| Minsi Trails Council #502 | |
| Type: | council |
| Owner: | Boy Scouts of America |
| Headquarters: | Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| F-Date: | 1969 |
| Chiefscouttitle: | President |
| Chiefscout: | Lew DryfoosMarch 2024. |
| Chiefscouttitle2: | Commissioner |
| Chiefscout2: | Tamie Swain |
| Chiefscouttitle3: | Scout Executive |
| Chiefscout3: | Kevin McClelland |
Minsi Trails Council is a council of the Boy Scouts of America that serves Scouts in the Lehigh Valley and the Pocono Mountains regions of eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey. In Pennsylvania, the council serves five counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe, Carbon, and Luzerne. In New Jersey, it serves Warren County.
Minsi Trails Council serves nearly 10,000 youth through the leadership of 5,000 adult volunteers.[1]
The council was formed in 1969, after the merger of the Bethlehem Area Council, Delaware Valley Area Council, and Lehigh Council. The council consists of six districts and maintains two camping properties: Camp Minsi in Pocono Summit, Pennsylvania, and Trexler Scout Reservation in Jonas, Pennsylvania. Combined, these camps serve more than 4,000 campers annually.
The Minsi Trails Council maintains a central headquarters and service center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The service center includes offices, conference rooms, and a council Scout shop. A copy of the R. Tait McKenzie sculpture The Ideal Scout stands outside the center.
The council is divided into five districts divided by county and school district boundaries based on geographic location and size.
Minsi Trails Council owns and operates Camp Minsi, a Scouts BSA camp, over 1,200 acres (5 km2) in Pocono Summit, Pennsylvania.
| Camp Minsi | |
| Type: | campsite |
| Location: | Pocono Summit, Pennsylvania |
| Country: | United States |
| Coords: | 41.1219°N -75.4239°W |
| F-Date: | 1949 |
| Chiefscouttitle: | Camp Director |
| Chiefscout: | James "Foot" Feuerstein |
| Chiefscouttitle2: | Program Director |
| Chiefscout2: | Kasey Pohl (Cub Program) & Matt Gillespie (Scouts BSA Program) |
| Chiefscouttitle3: | Ranger |
| Chiefscout3: | John Buz |
| Portal: | no |
Camp Minsi is on the shores of the 3140NaN0 Stillwater Lake in Pocono Summit, Pennsylvania. The camp was donated to the Boy Scouts in 1949 by Samuel Rubel of the Pocono Mountain Ice Company.[2] The camp was formerly owned by Bethlehem Area Council prior to the establishment of Minsi Trails Council in 1969.
Camp Minsi encompasses 1200acres of relatively flat Pocono woodlands, and holds over 20miles of hiking trails and varied wildlife.[3]
A central feature of the camp is Stillwater Lake.[4] The lake provides opportunities for swimming, small-boat sailing, canoeing, rowing, kayaking, fishing, standup paddleboarding, boardsailing, blobbing and other aquatic activities. Camp Minsi's first-year camper program is known as the Trail to Adventure (TTA). The camp's ScoutCraft area teaches outdoor skills - while the unique Minsi Village and Voyageur Outpost areas provide hands-on living history with focuses on primitive outdoor skills, blacksmithing, woodsmithing, lumberjacking, Native American culture, archaeology, pioneering, branding, games, crafts, and cooking. The camp's Handicraft area allows Scouts to experience the crafts of woodcarving, leather crafting, basketry, pottery, art, textiles and model building. The camp's Ecology-Conservation area offers environmental programs and nature studies. The Shooting Sports area allows Scouts to shoot rifles, shotguns, and bows and arrows. Other program areas include programs focused on citizenship and communications, health and safety, trade skills, sports and athletics, and adult leadership training.
In addition to its traditional Scouts BSA program areas, Camp Minsi offers high adventure programs for Venturers and older Scouts. High adventure offerings include whitewater rafting, mountain biking, horseback riding, treetop adventures and zip-lining, and other activities both on, and off, site.[5]
Camp Minsi has over 20 buildings, 11 established troop sites, 10 primitive outpost sites, four freshwater springs, miles of trails and several historical and natural points of interest.
