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Here is what I recall regarding Hyde Bay in 1969 and after.

        I remember returning home with my parents after the 1969 season assuming I would return to Camp in the summer of 1970 as a Junior Counselor. That fall Mom and Dad informed Dee-Dee and I the camp would be closed the following summer, and we would be going to Hyde Bay along with the Davison’s to assist the Pickett’s in closing the camp. My recollection is my father explained to me that the long term lease to use the camp site with the Clark family expired at the end of the summer of 1969. The State of New York had taken the Clark's property for back taxes, and they had honored the Clark’s lease with the Camp. However, upon the lease expiring, the State would only offer a year to year lease on the property. The Camp to continue operating would have been required to make substantial improvements to its septic system, and that kind of capital investment to the property could not been justified without the State entering into a long term lease of the property. As a result, Mouldy and Betty chose to close the camp.

        In the spring of that year, what has been referred to as the "Final 'Final Banquet'" was held at Eudowood Gardens in Towson, MD right outside of Baltimore, which is now the site of Towson Marketplace. I remember attending it with my parents, Dee-Dee, the Davison's, and the Pickett's. I recall it as being the bitter sweet occasion, and my recollection is it was mostly attended by adults. I do not remember seeing a lot of my generation at the event.

        In the summer of 1970 the Pickett’s, Hilliard’s, and Davison’s moved the Russelorum, Little Bohemia, and I believe the Counselor's Lodge to Beaver Valley. The kitchen equipment, plates, silverware, tents, cots, mattresses and some boats were sold at an auction on the camp site. Mouldy negotiated a deal with the owner of the company that transported the buildings Jim Hurtibiest, and the ownership of the Hacker was transferred to him as all or a partial payment for the moving expenses. I remember riding in the Hacker across the lake with Jim to a boat yard on the east side of the lake. Just as we reached the boat yard, the Hacker ran out of fuel. Sandy and I jumped in the water and literally swam it to the dock.

        I can recall visiting the camp site in the summer of 1971 with my parents. We were returning to Baltimore from working that summer at Adirondack Wilderness Camp on Long Lake, New York in the Adirondacks. Mouldy, Betty, and Sandy were still spending the summer on the camp site. The dining hall and the campers lodge along with the residential cabins were still on site. I remember sleeping in the cooks' cabin with Sandy, as I did during the previous summer.

Mike Hilliard

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