Welcome to Camp Wolverton

Camp Wolverton is a Boy Scout camp located in Sequoia National Park, California, at an elevation of 7,200 feet. The camp is about two miles from the former Giant Forest Village, and three miles from Lodgepole Campground and Visitor's Center. Here is a map from the 1960's which shows the camp's location.

Today, Wolverton is a primitive base camp in the shadows of beautiful red fir trees, some of which are probably 250 to 300 years old. The older and larger Sequoia trees are only a few miles away.

There is no electricity in camp, but there are hot showers. Each campsite contains a picnic table, water, fire barrel, trash can, bear-proof food storage locker, and a latrine.

Scouts use the camp in a variety of ways. Most troops now use Wolverton as a base camp prior to leaving on a long-term hike into the High Sierra. These troops usually spend only a night or two in camp. Backpacking from Wolverton, using the 15' Triple Divide Quadrangle Map, is excellent! Other troops spend an entire week at camp and set up their own "summer camp". There are still numerous in-camp opportunities, short day hikes, and Park Service activities available.

The camp is traditionally open and/or usable only during the summer months of June, July, and August. Deep snow prevents year-round use.

Camp Philosophy

The camp does not have an official philosophy, but if it did, it may be the words which were painted on a camp map made in the 1950's:

"REAL SCOUT CAMPING IN THE HIGH SIERRA"

Wolverton was never a camp for sissies. Whether you were in camp, walking among the Sequoia tress in Giant Forest, or fishing in the backcountry, you knew you were a "real" Scout.

In the 1970's, as concern for the environment grew, two new philosophies were developed at Wolverton. They were: Minimum Impact, and Low Profile. All Scouts attending the camp learned about these two concepts. Large groups of Boy Scouts were no longer appreciated in the backcountry, or even at Lodgepole for that matter. So, the staff at Wolverton taught the Scouts how to spend a week in the National Park while making a minimum impact on the environment, and also keeping a low profile.

These concepts have been modified through the years on a national level as the conservation movement became the environmental movement and environmentalism put pressures on the scope and manner of traditional wilderness use.

During the mid 1990s, federal agencies such as the National Park Service, National Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and US Fish and Wildlife Service were becoming alarmed by the lack of knowledge exhibited by front country and backcountry users. In conjuction with the National Outdoor Leadership School, these federal agencies developed the Leave No Trace [LNT] program. LNT updates the philosophies and actions of "Take Nothing But Pictures, Leave Nothing But Footprints" and puts a 90s spin on it.

Many old time minimum impact wilderness users don't like LNT because the program lacks any hard-fast "rules" and prefers only to offer "suggestions." For instance, we learned that building fires was bad, no matter what the context. LNT teaches that fires are a matter of personal choice and if you build one, make sure it is in an environmentally "safe" manner. And if you get into camp late at night, or are cold and wet, and even if wood is in short supply such as at 12,000' in Kings Canyon, it would be alright to have a BIG fire if you thought it was called for.

Choice is a wonderful thing, but choice without responsibility is one of the tenets of outdoor recreation that minimum impact camping was trying to remedy. Those who object to LNT see it as a "feel-good" return to past practices that gives people the necessary excuse to be lazy or inconsiderate.

The Camp and the National Park Service

Rumor has it that Camp Wolverton is the only Boy Scout camp in a National Park (Operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior). This is not to be confused with the many camps which exist in National Forests, which are operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; their motto is "Land of Many Uses."

Camp Wolverton has continued to exist because of the conscientious efforts of the camp staff. Over the years, the staff has made sure that the camp, and the Scouts using it and the Park, didn't become a problem for the National Park Service. The largest task has always been bear management; rarely do a few days go by when a bear isn't seen in camp. If the camp staff had allowed the bears to routinely get food and/or trash from the camp, there is a good chance the camp wouldn't be here today. A primary role of the staff in the 1990's was to maintain good relations with the Park Service.

Stan Morse, who worked on the Council Executive Committee recalls that relationships between the boy scouts and the National Park Service were strained at times. "There were also many men, as members of the Council Camping committee, and as interested scouters, who through work parties, material donations etc. kept the physical part of the camp together. At one time the camp was scheduled to be phased out by the National Park Service. It was then that Don Douglas Jr. (Council President) interceded with the head of the Department Of Interior and the closure was cancelled.

Apparently, there was no formal record of the camp even existing in the Park for its first 50 years or so. In 1990, Rich Stowell secured a five-year special use permit from the Park Service. In 1995, Rich was able to renew the special use permit for another six years, thus taking the camp into the 21st century. Camp Wolverton's long term ability to survive is always uncertain.

For over 20 years the Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks have been working on a Master Plan for the Park's future. Up until last year, Camp Wolverton and the Boy Scouts were not mentioned in any of the formal reports - this is either good news or bad news. As stated above, the ultimate future of the camp is uncertain. The Plan proposed the construction of parking lots and a large public transportation bus tour staging area to replace the Wolverton Corrals and/or the ski area. Also, a new road connecting Wolverton to Crescent Meadow  would be constructed. Lastly, parts of Giant Forest Village which has now been removed, were proposed to be relocated at or near Wolverton. Time will tell. In the meantime, camp continues to be open every summer.

