This same fire is described several times in various histories of the Yawgood Scout Reservation, such as this one:
(There may some exaggeration going on — Beach Pond is 3 miles due north of Yawgoog, maybe 4 to the far northwest corner of the pond. Or the origin was considerably behind Beach Pond, either north or west of it and Beach Pond was used simply as a convenient land mark)
Byline: John Kostrzewa
Aug. 14–HOPKINTON — AFTER 75 YEARS, THE GREAT FIRE’S LESSONS LIVE ON: The Great Fire of 1930 burned a terrible chapter into the history of Camp Yawgoog.
It was a tragedy and a natural disaster.
The fire destroyed all but 50 acres of the Boy Scout camp set deep in the woods of South County. The devastation drove the birds and ground animals from the blackened and desolate landscape.
The sounds of life disappeared.
While the story of the Great Fire is a dark memory from Scouting’s past, it also is a story about hope, turning disaster into triumph and rallying for a common cause.
Mostly, it’s about Scout spirit that today still burns brightly at Yawgoog.
Here’s what happened 75 years ago this summer.
The winter and spring of 1930 were among the driest on record. The lack of snowfall and rain reduced streams to trickles. The water level in Yawgoog Pond dropped several feet.
Back then, Scouting in Rhode Island was still in its infancy. Most people had never heard of Yawgoog.
But two early Scout leaders, J. Harold “Chief” Williams and H. Cushman “Gus” Anthony, envisioned the wooded area as a future summer camp for boys and began to develop the property the new organization acquired.
They cleared some land for tents and erected a mess hall and headquarters.
During the first weekend in May 1930, Williams and Anthony were leading a training session for Scout leaders at Yawgoog when the fire warden came into camp. He warned that a fire had broken out well to the west, in Connecticut, and was spreading. He told them to be on the lookout.
Williams and Anthony smelled the smoke the next morning, as soon as they poked their heads out of their tents. They sent a team of campers and local volunteers with buckets, brooms and rakes to set up firebreaks at the edge of camp.
They walked west through the campground until they saw three huge columns of smoke on the horizon.
The fire, whipped by strong winds, approached with a terrifying roar. The thick smoke overtook them. The heat seared the buttons on their shirts.
They were forced to retreat and decided the only parts of camp they might save were the main buildings.
Anthony climbed to the roof of the lodge at the camp called Three Point and sprayed the roof and walls with water from a garden hose. Other adult leaders pushed their cars into the pond to escape the embers.
The fire swept along Yawgoog Pond and through the campground. Flames surrounded them, but Williams, Anthony and the others saved the lodge.
The next morning, the fire broke out on the far side of Yawgoog Pond, across from the camp. The fire crept along the shore and then leaped to Phillips Island. The Scout leaders watched the giant pines and white birches on the island ignite like torches.
Still, it was not over. The blaze continued the third day along Wincheck Pond at the opposite end of the camp.
When the fire finally died out, Williams and Anthony hiked through what was left of Yawgoog. Tent platforms, several cabins, even the docks had been destroyed. Charred tree trunks and rubble, still-smoldering, were visible for acres.
It was Anthony who first noticed the silence that had settled over the camp. The wildlife had fled, seeking sanctuary from the fire.
Standing in the black ashes, a foot deep in places, Williams and Anthony looked out at what was left of their vision.
“It was heartbreaking,” Williams said.
But he also saw the opportunity. He saw the chance to pull together a fledgling organization of troops scattered throughout the state to work on a common goal.
The fire had been front-page news in the daily papers. With Rhode Islanders focused on the damage, Williams put out the call and began to build a network of Scouting supporters in business, industry, government and the media. They all agreed to pitch in.
“We began at once to think of reforestation,” Williams said.
Two weeks after the fire, on an early Sunday morning, 500 Scouts and leaders from 79 troops from across Rhode Island arrived at the gates to Yawgoog. Each troop was assigned a section of camp and given an initial batch of 50 seedlings purchased from a nursery in Maine.
In a single, long day, the Scouts and volunteers planted 25,000, five-year-old white pine seedlings over 250 acres.
When the Scouts finished, a light rain blessed their work.
“Mother Nature has begun to heal the blackened wounds,” Williams said.
Fourteen months later, in July 1931, judges, politicians, business executives, editors, benefactors, Scouts and adult volunteers gathered at Camp Yawgoog.
They were there to dedicate the Bucklin Memorial, the huge, stone and wood-beamed building that serves as camp headquarters. But the talk was about the trees. The softwood pines planted by the Scouts grew among the hardwoods that had sprung back to life.
Federal forestry agents said it was the single largest reforestation effort in the history of Rhode Island — a model for others to follow.
And walking through camp, they all heard the sounds of life again.
Since the Great Fire, Yawgoog has become a familiar name to Rhode Islanders and one of the premier camps in the country.
Scouting has grown, too. But there also have been more tragedies, especially this summer.
During the national jamboree last month in Virginia that attracted 40,000 Scouts, four leaders were electrocuted setting up camp. Later, 300 Scouts there suffered heat exhaustion. In a separate incident elsewhere, a Scout from Utah was struck by lightning.
And then, Yawgoog itself was closed for 12 days after a contagious stomach virus sickened more than 100 Scouts.
Last Sunday, after a fresh scrubbing, Yawgoog reopened. About 800 Scouts spent a great week earning merit badges, making friends, learning to live as a community and having fun.
On the same trail hiked by William and Anthony to inspect the devastation from the Great Fire, the Scouts may have seen the marker for the reforestation, or heard the story told around the campfire.
It’s a pretty good lesson for Scouts and for that matter, for all of us.
John Kostrzewa, business editor, spent last week as a volunteer at Camp Yawgoog.
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Copyright (c) 2005, The Providence Journal, R.I.
