New York’s best weekend getaway has trains, wilderness, and a wild Boy Scout takeover story

When NYC Boy Scouts Transformed Rural Narrowsburg

Every summer from the 1930s to 1950s, trains packed with Boy Scouts rolled into tiny Narrowsburg, NY.

The Erie Railroad tracks, laid in 1848, brought thousands of city kids from all five NYC boroughs to escape the heat.

Franklin Roosevelt’s Boy Scout Foundation had set up the Ten Mile River Camps on 12,000 acres nearby in 1927. Soon, these young campers filled local shops, hotels, and eateries along Main Street.

The town grew so busy that Ten Mile River got its own post office. By 1965, nearly 12,000 boys came each year.

The Narrowsburg station still stands today, a gateway to one of America’s most unique stories of urban youth in the rural wilderness.

FDR Secretly Bought 12,000 Acres For NYC Boy Scouts

In 1922, Franklin D. Roosevelt led the Boy Scout Foundation of Greater New York with a big goal: finding a permanent camp for city Scouts.

By 1927, Roosevelt got crafty. He hired a Yonkers real estate company to buy land without telling sellers it was for Scouts, keeping prices fair.

The Foundation raised $1 million for the project.

That August, the Monticello Republican Watchman broke the news about the huge 12,000-acre purchase. Ten Mile River Scout Camps opened that summer, taking over from the closed Kanawahke Lakes camps.

Steam Engines Transformed Sleepy Narrowsburg Back In 1848

Workers started building the Erie Railroad in 1835, turning the first dirt in Deposit, New York. By 1848, tracks reached Port Jervis and pushed north through the Delaware River valley toward Binghamton.

The first train rolled into Narrowsburg on December 8, 1848, linking this small town to the outside world. Workers built a proper passenger station in 1850 for growing traffic.

The railroad brought new businesses to town, including restaurants and hotels. Narrowsburg changed from an isolated village to a busy transportation hub almost overnight.

Fire Destroyed The Original Train Station During World War I

In 1917, fire burned Narrowsburg’s original passenger station to the ground.

The Erie Railroad needed a quick fix to keep trains running, so company workers turned the existing freight house into a makeshift passenger station.

The rebuilt station handled both freight and passengers with changed facilities. Despite the fire, train service kept running without stopping.

This converted station welcomed thousands of Boy Scouts heading to summer camp.

Thousands Of City Kids Poured Off Trains Each Summer

Summer 1927 marked a new chapter for Narrowsburg when the first Scout trains arrived. Every June through August, thousands of boys from all five New York City boroughs stepped off Erie Railroad cars.

These city kids traded hot sidewalks for cool mountain air and outdoor fun. The yearly Scout flood brought money into local shops, restaurants, and hotels.

Narrowsburg became the gateway to what grew into the world’s largest Scout camp.

The Arlington Hotel Became Scout Central

The Arlington Hotel on Main Street turned into Scout headquarters each summer. The old building filled with Scout leaders, camp staff, and early-arriving troops.

Local restaurants fed boys who had never seen a small town before. Narrowsburg shops stocked camping gear, postcards, and treats for homesick Scouts.

Town folks got used to seeing boys in uniform walking their streets. The summer crowd stretched local businesses to their limits but brought welcome money to town shops.

A Humble Barn Became The Hub Of Scout Operations

Workers fixed up the Arlington Barn in 1926, just in time for the Scout crowds. This simple building worked as both the U.S. Post Office and supply center for camp operations.

Workers stored tents, cooking gear, and piles of mail inside. The barn became the control center for moving supplies to camps and working with Scout troops.

Local hardware stores, grocers, and shops changed what they sold to supply the massive Scout operation that took over their town each summer.

Mail Bags Bulged With Letters From Homesick Scouts

Scout mail quickly grew into a big job in Narrowsburg. Thousands of boys wrote home daily about swimming, hiking, and campfires.

The Narrowsburg and Tusten post offices handled all this mail at first. By the mid-1930s, the stack grew too large for the small-town offices.

Letters, postcards, and care packages created lines at the postal counter.

The flood of mail from homesick boys and worried parents needed new solutions as the camps grew larger each year.

Uncle Sam Set Up A Post Office Just For Boy Scouts

Around 1934-1935, the U.S. Postal Service fixed the mail problem by opening a summer post office right at Ten Mile River camps.

They picked a special postmaster just to handle Scout mail.

Workers used a hand-stamped “four-bar cancel” postmark on letters from 1934 until 1941. The post office switched to a rotary machine stamp in 1942 to process mail faster.

This direct mail service took pressure off Narrowsburg and gave the camps their own official address.

Eleanor Roosevelt Handed A Neckerchief To The 250,000th Scout

By 1952, Ten Mile River had welcomed over a quarter million Boy Scouts from New York City. Eleanor Roosevelt visited that June to celebrate the camp’s Silver Jubilee.

She gave a special 25th anniversary neckerchief to Mark Sobell from Manhattan Troop 702, honored as the 250,000th Scout to attend.

Her visit put national attention on the railroad-camp link that brought city boys to the country. The celebration marked twenty-five years of successful urban-rural exchange.

Eleven Separate Camps Housed 12,000 Scouts At Its Peak

Ten Mile River grew to its largest size in 1965 with eleven different camps running at once. Nearly 12,000 boys came each year, making it America’s biggest council-owned Scout property.

The land held fourteen separate facilities across the massive 12,000-acre property. New York City Scout districts kept neighborhood boys in the same camps.

The railroad stayed crucial for moving these huge groups of Scouts between city and wilderness throughout the peak years.

Camp Settings Evolved As Cars & Buses Replaced Transport

The Ten Mile River Post Office got downgraded to a rural sub-station around 1957 as times changed. Fewer Scouts arrived by train each year as cars and buses took over.

The 1950s car culture changed how families traveled, and Scout troops followed the trend. The golden age of railway travel to camp faded away as highways improved.

Though the romance of steam engines and station platforms disappeared, the camps stayed busy with new generations of Scouts who never knew the thrill of that train ride through the Delaware River valley.

Visiting Narrowsburg, NY

The Ten Mile River Scout Museum at 1481 Crystal Lake Road tells the story of those NYC Boy Scouts who rode Erie Railroad trains to summer camps here from the 1930s-1950s.

You can visit free from July through August, Tuesday to Sunday by appointment. The museum has FDR documents about the camp’s founding and offers a Historical Trails Award program for hiking groups.

Their store sells TMR patches and Scout memorabilia.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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