Summer Camp IV: Skin-and-bones Scouting

Webelos provisional Campsite Sequan at Yawgoog Scout Reservation, Rockville, Rhode Island. Photo by David R. Brierley.

The winding down of another summer on not so sweet a note—continued unemployment—prompted me to revisit my blogpost series on the summer camps I'd attended, to reminisce on simpler, closer times as well as the architecture that framed and shaped them.

T. Dawson Brown Gates, main entrance, Camp Yawgoog. Photo: KB1KOI.

Camp Yawgoog, a Boy Scout reservation in Rockville, Rhode Island that I attended in the summer of '77, is notable for a type of "organic architecture" that makes Frank Lloyd Wright's stab at that style seem even more slickly suburban, in terms of not really "roughing it" with his natural resources. 

Sandy Beach Dining Hall at Camp Yawgoog.

Sandy Beach Waterfront Boathouse, Camp Yawgoog. Photo by David R. Brierley.

Designed primarily by Rhode Island architect D. Thomas Russillo (1902-1980), the Yawgoog campus parallels some of the earth-hugging horizontality of Wright's Prairie Style and Usonian houses but is a far better example of the kind of sticks-and-stones, skin-and-bones building that makes its users more aware of the nature that surrounds them than the structures themselves. 

Three Point Waterfront at Camp Yawgoog.

It does this both by emphasizing the building materials' natural resources with hand-hewn logs, posts and beams and rough fieldstones, and also by eliminating most of the walls, allowing sun, breezes, green views and water views to permeate the interiors so we don't lose touch with nature.

Bucklin Memorial Building, Yawgoog Scout Reservation, Rockville, Rhode Island
designed in 1933 by architects Jackson, Robertson & Adams. Photo by J.P. Riley.

The Bucklin Memorial Building, built in 1933 from a design by Jackson, Robertson & Adams, was our "check-in" building and our formal introduction to the informality of nature, as expressed in its log-cabin woodwork and random-ashlar stonework. Its broad wingspread gave us an open-armed welcome to the open concept of nature we were in for once we passed through its gateway.

Tent at Yawgoog Scout Reservation. Photo by Robin Joubert.

But the hotel-like formality of Bucklin Memorial's design had us fooled. For we were not in for the kind of luxury, or even the basic cabin housing, that I discussed in my three previous summer camp posts. No, this time we were sleeping from Taps to Reveille in canvas tents in the great outdoors, in sleeping bags on basic bunkbeds, roughing it all the way, rain or shine, to learn survival skills.

Tents at Yawgoog Scout Reservation.

My tent was one of a circle of canvases around a central flagpole at Camp Baden-Powell. Named for Boy Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell, it was a "sub-campsite" of Camp Sandy Beach, one of three camps comprising Yawgoog (the others were Camp Medicine Bow and Camp Three Point). Camp Baden-Powell was also one of the snootiest, boasting a self-righteous cheer:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1! 

Boomeracka-B! Poomeracka-P! 

Boomeracka-Poomeracka, Who Are We? 

We are the Scouts of Camp (clap, clap) B-P! 

Scoutmaster Jim: "What's the best campsite in Sandy Beach?"

Us: "BADEN-POWELL! YEAAAAAAA!" 

(On my first day, I was told to yell "Yeaaaaa!" whenever somebody said "Baden-Powell," so kids started saying it just to watch me react, until my tentmate Nick urged me to cut it out.)

Tents at Yawgoog Scout Reservation, Rockville, R.I.

Our biggest reaction was Reveille. After a far-off bugle-call while we tried to catch our last winks, a louder call burst from the flagpole: "Everybody UP!" Bump, thump, flip, rip, shake, rattle, roll. Bombs away from the top bunks as commotion filled my tent while we scrambled and scurried to cop the "FIRST UP" plaque at first light. "C'mon, Tent Two, let's move it!" (So long, plaque.)

Pebbles and pine-needles pricked our barren soles as we fell out in front of our tent (sometimes in the rain), as the dewy air permeated our PJs and our breath was as visible as campfire smoke. "Ten-SHUN!" All erect. "Hand-SALUTE!" Right hands stationed on foreheads as the colors fluttered their daily rise up the knotty tree-limb pole (except when it was raining). Their rope was bowlined securely in place. "TWO!" Hands dropped in a chorus of thigh-slaps. "All right, inspection's in thirty-five minutes! So let's get these tents cleaned up!" Which kicked off our mad dashes to the latrine, our helter-skelter scampers for the limited supply of brooms and dustpans, our on-the-double donning of our Scout uniforms, neckerchiefs, caps and sneakers. Floor-sweeps, trash-picks and bed-makes became the order of the day in dread of the military-style inspection on the way.

