Delaware County NY Genealogy and History Site
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--Allan L. Davidson, July 5, 2000
NOTES: My name is Mark Rauscher, from Binghamton, NY in Broome County. .... It is the swimming area of the Lake Delaware Boys Camp. .... I spent several summers there as a camper and returned as a counselor. I graduated from the camp in 1979. When I was there the area directly behind the spill-way is overgrown with trees, but I would recognize that stream and spill-way anywhere. Also the camp is still in existence and houses over 100 boys every summer.
Mark Rauscher - Feb 2 2004
You bet that's Lake Delaware Boys' Camp! But that's NOT Lake Delaware! A creek whose name I've forgotten was dammed to create the pool. In 1955, that summer's hurricane caused the water to flow over the top of the dam for the first time in memory. Health-wise, the pool left something to be desired, as multiple boys peeing and whatever in the pool did not ensure sanitary conditions. More recently the pool has been "closed down" (read "declared unacceptable?") and the boys in season swim elsewhere (I think, in the actual Lake Delaware, headwaters of the Delaware River). Yes, those fields in the background have significantly overgrown, but in the 50s, to the extreme left of the photo, the so-called East Fields were resplendent with blackberries, more than enough to make an over-eager picker sick! This photo must date to the 30s, but in the 50s a crude perforated pipe was set above a chest-high trough so that twice daily the campers, all lined up, could brush their teeth. That wastewater went downstream, not into the pool! Downstream, out of sight and now encircled by trees, was the Rifle Range, so all that territory was "out-of-bounds" for obvious reasons!
Alan Hogenauer - May 16, 2004 |
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