• Who We Are
• History of the Camp
• Location of the Camp
• Traditions
• Ownership
• Contact Us

Who we are

We are former campers, counselors and camp committee members of Camp River Glen when the camp was a camp for Girl Scouts (1943-1975). We are the scouts who grew up while at camp. We are the scouts who sold Girl Scout cookies and calendars.  We are the young adults who enjoyed working with children in the out-of-doors.  We are the parents who wanted our girls to have a good, healthy experience of growing up. We are the children of those campers, the next generation. We are the men and women who contributed our time and talents to build the camp, rode the buses to and from the camp, made camp ties, purchased food and equipment, built the tent frames, unclogged the pipes, cooked meals for the volunteers. We painted the Lodge, johns and made repairs to tents and buildings and did many exciting things, too numerous to mention.

History of Camp River Glen

The camp was named the "Glendale Girl Scout Camp" at first. There had been attempts to name it many times but it wasn't until the mid to late '40s that "Si" Marion Seiler asked each troop to come up with a suggested name that the Camp Committee would vote on. "Star" and her Senior troop came up with the winning name, "Camp River Glen".

• Buildings

  By the mid-'40s the buildings consisted of the Lodge with kitchen, dining room and staff showers; the Cook's Cabin; Nurse's Cabin; Trading Post; Craft House and johns. Tents in the units were made of a wooden floor and frame which supported a canvas roof and sides. Prior to the existing fireplace and chimney, the Lodge was heated by a large, round fireplace with a hugh metal hood. It was located in the center of the Lodge. The hood always got in the way, especially when singing after meals. In 1962 the painted and repainted "green" wooden stools were replaced with round stools with wooden seats and 3 heavy, metal legs. The Staff House (a.k.a. Troop House) was built in the '50s. The staff would hang out in the Lodge before it was built. The CIT House was added in 1960 and torn down in the '90s. The "Pill Box" was the name given to the infirmary. A Maintenance building was added in the late '60s.

• Units

  According to "Star", the Peter Pan Unit wasn't added until 1949 but the Pioneer Unit began in 1946 which was her first year. There were no tents in this unit. Her mother, "Chickadee" was the Unit Leader. In 1960, the Adventure unit which had been located near the main campfire circle was moved further back along the river to the start of the trail to Sky Cathedral. New johns were added between the Merry and Forester Units in 1961 with a new john and shower facility added in the Adventure Unit in 1966. The main road from central camp to the Forester Unit was re-contoured so that the Cedar Brave Unit was no longer right next to the road. That unit had new camper tents for the summer of 1960. Sometimes there were enough older campers who wanted to stay in camp and do more advanced camping and cooking but not so much hiking. These were the Pioneers. The Trailblazers were also older, experienced campers who were rarely in camp because they were off on prep hikes or backpacking along the peaks to "Greyback" or slogging through the meadows on their way to the top of "Sugarloaf". Sometimes these two units were located in the same area, up and behind the CIT unit. The Trailblazers first appeared in 1963.

• Pool

  Before the pool was built, the units would be trucked up to Jenks Lake. The pool was first used in the summer of 1947 or 1948. Because solar panels for heating the pool was a new and expensive technology at that time, the campers swam in the chilly water. The afternoon swim periods were most desired! In the late '50s campers and staff were required to bring a piece of wood when coming to swim. This wood went into a fire and the heat from that fire would be used to heat the water. Maybe it made a difference, psychologically. Campers really did need a shower when they arrived carrying their dirty logs. This practice of bring wood to the pool was discontinued.

• 1943-1975

  The first sessions at the camp were held in 1943.  At that time the Camp Director was "Chipmunk" (Mary Packard) with "Si" (Marion Seiler) serving as the Assistant Camp Director. In the beginning, troops would come together to the camp.  Eventually there would be five units to house the girls from all over Glendale Council.  The Peter Pan unit was the closest to the central part of camp so the youngest girls (9 year-olds) would share their experiences.  The next oldest stayed in Cedar Braves and then in Merry Men, Foresters and Adventurers.  The campers stayed for one session of two weeks.  There were four sessions in the summer from the end of June to the end of August.  Some sessions were more popular with the older scouts.  So in 1959 a "new" unit was added called, Pioneers.  In 1965 we had one session of Trailblazers. Also in the 60's the sessions lasted for twelve days instead of two weeks. The staff and campers went home on a Friday and the new session of campers arrived on a Monday. During the weekend, the camp hosted "Brownie Holiday". A Brownie leader would bring her troop to camp and stay in the regular units with a Senior Girl Scout who was a program aide. The last regular session of 1975 was the end of Girl Scouts coming to Camp River Glen for the sharing and living in the out-of-doors. (see Ownership")

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Location of the camp

Camp River Glen is located in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California just below the headwaters of the Santa Ana River. It's just past Camp Angelus on highway 38 and near Seven Oaks.  The original road into camp crossed the river three times.  When the winter snow was heavy, the river was swollen and a challenge for the buses to cross in June.  Sometimes the beavers damed the stream just below the river crossing which made for the road the bottom of a pond.

