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Camp memories
"Sargent spirit" lives on at Sargent Center for Outdoor Education

By Hope Green

In 1911, Dudley Allen Sargent, who had founded Sargent College, bought a farm beside a lake in Hancock, N.H., and ran it as a summer camp until his death in 1924. Five years later his son completed the transaction that made the college part of Boston University. But the camp, which was acquired by the University in 1932, had already become a big part of the Sargent College experience.

I get a kick out of Sargent Camp! The Sargent spirit was fostered for decades during summer sessions at Sargent Camp. Photo from the 1941 Hub

In 1912, the first Sargent students slept in tents and washed in the lake. Later, Sargent added a main lodge and a circle of cabins around an open field. The camp, with its special songs, dances, and military-style marching, fostered an atmosphere of enthusiasm and camaraderie that the girls called the "Sargent spirit."

Canoeing, swimming, archery, field hockey, lacrosse, horseback riding, and tennis were available. In July and August, summer session students, at the camp for academic courses in education, used the facilities for recreation; the camp was also the site of a private children's camp during those months. In June and September, the camp operated as an integral part of the Sargent College curriculum; instruction included learning to teach as well as mastering aquatic activities and land sports. The September sessions sometimes became a test of endurance, as there was no heat in the cabins and campers were required to take a "constitutional" swim every morning.
Dean Emeritus George Makechnie (SED'29,'31, Hon.'79) became dean of Sargent and director of the camp in 1945. The final session of the girls summer camp program started by Sargent was in 1946.

At that time, Makechnie says, he "proposed a development plan so that Sargent and other University students could have year-round educational and recreational experiences. When President Daniel L. Marsh accepted my proposal, we began the four-year process of winterization and started summer sessions as part of the University's formal summer program." A year-round program, introduced in 1947, featured a five-day outdoor educational experience for fifth graders and their teachers and weekend programs for individuals and families that included ice skating, skiing, and tracking.

The Sargent College program ended in 1964, when the college's curricula required experience in hospitals and other health clinics. Today the Division of Extended Education operates the camp.

The 850 acres of what is now known as the Sargent Center for Outdoor Education, located in the Monadnock region of southern New Hampshire -- a two-hour car trip from Boston -- today offers 25 miles of trails through hilly woods, tumbling streams, meadows, and Halfmoon Pond.

Now every year thousands of people, young and old, come to the Sargent Center. In its commitment to responsible stewardship, it has continued to develop extensive programs in environmental education. Whether they are schoolchildren, college students, members of a church or civic organization, senior citizens, or members of the University community, those who come have the chance to share a rare ecological epiphany in the shadow of Mount Monadnock.

January 15 is the registration deadline for Winterfest Weekend at Sargent Center for Outdoor Education, January 25 to 27. For more information, visit www.bu.edu/outdoor; to register, call 603-525-3311.

11 January 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations