.

Even we Scouts are involved. Boy Scouts of America has earned a solid recognition for its excellence in preparing young men to be top-notch soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen. Scouting’s emphasis on outdoors skills, physical and moral fitness, honor, duty, loyalty to God and country and all the traits embodied in the Scout Laws have prepared countless thousands of young boys for the discipline and rigors of military service. Scouts and Troops across the nation are also involved in the war effort. Scouts collect newspapers and scrap rubber to be recycled. We collect grease and bacon fat to be made into gunpowder. We gather aluminum foil from empty toothpaste tubes, cigarette packs and gum wrappers. We are busy picking up scrap iron and steel. Everybody rinses out empty tin cans, cuts the tops and bottoms out and puts them inside and flattens the cans and saves them. Boy Scouts collect these, along with other used metal including even used wire coat hangers. Old Civil War cannon and World War I tanks sitting on courthouse lawns are being gathered up and melted down to be made into tanks, ships, planes, and weapons of war. We are all involved.

Even Troop meetings were different. We practiced marching in close order drill. We were trained in judo, wrestling, and boxing. There were new merit badges in Aviation, Skiing and Marksmanship. Scout meetings involved a lot of emphasis on first aid training. Scout Camps were modeled after military training bases in those days. We ate all meals in a Mess Hall. We lived in cabins or large tents and slept on steel double bunks or folding army cots. Kitchen duties were called “KP” and the food became “chow”.

A Bugler woke us with “Reveille”, announced mealtime with “Mess Call”, called us to the morning flag raising with “First Call” followed 5 minutes later by “Assembly” and the flag was hoisted to the sound of “To the Colors”. The Bugler tooted out “Swim Call”, “Mail Call”, plus a few others I have forgotten. At sunset, “Assembly” gathered us again at the flagpole, in military formation, and we all saluted as the flag was slowly lowered to the sounds of “Retreat”. “Church Call” summoned us to worship service on Sundays. Each day ended after the evening campfire with “Call to Quarters” and, a few minutes later, the plaintive notes of “Taps” echoed across the lake and through the darkened forest. We all knew the words, and sang them to ourselves as we crawled into our sacks,

Nicolet Area Council, with headquarters in Green Bay, had no permanent Scout camp in those days. The Council would have to rent a camp. Camp Bird was used in 1945 for a month or so of the summer,“ If I remember correctly it belonged to the YMCA. There, Scouts bunked in cabins, not necessarily by Troops or patrols, and your adult “Cabin Master” might or might not have been someone from your own Troop.

The Council got a new Scout Executive in May of 1945. His name was Edward A. Rowley. He was also known as “E.A.” or “Ed”. Mr. Rowley was 41 years old and had been a professional Scout Executive for 10 years with prior experience in the Battle Creek Council at Alegan, MI, Lincoln Trails Council at Lincoln IL, Blackhawk Area Council at Dixon,IL, Potowatamie Area Council at Waukesha, WI, and Harrison Trails Council at Lafayette, IN. Before embarking on a career as a professional Scouter, Rowley had been a teacher, a principal and Scoutmaster at Gilman, Wisconsin. How do I know all this information? Well, I was his son, age 15 at the time, and the beginnings of Bear Paw Camp were very much a part of my life.

One of Ed Rowley’s first tasks after he arrived at Green Bay was to acquire a suitable camp for the Nicolet Area Council. Gasoline was being rationed, as were automobile tires. No new cars had been available to civilians since 1942, and the national wartime speed limit was 35 m.p.h. This limited his driving, but Ed soon located a parcel of land surrounding Bear Paw Lake a few miles east of Mountain, Wisconsin. As I remember it belonged to the Oconto Lumber Company and he was able to persuade them to donate it to the Council, probably in November or December of 1945. It had been logged off so most of the timber was “second growth” except for a stand of tall virgin white pines on the hill above the lake just north of the current waterfront area. A lot of the logged-off areas had not been replanted and were mostly just open areas with brush or saplings.

Ed Rowley wanted to be the first Scouter to camp at Bear Paw Camp, so between Christmas and New Years Eve of 1945, Ed, along with four other adult Scouters and his 15 year old Eagle son, Allyn (that’s me), hiked in on skis or snow shoes from County Road “W” leading east out of Mountain. There was only a one-lane road in to the lake, a gravel logging road. It was poorly maintained and was never plowed in the winter. We had to leave our cars some distance away from this entrance road and we skied or snow-shoed in pulling what we couldn’t carry on a toboggan. Deep snow slowed our progress so we were only able to make it about half way to the lake before nightfall. We tramped down a campsite in the snow along the road, pitched our 2-man “Forester” style tents, spread some fir boughs to insulate us from the snow and gathered wood to keep a fire going through the night. Ed built a fire about 10 feet in front of our tent with a reflector fashioned out of green poplar saplings behind it. It did a great job of reflecting the heat towards our open-front tent, and we slept comfortably through a sub-freezing night. At least there were no mosquitoes.

The following day we were able to make it on in to Bear Paw Lake. The only building was an ancient log cabin located about where the south end of the Mess Hall stands. It had, a rough plank floor and a door that couldn’t be shut. There was a large smoke-stained stone fireplace on one end. The cabin had probably been built years before to house logging crews. A few wooden double-deck bunks lined the walls and there was a rough wooden table. Some sawed-off sections of tree trunks served as chopping blocks or stools. The roof was leaky and there were no window panes; but it was better than sleeping out in tents in the snow. We nailed some canvas or burlap sacks over the window openings, built a fire and were pretty cozy. We spent one, maybe two more nights there before snow shoeing back out to the highway. Our days were spent exploring the camp area and the frozen lake on snowshoes and skis.

Ed Rowley’s thoughts were focused on the possibilities that Bear Paw Camp offered and he spent hours back in Green Bay during the few evenings he was home drawing plans for the staff lodge/boat house, the mess hall and a first aid cabin. He wanted the camp to be in operation the following summer. He inspected and evaluated various types of available log buildings. Building plans were prepared from his drawings, and construction commenced shortly. He had hiked every foot of the land and planned where he wanted camp sites which would permit Troops to camp as units. This was a brand new concept in those days. He walked through the woods guiding a big Caterpillar D-8 bulldozer to where he wanted service roads to campsites and to improve and widen a road into the camp from the county road. There was much work to be done. Construction on the new facilities commenced quickly. Once the staff lodge/boathouse was completed the old log cabin was bulldozed into oblivion as it was in danger of collapsing.

The war was winding down, and GIs were being discharged and returning home. The government had a veterans assistance program called, as I recall, the “52-20” program. Discharged servicemen were entitled to $20 per week for up to 52 weeks until they could find a steady job. Ed Rowley hired some of these ex-GIs to help prepare the camp.

Because this couldn’t really be regarded as a “steady” job, they insisted on receiving their pay in cash every Friday, so they wouldn’t loose their $20 weekly veteran’s benefit. So Ed Rowley would have to drive up from Green Bay on Friday and pay the crew. Many would go off on a binge for the weekend with the money, and Ed would have to come back up on Mondays to insure he had a crew sober enough to start work and get them going again.

He managed to get the government to give the camp some old buildings from a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp built during the great depression of the 1930s. These were dismantled by his crews and the lumber used to build tent floors and privies. He hired the first Camp Ranger, Ralph Riggio. One old CCC building, at least I think it was, was moved in and Ed laid out plans to convert it into a home for Ralph Riggio and his wife. They liked Ed’s floor plan so well that when they retired some years later they had a home built in town with the same floor plan.

Ed Rowley also arranged to get Army surplus materials from Camp McCoy over at Sparta. He had the Council buy a 1-3/4 ton stake bed truck to pick up this material, and he and I made many trips to Camp McCoy together hauling back loads of army tents, bunks, mattresses, sleeping bags, blankets, kitchen equipment, stoves, pots, pans, canteens, mess trays, first aid supplies, rope, tools, hardware, etc.; anything that might possibly be useful. Camp McCoy had trained ski Troops for winter warfare. When the war in Europe ended there was longer a need for ski Troops, so lots of winter equipment became surplus and available to Scout units. Ed hauled back loads of skis, ski boots, ski poles, parkas, ski pants, snowshoes, goggles, tents, and excellent down-filled arctic sleeping bags. Some of this was used to outfit the camp but most was given out to Council Troops to outfit their own boys. Many of the Scouts in the Council would be using surplus army sleeping bags, skis, bindings boots, poles, goggles and parkas and tents for the next few years.

There was no electricity into the Camp at first, but Ed Rowley was able to obtain large surplus army skid-mounted mobile generators and refrigerated storage units. The generators ran to provide electricity to the buildings and keep the refrigerators cold when camp was in session.

The first aid cabin was constructed in the stand of tall virgin white pines on the hill just north of the waterfront area. It provided a small examining room, a cot and sleeping quarters for a camp nurse. Ed Rowley’s wife (my Mom) was a registered nurse, and she served as the Camp Nurse and lived in this cabin the first year. You will find her name, “Signe Rowley”, as well as Dad’s “E.A. Rowley”on a canoe paddle that bears the burned-in names of the first camp staff of 1946. The first aid cabin seems to have been enlarged somewhat but still stands and is now used for other purposes.

The mess hall was originally constructed somewhat south of the current location and on the lakeside of the entrance road. It survived a move to it’s present location above the waterfront area and served well for over 50 years as has the staff lodge/boathouse building and first aid cabin, all designed and constructed under the personal supervision of “E.A”. Rowley. I understand his original ranger’s residence burned and has been replaced.

Ed Rowley also obtained thousands of fir seedlings from the U.S. Forest Service and organized weekend tree-planting parties. Scouts, Scouter’s and their families would come up to Bear Paw Camp, spend a good part of a Saturday or a holiday planting seedlings, and be rewarded with a lunch and a swim and use of a canoe for their efforts. Dad, my younger brother, Ed Junior, and I also personally planted many of those seedlings which have now become, over half a century later, The beautiful mature fir trees which grace Bear Paw Camp.

Ed also acquired the first canoes and a rowboat from the Thompson Boat Company over in Peshtigo. Thompson built the official BSA Canoe back in those days, primarily for the Region Seven Scout Landing, a canoe base on White Sand Lake west of Boulder Junction, and also for the Region Ten BSA canoe base up at Ely, Minnesota. The Region Seven canoe base had a fleet of over 100 canoes and replaced about half of them every year.

The replaced units were sold to Councils and camps all over Region Seven for a bargain price, and some of Bear Paw Camp’s canoes also came from there. These BSA canoes were 15 foot canvas-covered spruce canoes. Beautifully designed, they weighed less than 85 pounds when new, and a husky Scout could hoist one onto his shoulders and dogtrot across a portage to the next lake or river. As seasons wore on and they soaked up water plus a few patch jobs and more coats of varnish they got heavier and heavier. That’s probably why the canoe base replaced them after two summers of use.

While all the construction was going on, Ed Rowley was also trying to run Nicolet Area Council, and he was gone from dawn until late at night. My brother and I, both teenagers in those years, seldom saw Dad except on Saturdays or Sundays when he would often pack Mom and us into the family car for the 72 mile drive from our Green Bay home to Bear Paw Lake. Our family never owned a lake cabin; Bear Paw Camp was always our getaway destination. We often invited a friend or two.

While there, Dad would be inspecting progress, and working on various projects, planning and organizing work for the following weeks. Most of his energy was focused on Bear Paw Camp during his three years as Scout Executive of the Nicolet Area Council.

E. A. Rowley left the Nicolet Area Council in May of 1948, but more than any other person he truly was the founder and father of Bear Paw Camp. When he resigned from the Council, he also left Scouting. He moved from Green Bay to Eau Claire and never went back to visit Bear Paw Camp again.