The old "driveway" was very narrow and the trees growing along side of it were getting denser every year.  All the windows had to be shut as the buses descended down the road and crossed the river for the third time. So a new entryway road was constructed on the hill above the old road and ended with a bridge crossing the river (shown above). It is just wide enough for the big yellow buses to cross single-file and one at a time!

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Traditions

There was a tradition for camp counselors being given a "camp name".  This made for less formal relationships instead of calling the counselor, "Mrs Johnson" or "Miss Louise".  When the camper buses crossed over the last river crossing and entered the central area of the camp, they all sang, "We're here because..."  It was an exciting meal during first session when the counselors got their camp mugs.  They never let campers wash them, that they did themselves and proudly hung them on the hugh cup rack in the lodge. 

The first main campfire was held either the first or second night of camp. For the program, the campers prepared a skit to introduce their counselors to the whole camp. 

Every morning before entering the lodge for breakfast and every evening before dinner the campers lined up outside the lodge, stood silently in a horseshoe around the flagpole as the flag was raised or lowered.  There was usually a counselor who blew the bugle calls, "To the Colors" or "Retreat".  At night, the campers were in bed by "Taps" which was at 9 p.m. and were awakened with "Reveille" at 7 a.m.

Each unit was assigned a day for "Flickering".  There were four duties that the unit staff divided up among their campers: 1. Setting up tables and flickering (table hopping), 2. Washing all the dishes, 3. Two flag ceremonies, 4. Lodge Kapers after breakfast, and those counselors were responsible for selecting and leading songs after each meal.  Whan a unit had flickering, it did not have the earliest (9 a.m.) swim period.

In the summers before dishes were washed in the outdoor troughs, they were washed at the tables.  Before the end of the meal the head counselor at each table would have everyone at the table play, "Horse and Goggle".  Duties were assigned to all but the Flicker in the order: Scraper, Washer, Rinser, Dryer, Clean-Up, and the rest were "Free" to go outside and play until the dishes were done. (I never wanted to be "free" because you would miss out on all the fun singing while the dishes were being cleaned.)  At the end of the meal, counselors would go outside to the back of the lodge, pick up a bucket of hot, soapy water and a bucket of cold water and lug them to their tables.  Clean-up was fun because the whole camp sang.

What other traditions do you remember?

Ownership

Camp River Glen is situated in a beautiful section of the San Bernardino Mountains. The land is under the jurisdiction of the National Forestry Service from which the Glendale Girl Scouts held a lease. In the early 60's Newport Girl Scout Council ran Camp River Glen during the fifth session. This joint venture helped keep the camp full and the operational costs down. But during the late 60s, Glendale Girl Scout Council became part of the Sierra Madres Girl Scout Council. This council operated Camp Singing Pines and Camp River Glen. The council administration had changed hands and focused more attention on Camp Singing Pines.

Changes were coming to Camp River Glen and the surrounding area due to new U.S. Forestry regulations and the public's hunger to have more local camping areas. Former tent sites were becoming trailer parks. Jenks Lake was polluted. Stricter fire regulations made many changes in how and when campfires and cookouts were done.

Eventually Camp River Glen was sold to the World Wide Church of God. They planned to winterize the camp. Assemblies of God took over the camp but no campers came to the mountain. Fuller Seminary bought the camp and hoped to run it as a year-around conference center. The camp was sold to UCLA in 1998 and what was known as "Unicamp" just down the road from Camp River Glen, moved in. They chose to keep the name, "Camp River Glen." In 2003, UCLA did not operate Camp River Glen. They had found a larger site along the edge of Big Bear Lake but that Autumn the fires came to the Big Bear area. Currently, UCLA has title to the camp.

Contact Us

For information on the reunions, newsletters, memorabilia and donations, please contact "Hay Yu" glpulliam at embarqmail.com.

For text or photo contributions to this website or if you have questions, corrections and anything else to do with this website, please send email to "Reveille" revleigh at att.net.

For information on the Mariner reunions, please contact "Sloop" franalee at aol.com.

All email and snail mail addresses can be found in our reunion books.

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