Grand Teton Council transfers Treasure Mountain Scout Camp (WY)

[RememberSchiff]

 

Grand Teton Council has operated Treasure Mountain Scout Camp in Alta, Wyoming for over 80 years but soon plans to transfer operation to The Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-day Saints. The U.S. Forest service owns the land.

“Once they have an agreement (finalized) with the Forest Service, we will vacate our special-use permit and they will take over the property,” Council CEO Farrer says.

Farrer says lack of funding has made it difficult to maintain the camp since the church decided to end its long association with the Boy Scouts of America in 2019. Funding shortages got even worse during the COVID-19 pandemic since most of the scouting activities at the camp this year have been canceled.

“Two years ago, we had over 26,000 kids registered in scouting and six camp operations,” Farrer says. “We’re now down to just under 2,000 kids and we can’t financially maintain six camps … so we decided to (eliminate) the number of camps we had.”

“When the local scouts opened Treasure Mountain (81 years ago), our membership then looked about like it does now,” he says. “We’ve now dropped down to where we were 80 years ago and we have to start building back up again. The council will continue as long as we can be smart … and remain fiscally viable.”

Grand Teton Council still operates Little Lemhi Scout Camp in Swan Valley, Island Park Scout Camp and Salmon River High Adventure base camp. The council also operates a cub scout day camp north of Rigby called Krupp Scout Hollow.

More at source:

https://www.eastidahonews.com/2020/09/treasure-mountain-scout-camp-under-new-operation-after-81-years/

[T2Eagle]

2000 scouts on the books is going to make operating two camps, a HA base, and a Cub camp really challenging.  

So Grand Teton went from 26,000 to 2,000, does anyone know the numbers for similar councils out west?

[CynicalScouter]

21 minutes ago, T2Eagle said:

2000 scouts on the books is going to make operating two camps, a HA base, and a Cub camp really challenging.  

So Grand Teton went from 26,000 to 2,000, does anyone know the numbers for similar councils out west?

No, but let's take a look at their IRS 990s, shall we?

Assets - Liabilities

FY 2013 (based on FY 2014 filing) $4,510,820

FY 2014: $5,020,375

FY 2015: $8,206,438

FY 2016: $8,157,350

FY 2017: $8,206,679

FY 2018: $7,440,727

You could see things starting to collapse if you dig into the data. FY 2019 (not due yet) will be a massacre I assume.

Edited October 2, 2020 by CynicalScouter