I was aware of some of the frustration he faced that probably contributed to his resignation; Edward Rowley was a deeply religious man with high moral standards. He was raised as a Free Methodist, a denomination which stood firmly against drinking, dancing, card playing, gambling, or any form of immorality. Dad never touched alcohol or tobacco and I never heard him take the name of God in vain or utter a curse. “Darn” was worst profanity I ever heard him use. He was attracted to the Boy Scout movement because he felt called to work with youth and Scouting seemed to him to be a program which could inculcate boys with the values he held in highest esteem; those proclaimed in the Scout Oath and the Scout Laws.

He felt that all who served as leaders in Scouting should be role models for boys and he had no tolerance for drinking, profanity, smoking, or gambling around boys and little respect for Scouters who in engaged in it at any time.

After WWII, many Scout leaders and summer camp staff were combat veterans. Most had been exposed to smoking, drinking, gambling and carousing, and many had come to regard such behavior as acceptable. Dad simply could not. He was deeply troubled when leaders or camp staff would head into town for a night of drinking or gather for poker sessions with alcohol and smoking after meetings or taps. To him, such behavior was totally inconsistent with Scouting standards and inappropriate.

It’s also possible that Ed Rowley’s obsession with preparations and progress at Bear Paw Camp lead him to neglect other responsibilities as Council Executive or possibly he put too much pressure on Council leaders to raise more funds for the development of the camp. For whatever reasons, I always sensed that my father left the job, burned out, disappointed and disillusioned. He never wanted to discuss it.

After leaving Scouting, Ed Rowley embarked on several business ventures, none of which seemed to bring him satisfaction, and then turned again to his first profession of teaching. He returned as a classroom teacher in grades 7,8, and 9 in the Rockford, Illinois area. His administrative and management skills soon took him to a Principal’s position before he retired from teaching at 64 and moved to Seattle. There, he was soon called to serve as Principal of a private Christian High School, a position he agreed to accept for only a year or two. He was also invited to serve on the governing board of the National Association of Christian Schools. That position lead to demands for his services to assist in the establishment of new Christian schools. For a number of years he accepted positions, without pay, to help organize newly forming Christian schools. He would assist them with staffing, credentialing, and development of their instructional program, prepare their facilities and then train a new administrator as his permanent replacement; never staying longer than a year or two. Thus he helped to organize new Christian schools in a number of communities across the U.S. including Long Beach, CA, Witchita, KS, and Columbus, OH.

Ed Rowley and his wife, Signe, retired to Lakeland, Florida around 1980 and lived in that area until their deaths, several months apart in 1998. Both died in their 95th year. Even in his declining years, Ed Rowley’s life was oriented towards service to others. At the age of 80 he traded in his car for a mini-van so he could provide more comfortable transportation services for more fellow residents of his retirement community who could no longer drive themselves. He also contributed generously to Christian missionary efforts until his death.

He leaves, as a legacy, hundreds of former students who’s values and beliefs have been elevated and strengthened under his tutelage. One of his former students is Steve Douglas who in 2001 replaced Bill Bright as head of Campus Crusade’s for Christ, a world-wide Christian campus and missionary organization.

Ed Rowley also leaves a number of fine Christian schools across America, each providing learning opportunities for youth which incorporate strong emphasis on the moral values and Christian beliefs on which this nation was founded.

Ed Rowley has also left us with Bear Paw Camp, perhaps his most visible legacy; one which has provided wonderful camping and Scouting experiences for well over 100,000 Scouts and Scouters since he acquired and developed it over a half century ago. How many have here identified their first constellations, first learned to swim or dive, first paddled a canoe or sailed, first built a fire without matches, first learned the names of trees, first fashioned moccasins of leather, first learned to tie a clove hitch or splice a rope or make a lashing, first pitched a tent, first tasted bear or moose meat, first cooked over an open fire, first fired a rifle.

And not only have the efforts of E.A. Rowley here at Bear Paw Camp enriched our lives and memories, they have also pleased our eyes and senses. For this place is today even more beautiful than when he first found it, largely as a result of his vision and industry.

Allyn E. Rowley