Massawepie Lake
Massawepie is a lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, U.S., and a Boy Scout camp surrounding the lake. Lake Massawepie is located in southern St. Lawrence County, New York, approximately 12 miles southwest of the village of Tupper Lake, New York. The lake is approximately 750 acres (303 hectares), at an elevation of approximately 1700 feet (520m) above sea level, and flows south into one of the tributaries of the Grasse River. One of most notable geographic features is the Massawepie Bog or Massawepie Mire located immediately to the south of the lake. Hundreds of acres in size, the bog is one of the largest of its kind in the eastern United States.
In 1890, the Childwold Park House, commonly known as the Childwold Hotel, open on the shore of Massawepie Lake, just east of the main flagpole of the current camp. In the days before air-conditioning, upperclass residents of New York City would retreat to the Adirondacks to escape the summer heat. Visitors to Childwold Park would take the New York Central Railroad north from Utica and get off at Childwold Station. From there they would take a 7 mile trip along the Carriage Road to the hotel. The hotel closed in 1909.
Massawepie Scout Camp is a Boy Scout reservation, owned by Otetiana Council, Inc., the Boy Scout Council for Rochester and Monroe County, New York. Otetiana Council purchased the Massawepie property in 1951, and opened the first summer camp in 1952. The area is divided into 4 camps - Mountaineer, Pioneer, Forester, and Voyager - although only Pioneer is in use, currently. The size of the entire reservation, as of 2006, is approximately 5000 acres (2000 hectares). The reservation includes all of Massawepie Lake, and eight other freshwater ponds as well. The camp is one of the largest Boy Scout reservations in the Northeast United States, and attracts visiting Boy Scout troops from throughout the region.
