Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

General urban exploration stuff -- location specific stuff in the categories below
Post Reply
greekspeak
0-99 Poster
0-99 Poster
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:31 pm
Location: Tallahassee, FL (originally Springfield, MO)

Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by greekspeak »

I am not certain how many folks on here were ever in Boy Scouts, but the camp for the local Springfield council, Arrowhead, near Marshfield, seemed to teem with stuff for young guys to get into. Lots of fun memories. There were at least two caves on the property, and unfortunately I never got to go in them as I am heinously clausterphobic. But, I visited plenty of of other neat sites. The old camp pool, when I was a kid, was still intact. It was a spring fed number, and you could still see the old paint on the concrete from when it had functioned. There were also a couple of old ceremonial areas that looked really like some sort of wierd cult sites. When I took wilderness survival, we had to camp out in little huts we built on site out of nearly nothing. I slept badly that night, as something was in my back, like a rock. Next morning I woke up, and looked to see what it was, and it was an old medicine bottle, mercurichrome I think, with a stopper topped with "cut glass" like an old doorknob. I took it home, needless to say. Turns out we had been sleeping on top of the old camp dump from when the camp first opened. Never did find the place again. Place was also full of trees that had allegedly been bent to look like a number four, and there were four of them. I only saw a couple of them, but it was pretty interesting stuff for a kid. Anyone else have fond memories like these about Camp Arrowhead?
User avatar
67gt390
0-99 Poster
0-99 Poster
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:40 am
Location: west plains mo

Re: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by 67gt390 »

I have been to camp arrowhead twice as a boy scout, I wasted most of my time on the 22 rifle range. I remember winning the fire starting contest also. I also remember the old spring fed pool, it was about 1/2 full of water/moss. Great place for boys. Found this info on the Ozark Trials Council websight: The Ozark Trails Council operates Camp Arrowhead, the oldest continuously operating Boy Scout Camp west of the Mississippi River. Camp Arrowhead offers programs for all Scouts, from the first-year Baden-Powell program to High Adventure activities geared toward older scouts. The camp is situated on approximately 650 beautiful wooded acres in the Ozark Mountains near Marshfield in southwest Missouri. The property features a lake, many miles of hiking trails, a stream, caves, a spring, and various examples of native Missouri flora and fauna.
greekspeak
0-99 Poster
0-99 Poster
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:31 pm
Location: Tallahassee, FL (originally Springfield, MO)

RE: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by greekspeak »

What they say pretty much covers it. I spent a few hours at the rifle range too, and across the road at the archery range. Couldn't hit a target to save my life. Later on, when I was a junior in high school, it was found that I am left eye dominant, though I am right handed. Knowing that made hitting targets a lot easier, even if it means a sore forearm afterward!

A particular memory I have of the pool is from a troop camp-out we had when I was about 14. We went down by the pool in our spare time, just because it was so cool to go there and see it. At the bottom of the dam (I suppose that is what it was...20 years ago and all) there was a dead coyote, which had apparently fallen from the narrow concrete wall to its death below the pool. We were all pretty transfixed by this unusual sight. We also used to do some catch and release fishing in that old pool.

I know that a lot of guys I was in scouts with gained their sense of adventure in that organization. A few broken bones did not deter them. They teach some pretty valuable tools for exploring strange and interesting sites. Thinking about those old days makes me want to get out and explore and be in nature.
User avatar
gimpface
Zen Master
Zen Master
Posts: 1981
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:05 pm
Location: Fuck... I think I’m trapped in a well

RE: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by gimpface »

Shadowbearer, Grey, and myself have been out there many times. The old pool was scary as hell- I remember the four foot deep section looked like it was only a foot deep because of all the acumulated scum on the bottom. We would use sticks to cause the methane to bubble up to the surface where it would meet our lighters and burn!

We would have games of "Stickwar!" and capture the flag that would get WAY out of hand (I still have scars)...

One year we spent most of our time chasing the one attractive (read: slutty) female staff member (I think one of the guys may have actually gotten some, too...).

The best times where what we called "The bum-out weekend". The troop would rent one of the staff barracks with electricity and heat (we did this in the dead of winter) and sit around playing nintendo and watching movies all weekend (and running down to the old pool to set off the home-made fireworks we'd sneak with us).

It's been a couple of years since I've been out there... our old troop used to have Shadow and I come out as ringers for the staff vs scoutmasters water polo game.

Ah! How I miss the violence of Camp Arrowhead!
Vampire Killings, buy one get one FREE!
greekspeak
0-99 Poster
0-99 Poster
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:31 pm
Location: Tallahassee, FL (originally Springfield, MO)

