Boy Scouts agree to sell a Poconos camp for $7.8 million, part of which will go toward sex-abuse settlement

The Minsi Trails Council has announced an agreement to sell its 755-acre Camp Trexler in the Poconos for $7.8 million under an arrangement that allows a nonprofit veterans group to lease the land while Scouts continue to use it.

At least for now, the deal appears to avoid a large-scale development of the property as neighbors and conservationists had feared. Some of the money from the sale will go toward a $2.46 billion national settlement over decades of sex-abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America, which declared bankruptcy in 2020. The Minsi Trails Council’s share is $2.6 million.

Minsi Trails Council officials confirmed the sale agreement Thursday on the group’s Facebook page. The camp will be sold to the newly formed Trexler Veterans Initiative and leased to the nonprofit Valor Clinic Foundation, which provides assistance to veterans in accessing benefits, finding shelter, and locating resources for post-traumatic stress.

“Knowing that both the military and scouting were priorities for General Trexler, we are very pleased that TVI and the Valor Clinic Foundation have agreed to permit the use of the property by Scout units for cabin rentals and campsite use into the foreseeable future,” Minsi Council leaders wrote.

The local Scout leaders said that nationally, an estimated 22 veterans die by suicide daily, and the clinic plans to use the camp property for a program aimed at reducing that number. The clinic will begin operations at the camp in October.

Mark Baylis, a veteran and founder of the Valor Clinic Foundation, said the purchase was made possible by a benefactor who formed the Trexler Veterans Initiative and chooses to remain anonymous.

Plans are to preserve the camp and restore some of the buildings, including the original camp building, Baylis said. The remainder of the land would be placed under a conservation easement. The camp was originally used as a haven for vets returning from World War I experiencing post-traumatic stress, then referred to as shell shock.

“We look forward to doing this for the veterans and the community, and to let the Scouts back on the property. The Girl Scouts are also interested,” Baylis said. “I think it will strike a good balance between the veterans, the Scouts, and the community.”

Baylis said his organization is “very grateful to our benefactors” whom he described as a “blue collar” man who rose from humble beginnings “to the point where he and his wife could write a check for $7.8 million and not blink.”

For nearly a century, Boy Scouts have enjoyed swimming, campfires, and hiking at the mostly forested Camp Trexler, which also has a lake. Lehigh Valley industrialist Harry Trexler gave the land to the Scouts in 1927.

Neighbors feared the land, which is zoned for housing, would be sold for development and change the nature of the rural hamlet of Jonas in Polk Township, Monroe County.

The Minsi Trails Council of the Boy Scouts is one of 250 local councils across the United States under pressure to pay toward the national sex-abuse settlement that led to the organization’s bankruptcy.

Louise Troutman, executive director of the nonprofit Pocono Heritage Land Trust (PHLT), was among the people trying to prevent development of Trexler. Her group bid $4.6 million for the camp.

She said there were nine bidders, one of which was a national company that provides garbage and recycling pickup. As a result, many neighbors had feared the camp could have become a landfill. Other possible uses, she feared, included industrial or even a solar farm that would have required clear-cutting trees.

Though Troutman was disappointed PHLT was outbid, she said the results could have been far worse. Neighbors had rallied to help raise money for PHLT’s bid.

“Pocono Heritage Land Trust is incredibly grateful for the huge outpouring of community support we received to help protect the camp,” she said. “We’re also happy that the property will still be available to Scouts.”

David Fradkin, one of a group of neighbors that had organized against any development, said the group is relieved that the land was purchased for use by veterans, “instead of some developers who would have destroyed its natural beauty and value. … Camp Trexler is a special place for many people and wildlife. It would be a shame to lose it after all these years.”