Scouts of all ages should know about Camp Miakonda

Once a Boy Scout, always a Boy Scout. One of the “wonders of the Scouting world” can be found in Toledo, Ohio, at Camp Miakonda. It’s the oldest Scout camp in Ohio and the fifth oldest in the country. 

Camp Miakonda opened in 1917 and is still serving youths (both boys and girls now). The camp occupies 160 acres of pristine land along the banks of Ten Mile Creek, a tributary of the Ottawa River, which flows into Lake Erie.

 

For the full flavor of Camp Miakonda, access on YouTube a 30-minute film produced in 1945, entitled “Your Boys Today...Your Citizens Tomorrow.” The narrator is comedian and film actor Joe E. Brown (known for his enormous elastic-mouth smile), who grew up in Toledo.

 

The two museum buildings at Camp Miakonda display more than 6,000 Scout memorabilia items dating back to 1910, when the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was formed. The museums are nationally renowned. 

Curator David L. Eby says: “Miakonda is a Native-American word that means ‘land of the crescent moon.’” The “C” in the Camp Miakonda logo has a crescent moon shape. 

The camp is owned and managed by the Erie Shores Council of BSA, which is headquartered in Toledo and serves Scouts of all ages in five northwestern Ohio counties. 

The camp is the centerpiece of the DeVilbiss Scout Reservation, named after Thomas DeVilbiss, an industrialist and philanthropist, who was the president of a major manufacturing complex in Toledo. 

“Camp Miakonda evokes so many memories,” Eby said. “For starters, the swimming pool was the world’s longest when it was built in the 1920s – 480 feet long, containing 1.3 million gallons of purified spring water. 

“The Council Lodge is an octagonal, five-story tall log building that was designed to have open campfires inside it,” Eby said.

 

“There were eight treehouse campsites along the creek where 32 Scouts could sleep 32 feet off the ground in the tree tops each night. Rustic staircases wrapped around the tree trunks,” Eby said.

 

“There was a full-size teepee village where Native Americans taught Indian lore. Scouts enjoyed sleeping in the teepees during their week of summer camp,” he noted. 

“The Lookout” is a giant flagpole that was once the main mast on a Great Lakes freighter that was donated by the Pittsburgh Steamship Company, a subsidiary of US Steel Corporation. Scout buglers climbed to its crow’s nest to play signals five times a day, Eby said.

 

The official mascot of Camp Miakonda was “Jake the Goose.” The critter arrived one day in the early 1950s, and “never left,” Eby said. “He became the camp ranger’s pet and was with him constantly.” 

“During summer camp, patrols of Scouts would line up to hike around camp, and the goose would get in line, too, and walk along with them. Jake also learned that if he hung around the trading post when he was hungry, kids would come out with popcorn, chips, candy and other treats.” 

“Furthermore, Jake learned that if he chased the kids and flapped his wings, some kids would drop their food and run. Jake scooped up and promptly ate what they dropped.” 

Jake died in December 1956. As part of Camp Miakonda’s 90th anniversary celebration in 2007, a 5-foot tall, 3/4 ton gravestone was placed on the spot where the goose was buried.

 

“The marker is billed as the world’s largest goose tombstone…but it is likely the world’s only goose tombstone,” Eby said laughingly. 

Scouts at Miakonda also flock to the Jacob T. Goose Memorial Campsite.