About Camp Hagan (1937-1970)
Camp Hagan opened in the summer of 1937 by the Eastern Pennsylvania Synod, Lutheran Church of America. For many years Peter Paul Hagan (1874-1959), a prominent Lutheran layman, served as vice-president of the board of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, as a trustee of Tabor Home for Children in Doylestown, and as a member of the Board of Pensions of the United Lutheran Church in America, among other duties. Camp Hagan for girls was his gift to the Ministerium of Pennsylvania.
Peter Paul Hagan selected a pristine and secluded spot along the Delaware River surrounded by the lush, green foothills of the Pocono Mountains as the ideal setting for a Lutheran summer camp for girls. The property, located in the village of Shawnee-on-Delaware, Monroe County, PA, was approximately ten miles north of the Delaware Water Gap, a geologic feature formed some 450 million years ago when the river cut through the Appalachian Mountains.
Camp Hagan was a faith-based community, and within this context, girls laughed, played, sang and enjoyed a rich liberal arts agenda of summer camp activities. During its 33-year history, girls cycled through significant historical periods, each affecting women and girls’ sense of themselves. Camp Hagan remained an enclave for girl power and independence from its inception.
Each summer, Camp Hagan was home to approximately six hundred girls, both campers and staff. The campus comprised 27 acres of spacious meadows, nestled between a mountain ridge on the one side and a steep riverbank on the other. Hagan occupied a plateau thirty feet above the Delaware River and several hundred feet blow Mosier Ridge, an Appalachian Mountain foothill. The town of Stroudsburg was 15 miles to the southwest. To the west of camp, Route 209 provided access to the nearby village of Bushkill.
The Delaware River served as Camp Hagan’s eastern border. Across the river in New Jersey, the Kittatinny Ridge rose above the river to an elevation of 1500 feet. Camp Hagan enjoyed a stretch of river one-eighth mile wide that connected the Walpack Bend to the north and Depew Island to the south. Camp Hagan was the sister camp to Camp Miller, a boy’s camp located five miles to the south along River Road.
The approach to Camp Hagan required a drive along Freeman Tract Road, a narrow, potholed stretch of road that has hardly changed in over 85 years. Entering camp, the Junior and Intermediate Units were to the south, the Senior Unit to the north, and the Hagan driveway headed to the east that led to the camp office known as the Rat Trap. Hagan’s simple beauty and basic amenities were all that was needed for the remarkable growth and maturation that happened to these girls during each of their beloved camp’s thirty-three summers.
What Happened to Camp Hagan?
Camp Hagan ended in 1970 when it was caught in a tug of war between the Tocks Island Dam Project and a fierce environmental movement. Today, Camp Hagan’s 27 acres are under the stewardship of The National Park Service.
Had history taken a different course, the spectacular beauty of the river valley would have become irresistible to developers. Instead, the land that Hagan once occupied has returned to what it was long before we arrived. Today, the spot along Freeman Tract Road where Camp Hagan once stood is now entirely unremarkable. Those who have occasion to travel down this road can detect no trace of Camp Hagan.
The driveway into camp is barely passable on foot. The spruce trees and pines that once surrounded the Rat Trap are now in their final stages of demise. A heavy undergrowth of thicket and brush has replaced the smartly trimmed grass that once characterized the campus, rendering most of the property inaccessible. It is entirely unrecognizable unless you search with great care. Tall trees are growing in places where there once were none. If you look carefully you can find the railroad ties on the riverbank that once supported the steps to the waterfront. And along the bank a row of abandoned telephone poles traces a path from the south where the Junior Shower House once stood to the location of the Senior Shower House farther to the north. Eighteen inches of rich, black topsoil conceals the cement slap that once supported the Arts and Crafts building.
The sole remaining evidence that Camp Hagan existed, other than our memories, is the outdoor chapel, a stone altar with a cross, constructed in the 1930’s by Camp Hagan staff from river rocks. The National Park Service, under whose stewardship this sacred land now belongs, has recorded a host of anecdotal lore regarding this remarkable sanctuary and how it has taken individuals exploring the area by surprise. We are, therefore, profoundly grateful to the National Park Service, for their stewardship, which has returned Camp Hagan to its remote, peaceful area of pristine, natural beauty.
The years have passed, and the forest has consumed Camp Hagan’s large, grassy meadowland. Our children have grown and left home, and loved ones have passed on. Yet, Camp Hagan remains a constant in the hearts of so many women who grew up at this Lutheran Church summer camp, banked between a river and mountains, dotted by tall pine trees and an altar in the woods. The line, “You girls belong to Hagan and Hagan belongs to you,” captures the glow of our camp’s eternal flame. We have kept Hagan alive through canoe trips, campfires, church services, songs, laughter, tears, sharing our stories, floating candles down the river, and loving one another and our Hagan heritage.
(Much of the language above which describes Camp Hagan is taken from “Make the Rafters Ring! Remembering Camp Hagan.” Dando, B., Davis, M., Grigger, J. and Westhuis, M. G. Make the Rafters Ring! Remembering Camp Hagan. Brown Acorn Press, Copyright 2015.)