Camp Nisatin Was A Highlight Of My 1950's Summers

I was a Boy Scout in the 1950s - back before they started discriminating against gays. My dad was a scoutmaster - and every summer we spent a week at Camp Nisatin. My troop was number 161 - based in a small one room school down by the Zion Stone Church in Snyders PA.

There is not a lot of information about the camp on the net - and even less pictures of the place. The camp was near Summit Station where Route 183 crossed over the Blue Mountain.

My Dad got two weeks vacation from the mines - and one was spent at Camp Nisatin - the other one was spent on a 50 mile hike of the Appalachian Trail. One of my last acts as a Boy Scout was going to the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron NM in 1962.

Here is one thing I did find out about Camp Nisatin. Do you remember the giant dining hall? In the late 1940's or early 1950's the dance pavilion at the Manila Grove picnic grounds in Coaldale was dismantled and taken to the camp and reassembled (today the Cub Day Camp hall). Memeu Lodge took on the task to dig out the cellar to provide storage for the camps supplies and equipment.

The Manila Grove picnic ground were located along Route 209 in Coaldale just west of the Coaldale Hospital. As a toddler I remember going there to listen to the Coaldale Victory Band - Dad played piccolo for them. Then he worked in Number 8 Mine - just up the road.