Re: RE: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by greekspeak »

gimpface wrote:
The best times where what we called "The bum-out weekend". The troop would rent one of the staff barracks with electricity and heat (we did this in the dead of winter) and sit around playing nintendo and watching movies all weekend (and running down to the old pool to set off the home-made fireworks we'd sneak with us).
What you call "the bum-out weekend" my troop called "the cabin D campout." We played capture the flag a lot of the time. I don't think we had Nintendo, but my dad was scoutmaster and always brought D & D and a lot of the guys would play it. We usually only had a few activities we had to do on those campouts, so there was plenty of time to get into trouble. If there was not a full-on fight during one of those outings, it was not official. Seems like the coolest thing to do on those trips was to go to Soapstone Cave. I never was in it, because of my fear of small places, but I was at the cave a number of times. I think it was way out there from the "camp" camp. During summer camps that I was there there really weren't any women to speak of. I think the wife of the guy that ran the camp was in charge of the kitchen, but I really don't remember any other women. Of course, I was in scouts so long ago that children born the first summer I was a camper are old enough to have gone to college and have started a family by now. They had female leaders but they really only showed up at events in fall, winter and spring, and rarely then. My father lost his position as scout master due to politics, right before I started high school, and we had to go to another troop. The guys who ran it were all gung-ho and filled every minute with boring stuff like starting fires with flint and steel or teaching knots, or cleaning up Arrowhead, so nobody there got to do too much running free. It amazed me how boring they could make camping trips. We eventually just stopped going to the troop and Boy Scouts altogether. Still, a good Saturday afternoon I would still love to go out exploring that place.
User avatar
ShadowBearer
Stubbles
Stubbles
Posts: 1721
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by ShadowBearer »

We were famous for starting brawls with other camps...and getting capture the flag banned.
And gimpface breaking kids arms.
User avatar
gimpface
Zen Master
Zen Master
Posts: 1981
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:05 pm
Location: Fuck... I think I’m trapped in a well

Re: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by gimpface »

We were infamous, actually. For years, people would come up to us at concerts or events (even as far out as KC) to talk about how we kicked their asses at some point. I would also run into drunken staff members at concerts who would ask if I'd kicked anyone's ass recently.
Vampire Killings, buy one get one FREE!
greekspeak
0-99 Poster
0-99 Poster
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:31 pm
Location: Tallahassee, FL (originally Springfield, MO)

RE: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by greekspeak »

So you guys were brawlers, eh? My step brother got into one of those fights 13 year olds get in, where the fighters are so pissed that they will do anything to the other guy out of blind rage. I think my step's opponent lost a pretty sizable bit of hair. And no more capture the flag? That is cruel! Hell, kids got hurt all the time at that place. A friend of mine twisted the bloody crap out of his ankle when he stepped into a hole during some night-time version of capture the flag. I think he cried but we were just Webelos at the time, and he really twisted it good. He was a tough little SOB.

So did you all go back in the caves and all? What were they really like? Nobody who went in said much about them when they came out, except that Spring Cave went on a long way, and Soapstone was a small with a room/chamber right inside the opening, which I remember as being very small from the outside.
User avatar
gimpface
Zen Master
Zen Master
Posts: 1981
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:05 pm
Location: Fuck... I think I’m trapped in a well

Re: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by gimpface »

Spring cave had a decent sized room that went back about 20 feet or so before it became a small passage that you would have to crawl on your belly in the stream to get through. Supposedly it opened back into a good sized room after that, but I never tried it (I had a rule against freezing my balls off at the time).

Never even seen Soapstone cave, though I had heard of it.
Vampire Killings, buy one get one FREE!
greekspeak
0-99 Poster
0-99 Poster
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:31 pm
Location: Tallahassee, FL (originally Springfield, MO)

RE: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by greekspeak »

Thanks for filling me in on Spring Cave. Even though I never went in past the entrance, I did like sitting out front because it was so beautiful there. With Soapstone, I wonder if its actual location is being forgotten. I think even when I went to Arrowhead, it was usually the older boys who had to lead the way. Even my older step brother, who had been going to Arrowhead two years before I was going, had trouble finding it. Seems like its entrance was in a clearing, and it was just a small hole in the side of a hill. It was way out there, though. I think on an excursion there or someplace else we happened upon the western boundary of the camp.
forsakenfuture
0-99 Poster
0-99 Poster
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2011 3:10 pm
Location: Monett, Missouri

RE: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by forsakenfuture »

Weird how things work out sometimes. About a week ago I came across this site for other reason then today was doing a search on Camp Arrowhead and brought me back here. Does anyone have photos of Camp Arrowhead? I can only find a few of the front gates.
User avatar
gimpface
Zen Master
Zen Master
Posts: 1981
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:05 pm
Location: Fuck... I think I’m trapped in a well

Re: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by gimpface »

I'll have to look... Grey might have some.
Vampire Killings, buy one get one FREE!
NevikS
0-99 Poster
0-99 Poster
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 1:00 pm
Location: Springfield, MO

Re: Memories of Camp Arrowhead at Marshfield

Post by NevikS »

Grew up going to Camp Arrowhead in the mid - late 70's (yeah - practically a Geezer).

The description Gimpface gives for Spring Cave is pretty good. It's the cave that feeds the Old Swimming Pool - maybe a couple hundred yards away. I've also heard that if you slither through the water there's a lot more cave back in there. I never was up to a water crawl as a youngster. I know present day Scouts - I'm going to ask around.

Soapstone is further out from Hall's Alter (probably one of the ceremonial areas Greekspeak mentions). Soapstone has one of the #4 trees (a thong tree) right outside it's entrance. It's not visited very often. I went in a couple of times back when. It's a small entrance on a hill side. You belly in then over a ridge then down. Mostly a mud crawl. Winding passages. I'm not sure I saw the whole thing - maybe a few hundred ft. Common to string up line to find your way back (at least as a kid).

Did the cabins every winter - lots of fun! We used to clear the spring branch out of Spring Cave for something to do.

Probably spent at least 30 + days and nights there. Lot's of great memories!
Post Reply