You can comment on the Park plan, or get on the NPS mailing list to receive notices about the status of the Park plan, by contacting David Graber, at: David_Graber@nps.gov.

Camp Wolverton Before The Boy Scouts

The western slope of the southern Sierra, including possibly the area of Sequoia National Park where Camp Wolverton is located, first became inhabited during the summers by Native American Indians about 500-600 years ago. Some of the Owens Valley Paiute, or Eastern Mono, settled west of the crest and became the Monache, or Western Mono. They were hunters and gatherers with well-established permanent villages below the 5,000 foot level but generally above the foothill and valley Yokut sites. It was the Potwisha Band of the Monache who frequented the area of Sequoia National Park near Camp Wolverton.

In July 1875, the writer John Muir stayed with a man named James Wolverton. Mr. Wolverton was the "hired man" for cattleman Hale Tharp and had served in the Civil War under William Tecumsah Sherman. Sherman is known as the Indian-fighter who popularized the saying, "Nits make lice" when asked why the Army insisted on killing women and children. Wolverton found a big tree in the forest and named it after his former commander.

John Muir and James Wolverton stayed in a burned-out fallen sequoia tree known as Tharp's Log. By 1891, James Wolverton had squatted a cabin with garden at the confluence of the Marble and Middle Forks of the Kaweah River. He died in 1893, leaving the area uninhabited for possibly the first time in 1,000 years.

Between 1905 and 1915, the Mt. Whitney Power Company built roads, including the first road past the future site of Camp Wolverton, to expand their water and power facilities. They stopped at a knoll above Long Meadow and planned to construct a dam there. According to conversations with Rich Stowell, the site was about 100 yards past an old logging camp. The logging camp site became the staging area for the dam builders. We know the area as the old Order of the Arrow site or Pioneering area at Camp Wolverton.

What we now think of as "Wolverton Meadow" was actually almost 100 acres of forest that was clear-cut during the proposed dam and power plant project (called Kaweah Number 5) on Wolverton Creek. The dam would have been 100 feet high, leaving the future camp location near the foot of the dam. At that time the land was still privately owned within the Park. Excavation for the foundation of the dam was stopped in 1913 because bedrock was not found in what seemed like a bottomless deposit of glacial debris. Southern California Edison absorbed the Mt. Whitney Power Company and donated Wolverton Meadow and the dam site to the National Park Service between 1916 and 1921.

The Wolverton Dam was part of a larger scheme that extended up the east fork of Kaweah River to Mineral King Valley and which also used water from the Middle Fork. Water from Mineral King is still used for power generation; a huge Pelton Water Wheel can be seen in Three Rivers. Southern California Edison still diverts water from the Middle Fork, at Buckeye Flat. A flume leads down to the Park entrance and a power plant can be seen alongside the river. Get out of your car at the big Indian Park sign to view the plant.

The last grizzly bear in the Wolverton area died in 1922, leaving only the California Black Bears.

In 1923, a 4-inch diameter redwood pipeline was run through the future Boy Scout camp from Wolverton Meadow to Giant Forest, delivering 350,000 gallons per day. In 1987, while installing a new pipeline to the Lodge, we came across this old redwood pipe.

By 1927, day use in the Wolverton Meadow became extensive. That same year, the new General's Highway was completed past Wolverton to Lodgepole. The road was replaced in 1957 by the current General's Highway. We hike the old road to Lodgepole, the Sherman Tree, and the Dump.

The site of Camp Wolverton was one of 11 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps used in the 1920's and 1930's. Legend has it that the camp Lodge building, still in use today, was built by the CCC. Others say Paul Weiss once the Ranger at Camp Josepho, hauled used lumber to Wolverton and built the building himself. Another story is that the Lodge [photo] was built in Los Angeles, dismantled, and that Paul Weiss brought it up to Camp and reassembled it.

Regardless, apparently the Wolverton CCC camp was a non-significant camp, and was used only in the summer. Roy DeVoe of Weldon, California, was a surveyor with the CCC and was known to have lived at Lodgepole and the Wolverton CCC camp from 1933 to 1941.

Camp Wolverton and other former CCC camps were used during WWII (1942-45) as temporary summer training, rest, and recuperation sites for soldiers. Also, conscientious objectors (mostly Mennonites) may have lived and worked on National Park maintenance and construction projects out of Wolverton.

Plans submitted in 1942, 1943, and 1944 considered the Wolverton area as a possible concession relocation site. The horse corrals had already moved to the Wolverton area from Giant Forest in 1931 and 1932.

The ski resort at the Wolverton Meadow began in the winter of 1941-42. The ski lifts, with major upgrades through the years [the last one being in the mid-1980s] operated every winter until they were removed from the area prior to the summer of 1994.

History Part 2     History of Camp Patches

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