| Story by Bruce Hodgdon |
Every forest preserve had a history before it was conserved as open space. Before the Forest Preserve District purchased the core of what would become Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve in the late 1970s, the property previously served as a camp for Scouts. Among the camp’s remnants is the popular 40-foot sled hill that still exists on the site today.
In 1930, the Chicago Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America acquired the use of 196 acres of forest and farmland in Crete Township. After some years, during which the land was farmed, the Council developed the property into a campground called Camp Crete.
Carol Triebold and Phyllis Monks, in their five-volume collection of books titled “Crete Remembered,” report that the camp opened with this announcement in the Chicago Heights Star of August 9, 1940, with the headline “New Camp Set for Scouts in County’s Grove”: “The new [Boy Scout] camp will open tomorrow in eighty-six acres of wooded land. ... Scouts may enroll for any period from one to fourteen days. And the registration fee is only ten cents per day, with each Scout bringing his own equipment and food.”
They go on to write that “The summer camp was designed for a well-rounded camping experience for all scouts attending. Scouts participated in scout crafts, handcrafts and special camp craft projects.”