Do you have 1920s photos of Camp Manatoc?
What’s in your attic? What’s in your closet?
The Great Trail Council of Boy Scouts of America is searching for early photographs of Camp Manatoc as it prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the camp next year.
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Akron industrialist H. Karl Butler donated his Peninsula farm to establish the camp in 1923. David Atwater suggested the name after discovering the word “Manatoc” in a book on American Indian lore. Its meaning, “high plateau,” referred to a location in the original camp off present-day Route 303.
Camp Manatoc welcomed its inaugural group of 55 Boy Scouts in June 1923, beginning a summer tradition that has continued for nearly 100 years. In September 2023, the Great Trail Council plans to commemorate “A Century of Manatoc” with a special “Camp-O-Ree,” or in this case, a “Cent-O-Ree.”
The council would like the public’s help in finding pictures and memorabilia from the camp’s earliest years.
“We are looking for vintage photographs of Manatoc in the 1920s,” explained David Weyrick, Great Trail Council vice president and chairman of the century celebration.
Perhaps the pictures have been preserved in a scrapbook or album. Maybe they are tucked away in an attic or a drawer. Maybe they are hiding in a box of childhood belongings from a grandfather or great-grandfather.
“Families may have no idea what to do with them,” Weyrick said. “Well, we would love to have them donated to our Manatoc museum or borrow and scan them to add to our research and documents.”
The council plans to create a coffee-table book for the 100th anniversary and would like to include never-before-seen photos of Camp Manatoc, but those 1920s images are important for another reason.
They can be studied for clues.
The Cent-O-Ree will include a reenactment of camp life in 1923. Scouts and leaders will give up their 21st century luxuries to camp as scouts did a century ago. The more that can be discovered from photographs, the more accurate the reenactment will be, Weyrick said.
“This is going to be a fantastic opportunity for our 2023 scouts to experience how their scouting ancestors camped back in the days when semaphore and Morse code were vital to communication,” Weyrick said. “This was the time of silent movies, black-and-white photographs, and the nation had just experienced a pandemic, which would have been a part of the scouts’ lives in 1923 as much as a part of our scouts’ lives today.”
The earliest images of the camp are the hardest to find. Just about everyone has a portable camera today, but photography was a cumbersome process in the 1920s.
Furthermore, the original camp wasn’t around all that long. When Butler died in 1926, he bequeathed 420 acres to the Akron Area Council of Boy Scouts of America.
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Goodyear, Goodrich and Firestone jointly pledged $100,000 if the scouts could secure another $125,000 to build a Class A camp with more than 30 buildings. Scouts collected more than $129,000 — about $2.2 million today — despite the Great Depression.
The council broke ground on a new camp in September 1931 with a giant stockade and totem poles at the main entrance off Truxell Road. Formally dedicated in June 1932, the new Manatoc welcomed scouts to a summer paradise of camping, swimming, hiking, canoeing, fishing, archery, handicrafts and horseback riding.
So check your attic. Check your closet.
If you have any 1920s photos or memorabilia from Camp Manatoc that you would like to donate or lend for scanning, contact David Weyrick at Manatoc100@gmail.com.
This will be the party of the “Cent-O-Ree.”
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Do you have 1920s photos of Camp Manatoc?