The camp has been named "Best Campground", "Best Non-Profit", "Best Fishing Trip", "Best River Rafting / River Trip", and "Best Kayaks" in the Poconos by the readers of the Pocono Record in the newspaper's 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017 "Reader's Choice" contests.[6] [7] [8] The camp was featured in Scouting and Men's Health magazines in 2015.[9] [10]
Summer camp program areas
| Campsites
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Until 2023, Minsi Trails Council owned and maintained the Trexler Scout Reservation, which opened in the late 1920s. Akelaland (Cub Scout) camp and Settlers Camp (Scouts BSA camp) shared this 900+acre (3.6 km2) Scout Reservation in Jonas, Pennsylvania.
In 2022, the council announced it would sell the property in order to raise needed funds.[17] On May 25, 2023 it was announced that the Trexler Veterans Initiative would be purchasing the property.
| Type: | campsite |
| Trexler Scout Reservation | |
| Location: | Jonas, Pennsylvania |
| Country: | United States |
| Coords: | 40.9581°N -75.4916°W |
| F-Date: | 1927 |
| Founder: | Harry Clay Trexler |
| Chiefscouttitle: | Akelaland Camp Director |
| Chiefscout: | Cheryl Feuerstein |
| Chiefscouttitle2: | Akelaland Program Director |
| Chiefscout2: | Kasey Pohl |
| Chiefscouttitle3: | Settlers Camp Director |
| Chiefscout3: | Greg Piopi |
| Chiefscouttitle4: | Settlers Camp Program Director |
| Chiefscout4: | Matt Gillespie |
| Chiefscouttitle5: | Settlers Asst Camp Directors |
| Chiefscout5: | Jason Capone & Mike Williams |
| Portal: | no |
| Website: | |
The former Trexler Scout Reservation was located on 900 acres of land in Jonas, Pennsylvania. This tract of land was parceled together and donated by noted WW1 General and Lehigh Valley philanthropist Harry C. Trexler with Scouts first enjoying the property in 1926, and in 1928 the camp held its first official BSA summer camp program.
Akelaland was a Cub Scout resident camp located within Trexler Scout Reservation. Formerly it was the "Pioneer Camp", Minsi Trails Council's rustic Scout camp which encompassed over 200acres of the reservation. In the mid-1980s, the camp was converted to a Cub Scout resident camp. The Pioneer building, a small, one-room building with a wood-burning stove, still stands, as well as other parts of the original camp.
Akelaland had a swimming pool, shooting ranges (for archery and BB guns), an 18-hole miniature golf course, health lodge, trading post, dining hall, parade field, shower houses, and an activities field. The camp also has a waterfront for boating and fishing at Lake Trexler.
Settlers Camp, Trexler Scout Reservation was the Scouts BSA resident Camp portion of the Reservation. It contained three separate ranges, a rifle, a shotgun, and an archery range, a Disk Golf Course, a Gaga Ball Pit, eight program areas of activities, a developed Aquatics program at its Waterfront on Lake Trexler, and a fully featured C.O.P.E./High Adventure Action Center Area.
| Witauchsoman Lodge | |
| F-Date: | 1969 |
| Chiefscouttitle: | Lodge Chief |
| Chiefscout: | Darren Woodruff |
| Chiefscouttitle2: | Lodge Adviser |
| Chiefscout2: | Scott Best |
| Chiefscouttitle3: | Staff Adviser |
| Chiefscout3: | Brian Dungan |
| Portal: | no |
Minsi Trails Council is home to the Witauchsoman Lodge of the Order of the Arrow. Witauchsoman means "to be in fellowship with somebody".
In 1928, thirteen years after the introduction of the Order of the Arrow into Scouting, Minsi Lodge #5 emerged. The Minsi Lodge served the Lehigh Council that operated Trexler Scout Reservation at the time. In 1936, the Pohopoco Lodge #44 replaced the Minsi Lodge. For thirty-three years the Pohopoco Lodge acted as a pilot lodge, helping to start new lodges in the area. The other lodges were the Tunkhannock Lodge #476 of the Bethlehem Area Council operating Camp Minsi, and the Ah'Pace Lodge #58 of the Delaware Valley Area Council operating Camp Weygadt. The tri-merger of the councils and their lodges resulted in Witauchsoman Lodge #44. The totem of the lodge is three peace pipes (symbolizing the three predecessor lodges) strong on a bow. In 1980, a new chapter that formerly served the Anthracite Scouting Organization joined the lodge. This was a result of the organization becoming a new district in the Minsi Trails Council. In 1994, Witauchsoman re-established chapters. Each of the council's five Scouting districts operates a chapter.