A recently closed Boy Scout camp in Waukesha County has been sold to the Forest County Potawatomi Community for $6.5 million.

That's according to state real estate records posted online Friday. The tribe doesn't yet have specific plans for the site, which includes a Native American mound.

The 292.5-acre wooded property, at 37516 Forest Drive, Summit, is the former Indian Mound Scout Reservation. It is just north of Interstate 94 and is on Silver Lake's southern shore.

Indian Mound, founded in 1917, was operated by the Milwaukee-based Three Harbors Council of Boy Scouts of America. It includes cabins, camp sites, picnic shelter, fire bowl and a 250-seat dining hall, according to the council's web site.

The camp closed after last year's season, with a gathering there in August to "honor the camp that has meant so much to thousands of Scouts and Scouters throughout its long history," the web site said.

The council still operates Camp Oh-Da-Ko-Ta, near Burlington.

The difficult decision to close Indian Mound was driven by a need to cut costs.

Three Harbors Council paid $3,685,000 to the BSA Settlement Trust for survivors of abuse in Scouting, according to the website. That trust was formed through BSA's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

With that payment looming, the council reviewed its two camps.

"In addition to the financial considerations of our contribution to the BSA Settlement Trust for survivors of abuse, the board’s committee reviewed multiple factors including camp usage, programs, facilities, and current and future Scouting membership trends," the council web site said.

"The decision to sell the camp was a necessary and important step as we support survivors of abuse in Scouting and continue our important mission," said Andrew Hardin, Three Harbors Council executive director, in a statement.

Three other Scout camps in Wisconsin, owned by other local councils in Wisconsin and Illinois, have been sold to support payments to the BSA Settlement Trust.  Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula still have 13 Scout camps.

Indian Mound is named after the Native American mound near the dining hall.

“While our reservation today is in Forest County, the Potawatomi continue to have a strong connection to our treaty homelands in southeast Wisconsin. Places like Waukesha, Oconomowoc, and Muskego are all named after Potawatomi words, and all places our tribe considers home,” said Forest County Potawatomi Chairman James Crawford, in a statement.

“We are excited about the opportunity to acquire this property and enhance our presence on our treaty homelands," he said.

The camp also carries a lot of memories for people like Doug Reed, who helped organize last August's gathering. Reed, of Milwaukee, first went camping at Indian Mound at the age of 7.

"It gave us an opportunity to experience scouting, experience the outdoors," Reed said. "It's difficult to say goodbye to places like these."

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. 

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Potawatomi Community buys former Waukesha County Boy Scout camp