Hidden Valley Scout Reservation - Boy Scout Camps on Waymarking.com

Everyone who has visited Hidden Valley, whether a long-time Scouter or a new scout, quickly becomes impressed with the beauty of the area. The mountain setting, with Sherman’s Creek winding throughout the camp, offers an ideal location for the large number of Scouting activities that occur there annually. Not as well known, perhaps, is the information about the historical and geological record of the camp area. Here are a few highlights.

Hidden Valley is located in Tyrone Township. The county itself, while one of the smaller Pennsylvania counties, is nonetheless about half the size of Rhode Island. Interestingly, all of the southern states except small sections of Virginia and North Carolina, lie west of the county. Tyrone Township can trace its history back to an Indian treaty made in Albany, New York, 1754. Originally part of Cumberland County. Tyrone is the oldest of the seven townships in Perry County.

There are a number of significant geological and topographical characteristics in the Hidden Valley Camp area. Ridges and valleys are a dominating feature of the Appalachian Mountain system of which the Camp is a part. Hidden Valley itself lies within Sherman’s Valley which comprises the larger part of western Perry County and which is drained by Sherman’s Creek. A second valley, Limestone Valley, begins east of New Bloomfield and runs westward until it merges with Sherman’s Valley at Green Park, just east of the camp.

Bower Mountain, a ridge of the Blue or Kittatinny Mountain, runs roughly from the southwest to northeast and Hidden Valley sits just at the top of this ridge. Just east of the camp is a promontory called Bell’s Hill which marks the end of still another ridge called Mahanoy Ridge.

Perry County has practically no minerals. However, according to an early state geological survey, the earliest fish and vertebrate fossils found in any part of the world were discovered in the camp about 1883. It may be possible to spot some of these fossils in the many rock outcroppings that are noticeable in the camp, particularly the one commonly known as Eagle Rock, a promontory overlooking Sherman’s Creek at the western end of Great Stag campsite.

One of the most obvious features of the camp is the stream that winds its way through it. Sherman’s Creek is the most important stream in Perry County. The creek rises in the mountains of Tyrone Township in the extreme western portion of the county. It flows in an almost easterly direction, draining the greater portion of western Perry County and emptying into the Susquehanna River at Duncannon. A dam located at the eastern boundary of the camp provides water deep enough to allow boating , canoeing, and, until the pool was built about 40 years ago, the swimming program.

This a but a brief description of some of the interesting physical and historical features of Camp Hidden Valley. Hopefully this article will encourage readers to take some time during their next visit to the camp to look around with renewed interest.



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