Camp_Timberwolf - Council History

Camp Timberwolf (1955-1973) - Facts and Figures

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Timberwolf

Coyotes heard yapping in the distance

Silverado Area Council #38 (1927-1992)

n/a

Special Use Permit by US Forest Service

Lower Buck Lake, CA

39.90160108998436, -121.21320557475612 (click on coordinates for Camp Location)

Plumas

1955, January

1973

Approximately 8

5031 feet

Located on Lower Bucks Lake in the Plumas National Forest about 45 miles northeast of Oroville and 20 miles west of Quincy, California

Currently a group camp for scout, church or other youth organizations

Camp Timberwolf - History

The following is taken from the Camp Timberwolf History by Cliff De Lacy:

The year was 1947 and a group of men from the parents club that helped sponsor Boy Scout Troop 64 of Vallejo, along with Scoutmaster Vernon Flegge and Assistant Scoutmaster Raymond Keay, gave birth to the creation of the camp site at Lower Bucks Lake.

The site was thought to be a former Indian ceremonial ground and was used in the 1930s by the California Conservation Corps (CCC) to help build a dam. All the equipment to build the camp came from the Mare Island Naval Station in Vallejo. Several officers were also members of the parents club and arranged to obtain cooking equipment, generators, 60 man tents, 30 man life rafts, and life rafts from PBYs (aircraft), balsa wood rafts for the waterfront. Most of the material was from a government disposal site for equipment no longer needed after World War II.

In the 1930s it was reported that a wolf was seen in the Bucks Lake area. They had called him “Three Legs” – apparently he had lost a leg in a trap or someone took a shot at him (her?). But that is not how the camp got its name. While we were at the campfire one evening, Assistant Scoutmaster Ray Keay asked us what we should name the camp. At that point we heard a couple of coyotes yapping in the distance and someone said, “Let’s call it Camp Timberwolf.” That is how the name of the camp came to be.

In January 1955 operation of Camp Timberwolf at Lower Bucks Lake was officially transferred from the Parents Club of Vallejo Troop 64 to the Silverado Area Council.

The Camp and all its facilities were given to the Council without charge by the Parents Club which had owned and operated the camp since the late 1940’s. The use of the Camp Timberwolf land was by a special use permit by the US Forest Service. The size of the camp was sufficient for only a few troops at a time.

The facilities of the camp included lake frontage with boating and swimming, a dining hall, kitchen, shower and toilet facilities and three cabins that sleep 8 each. The commissary supplied the food but each troop cooks their own food.

In the early 1970’s the Silverado Area Council turned Camp Timberwolf over to a group of previous campers who turned the Camp into a group camp for scout, church and other youth organizations at Lower Bucks Lake.

Note: Cliff De Lacy achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in Troop 64, Vallejo, California in 1951. He earned 38 merit badges and 2 bronze palms. He became a member of the Camp Timberwolf Improvement Committee after leaving the U. S. Marine Corps in 1956. His love for the outdoors was inspired by the beauty of the Bucks Lake Wilderness Area. He was an avid bow hunter and fly fisherman. He was involved with Scouting for more than 22 years and became a Scoutmaster for Troop 78 in American Canyon, California and later for Troop 64 in Vallejo, California.