Pictured about 1954, Scout Cubs Peter Connolly, John Roscoe, Burpee Rogers, Gary Bishop and Wayne Shankle were among many local boys who benefited from visits to the Scout camp at Sunken Lake. Submitted 

Local Scout leaders are asking for help to spruce up Sunken Lake camp near Wolfville. The site has been used by the Scouting movement since 1920.

Brad Hopgood, a former Scout leader who keeps an eye on the site on a regular basis, says the camp is in pretty good shape overall, but needs a basic overhaul, including cleaning up the grounds and lakeshore, constructing new bathroom facilities and making repairs to two log buildings with historic and nostalgic value.

“All the cabins need to be painted, we need some roadwork done and the beach out front is full of rocks (in need of removal),” says Hopgood. The plan isn’t to erase the rusticity, but rather to ensure the camp isn’t allowed to fall into irreversible ruin and to ensure it continues as an enticement for youth and adults alike, especially now that, after years of ups and downs, interest in Scouting locally appears to be on an upswing.

Hopgood says he spearheaded efforts to refurbish the camp at least a decade ago.

“I put a lot of time into it. We rebuilt and re-roofed everything, and jacked up cabins. I was bound and determined and we got it going good, but the thing is to keep it going. Nothing more has been done (since then).”

His determination stems from fond memories of the times he spent there as a boy.

Some years ago, Hopgood visited the camp with lifelong friend and fellow Scout Peter Mowat.

“We were aghast at the shape it was in. It was rough…we took it upon ourselves to get things going again. We raised a lot of money and got a lot of materials donated (and) got it back up to where it was rentable.” The site is used not only by local Scouts, but rented to other Scouting troops to help generate funds.

“It’s a beautiful woodsy spot, rustic in nature, but so close to Wolfville and the hospital. It has a thousand feet of beautiful waterfront,” he says.

In its heyday, Sunken Lake gave Scouts and Cubs in the region a place to experience the great outdoors.

“It was an ideal site,” says former Scout and Scout leader Glen Hancock of Wolfville. A noted journalist and author, Hancock has recorded the history of the Boy Scout movement in Wolfville, in which he writes:

“The year 1919 was an interesting one in Wolfville for Scouting. The war was over…(and) in 1920 the first camp was held at Sunken Lake, where a lot of land had been obtained through the kindness of Dr. G. B. Cutten of Acadia and Dr. M. G. Smith, an interested patron of Lynn, Mass.”

The following year, notes Hancock, “through the generosity of the Scout Association, considerable equipment was added to the camp and permanent quarters were built, including an outdoor kitchen. A number of cabins were build for the younger Scouts and Cubs and eventually, with the addition of several canoes and boats, Sunken Lake became one of the best camp sites in the Maritimes, if not in the Dominion.”

Was in its glory

In those days, Scouting was in its glory, thanks in large part to E. Percy Brown, pioneer Scoutmaster who established the first Scout troop in Wolfville, one of the first in Canada.

At a testimonial dinner in 1958, dignitaries from near and far gathered to pay tribute to Brown. At the time, a report in The Advertiser noted Brown had been awarded a Membership in the Order of the British Empire by King George V in 1935 and was the holder of the ‘Silver Wolf’, the world’s highest award in Scouting.

“He was our role model,” Hancock recalls. “We carried his teachings to the war and it served us well. A number of the veterans who came back became reinvolved in the Boy Scout movement here in Wolfville as leaders.”

The idea that Boy Scout training helped save the lives of soldiers overseas is genuine, says Hancock. Moral guidelines such as getting the job done, loyalty to others and doing one’s best paired with practical survival skills were put to good use on and off battlefields.

Original essence continues today

Hopgood says the original essence of Scouting -- back to the woods and back to basics -- continues today.

“We’re teaching kids to be able to survive out there to some degree,” and there’s something about the setting that brings out the best in some youth. “Kids that won’t do dishes or cook at home enjoy it at the Scout camp,” where camaraderie and teamwork reigns.

“We all think it’s a good idea to have a camp in this area,” says Scout leader Ian Macdonald, treasurer of the Wolfville and Area Boy Scout Association, which overseas the operation of the Sunken Lake camp. “Our purpose is to keep something that has been here for a long time and bring that back so the youth have it to use and enjoy, (but) we need volunteers desperately. We need some money, donations, grants to make this place viable.”

Cub Scout leader and Acadia University professor Hugh Chipman, who went to the camp as a kid, says a funding proposal will be submitted to Kings County Council.

Chipman believes the upgrade project could last awhile. “There’s enough work for several years. Certain immediate things need to be done this year; things we need to open the camp.”

Chipman says interest in Scouting is growing and refurbishing the camp may help move things along.

“Enrolment in groups has dropped off. The Wolfville Scout troop was dormant for about five years, but it’s going again.”

Now in his eighties, Hancock says Sunken Lake was the scene of regular Scout camps for 30 years and should be preserved.

“Sunken Lake was an ideal site,” he wrote in his history. “Every Scout remembers with longing those wonderful campfires, complete with stories and a golden moon on the dark lake. The call for cocoa and cookies came all too soon, after which the Scouts went quietly to their soft fir bough bunks. Then, with the coming of morning, the Scouts were off on hikes to places like Methal’s, Little River and Black River Lake.”

Note: Anyone interested in donating time, materials or money toward the Sunken Lake Scout camp renewal project should phone Hugh Chipman at 542-7424. For more info on the camp, visit wolfville.scouts.googlepages.com

These cubs are pictures at the old cookhouse, sometime in the 1950's.  The lodge that replaced it needs fixing up.  Submitted.


Formerly known as the E. P. Brown Lodge, the camp’s main building, where the kitchen and dining and activity areas are located, is in need of various repairs.  Submitted