Abreu Camp - History

History

Jesus Gil Abreu and his wife Petra, a daughter of Carlos Beaubien, established the Abreu settlement shortly after Lucien Maxwell's departure from the area in 1857; in addition to a successful ranch, the family operated a store and cantina at which travelers on their way to Santa Fe could stop for refreshment and materials.

Beaubien died in 1864, leaving the Abreus one-twelfth of the Beaubien-Miranda land grant, which in 1867 they sold to Maxwell for $3500. Jesus died in 1900 and was buried in the Abreu Cemetery, which is located near the Kit Carson Museum at Rayado; the Abreu family still has burial rights to the plot, though they sold the remainder of their ranch in 1911.

Gertrude and Ramon Abreu built a house in the same year on the site that is currently Abreu. The house no longer remains, but its foundations serve as the base of the cantina. Their neighbors were the Zastrow family, after which a camp and a turnaround are named, and the Websters. They lived at the site with their four children until 1921, when Waite Phillips bought the property. The relatives that are portrayed by staffers did formerly visit the house on occasion after its acquisition by the BSA.

Waite Phillips largely abandoned the house, but built what is now called Old Abreu Camp to serve as a logging and sheep-raising center. Under BSA ownership, this became a staffed base in the 1960s, until it burned down twice and flooded three times, the last time being a part of the extensive 1965 floods. Program was shifted back to the old homestead site, known counterintuitively as "New Abreu" and later simply as "Abreu", where it was initially a camp for western lore and horse rides, and later for burro packing, hunter safety, and fishing; in its early days it also served as a commissary. One early program which is still active as of 2007 is the Mexican dinner, though it was moved to Harlan from 1975 to 1990. The cantina program began in 1978 in the old cabin. That same year, with the advent of the adobe program, scouts began construction the current cantina itself as part of the program. It shifted to its present interpretive format in 1989. The new cabin, meant to be an example of a typical house of the period, was built as a conservation project by the cabin restoration crew during the summer and fall of 1998.