Tent at Yawgoog Scout Reservation. Photo by Joseph Schwendt.

Fast-forward thirty-five minutes. We stumbled and fell out in front of our tents, all uniformed, on the clock – mostly. "All right, that's five points off for Tent Two!" (Good-bye, "BEST INSPECTION" plaque.) One by one, Scoutmaster Jim stared down each tent leader, who shouted in full salute, "SIR! Flaming Arrows Patrol ready for inspection! SIR!" 

Jim entered the tent to start the scrutiny: "There are pine-needles on the floor!" (But we swept everywhere!) He emerged and pointed toward our tootsies: "There's paper down there!" (But we picked up everything!) He jiggled our tent-ropes: "Too loose!" And then: "I'm taking off five more points because of that!" He pointed to me. I wasn't in my Scout uniform in time. At least the latrine squad got it worse: "The bathroom looks terrible! Sinks all dirty, hose left on the floor!" I broke into an impromptu cackle of giggles to relieve the letdown of flunking inspection and to start the rest of the day on a cheerier note.

On that cheerier note, we marched to the mess hall for breakfast: "Left, left, left-right-left! Sound off! One-two! Sound off! Three-four! Bring it on down! One-two-three-four, one-two—THREE-FOUR!" And so on. 

The Camp Sandy Beach mess hall had the same open-concept design, just as open to the air as its interior space was, kudos to its network of hammerbeams, rafters and purlins, Because of its unobstructed openness (except for the "Blue" section in a separate space, used only when there was an overflow of Scouts), it had to be divided into sections, each marked by a color: Gold, Red, Yellow, etc., with a chart of left-to-right shifted color-names that were shifted to indicate when each section was scheduled to go get food or stay seated, when it had to bring in its plates or cups for the dishwasher, etc., to keep a reasonable order in a camp situation that could otherwise disintegrate into mayhem. This, of course, was subject to disruption, like the time one kid sprinkled pepper in another kid's milk when he went to the bathroom. I asked him why he was doing that, and he said, "He got me all wet! And José [the Scoutmaster] didn't do anything about it!" More giggles for me.

Another great space at Camp Sandy Beach was the stage, where that ever-dependable web of hammerbeams, rafters and purlins yielded a roomy auditorium for a smorgasbord of camp entertainment and song, from rousing choruses of "The Green Grass Grows All Around," "Bill Grogan's Goat," and "I Know a Man Named Michael Finnegan" (where each half of the audience tried to sing it the loudest, to the point where they'd yell it the loudest) to umpteen performances of the same old Three Stooges sketch ("NI-A-GA-RA FALLS! Slow-ly I turn! Step by step! Inch by inch!") and a lot of same-old others. And, of course, chats with Jim the Moose, a moosehead that hung in the hall, provoking cries of "We want the moose! We want the moose!" evolving into "We want the moose!" "SHOT!" "We want the moose!" "SHOT!"

To be continued...

Sources:

"Camp Yawgoog," Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/CampYawgoog1916

"Camp Yawgoog," Scouting America, Narragansett Council, https://campreservation.com/546/Camps/436

"Camp Yawgoog," Scouting America Troop 23 Brooklyn, https://www.t23b.org/locations/camp-yawgoog

"Camp Yawgoog, Yawgoog.org, https://www.yawgoog.org/

"Welcome to Camp Yawgoog," Boy Scouts of America 2026 Leaders' Guide, https://www.yawgoog.org/uploads/6/8/4/2/68426127/2400969_bsoa-2026_leaders_guide_final.pdf

Wendell, Bryan, "Mix tradition with high-flying fun at Yawgoog Scout Reservation, Narragansett Council," Scouting Magazine, https://scoutingmagazine.org/2016/08/mix-tradition-with-high-flying-fun-at-yawgoog-scout-reservation-narragansett-council

"Yawgoog Scout Reservation," Alchetron, https://alchetron.com/Yawgoog-Scout-Reservation

"Yawgoog Scout Reservation," Wikipedia, last edited on 10 October 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawgoog_Scout_Reservation

"Yawgoog Scout Reservation, Narragansett Council," Scouting Magazine, YouTube, posted April 19, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJcA-Ae2-Ls