The site of the camp was leased from Crown Zellerbach, former owners of the Camas Paper Mill. Materials for the lodge kitchen, fireplace and outside cooking facilities were donated by the mill and several individuals over the years. Crown Zellerbach also donated the cable for the fences, wood and lumber for fuel, and a large cedar log, which was hauled out to make shakes to cover the lodge and kitchen.
A very special donation, a World War II Bell, hung at one time in the tower over the lodge. During the war in Grand Island, Nebraska, a large bell was found in an old school house at a location where a munitions plant was being built. It was given to Mr. Meyer Avedovech, involved in the munitions project, and he in turn donated it to his good friend J.D. Currie for the youth camp in 1947.
Buildings include the lodge, a separate toilet building, a covered outdoor cooking hall with fireplace, the caretaker’s cottage, amphitheater, and a chapel. The amphitheater is ideal for evening council fires and ceremonies. The meadow can be used as an athletic field. There are several tent campsites around the meadow and throughout the camp.
Here at Camp Currie, young people can observe, appreciate, and study plant and animal wildlife in their natural habitats.
Attorney Currie was a visionary, predicting continued growth and invasion of Camas’ sites by manufacturers because of its facilities – its railroad, its water transportation possibilities, its highway, its abundance of electrical power and the nearness of the market. He believed a deep-sea channel to Camas would be one of its greatest advantages and pushed for the formation of a port district. "My ideas may be rather ambitious," Currie said in 1924, "but without a vision the people perish and nothing we have now is not regarded as visionary when it was started. Someday, these things will come true." John and Alice had two daughters and a son. Billy, who was adored by his father, died of meningitis in 1925. Billy had belonged to a neighborhood club made up of boys who were preparing themselves to become Boy Scouts once they reached the age of 12. In the mean time, John Currie continued to work with the other boys and a year later obtained a charter to organize a lodge for the Boy Rangers of America. The Ranger program was designed for boys 8 to 12 years old. Mr. Currie worked with the boys through the Ranger program until they were old enough to become Boy Scouts. The rituals and activities were based on American Indian lore and were organized into tribes bearing the names of authentic Indian nations. Each young brave was given a name taken from the tribal records and Eagle feathers were awarded for achievements. Currie sponsored the lodge through a quarter century and was lovingly called "Tecumseh" by the boys he helped, after the famous Shawnee chief. The J.D. Currie Youth Camp on LaCamas Lake was named in honor of John Currie. The man who was denied by fate from seeing his own son grow to manhood, was a second father to hundreds of other boys until his own death. It is important that Camp Currie be preserved for future generations in the outstanding and historic tradition of John Currie.
After the building was done, they built the fireplace. Mike Paul gave the order from the Crown Zellerbach Mill to use the "digester bricks." The bricks were round and of no further use. Tony Stear, a mason at the mill, built the fireplace in two days with Lonnie Belz as his helper. Mr. Thatcher built the first two outdoor toilets, men and women. Volunteers included Lonnie Belz, Milt Franklin, Carl Crosby, Dick Lawton, Louie Kersavage, Fisher Barnie Reese, Joe Stewart, Mr. Ted Freeman, Fred Good, and Lloyd Hutchinson.
Name: