Camp Onway - History

History

The name Onway comes from the latter part of the name of the great Bashaba (ruling chief) who led the nation of many tribes of Native Americans that ruled this area - Passaconaway.

Camp Onway consisted of nine campsites: Abnaki, Algonquin (Provo), Jacunda, New Magee, Old Magee, Pedhela, and Travers. The other two campsites, Gillwell Fields and Nawachapo, were being utilized by Scoutcraft and the Woodsman program. The "hill" consisted of six cabins which housed the junior staff and the "Hill Patrol". The senior staff were housed within four cabins: the Screenhouse, the Lawrence Cabin, the Andovers Cabin, and the Methuen Cabin. The Director and Program Director were located in Cabin 13, also known as the Director's cabin.

This land has been used as a camping place since 1900. The first camp was a county YMCA camp for boys. The YMCA used the Pine Grove, located at approximately the center of the waterfront property. For a period of five to ten years the YMCA shared this land for one month with the Girls Work Community Council of Exeter. They operated together until 1924, at which time the county YMCA purchased a camp site in Kingston. The Girls Work Community Council operated the land until 1929.

In 1929, the North Essex Council (itself barely a year old) consisting of Lawrence, Methuen, Andover, and North Andover purchased the land for $4,400. A mortgage of $2,700 was held by Mr. Burchard E. Horne who, through his contribution, liquidated the entire amount. The mortgage was burned at the tenth anniversary of Camp Onway, July 21, 1940. The dining hall was named for Mr. Horne in recognition of his interest in Scouting.

When camp opened in 1930, there were two troop campsites. The first was Abnacki, which came from the Native American Abenaki tribe who were ruled by Passaconaway. The second was Pedhela, the name taken from the two presidents of North Essex Council, Mr. William Peddler, and Mr. James Hennessey, and from the chairman of the Camping Committee, Mr. Stanley Lane: PEDdler + HEnnessy + LAne = PEDHELA.

In 1930, the St. James cabin was built and is the oldest standing building in camp today. As the camp grew, so did the facilities. Between 1940 and 1945, the cabin just up hill from the dining hall (cabin 7) and the George Wilson Lodge (prior to 1998 this was the Health Lodge) were built. A new road was added to make travel in and out of camp easier. In 1964, the Camp Ranger's house burned down and was rebuilt along with a new maintenance building. In the years to follow, more additions were made such as the shower facilities, rifle and archery ranges, the Catholic chapel, and the Charrette Activity Center and Takesian Memorials. The kitchen was rebuilt and the dining hall was modernized in 1971 after fire struck again. Other additions include the staff cabins, the expansion of the waterfront area, an increase in the conservation practices including multi-land use and a Wood Badge/Leadership Development area.

In 1989, Onway's 60th anniversary, Camp Onway and North Essex Council welcomed the North Bay Council in the first year of a shared camping venture between the two councils. In the following years improvements were made to the campsite latrines, the conversion of the Trail Center to become the new Commissary/Trading Post and the renovations to the central shower house and Magee Lodge. In 1992, thanks to a gift of $20,000 from the George W. Magee Trust Fund, a new floating swimming dock system was added to the waterfront.

On January 1, 1993, North Essex Council, North Bay Council, and Lone Tree Council merged to form the new Yankee Clipper Council. A joint camp utilization committee made a decision to concentrate all the council's summer Boy Scout program at Camp Onway and move all Cub and Webelos programs to Lone Tree Scout Reservation.

The Friends of Onway contributed $70,000 to expand and renovate the dining hall to a first class facility in 1994. Additional improvements made included construction of a parking lot, a redesigned rifle range and renovations to the newly dedicated Rheaume Nature Lodge. A new latrine was added to the waterfront, and another was built in 1996 at the rifle range. 1997 saw the construction of a new storage shed for the Archery Range as well as a weather shelter. In 1998 a new health lodge was constructed and later named the Robert Mundry Health Lodge at the June 2000 council annual meeting. Also in 1998 the waterfront lookout tower was rebuilt, and a new walk-in freezer was added to the kitchen.

The summer of 2007 marked the last at Camp Onway before being sold to the LDS Church.