Area Boy Scouts preparing for new campground

2,816-acre site northeast of Conroe to open in ’19 with ‘sense of seclusion’

Houston-area Boy Scout troops have been left to improvise for their near-monthly camping expeditions as they await completion of their new $60 million campground.

Lionel Jellins’ Troop 212, for instance, has been camping at state parks since the 2014 sale of the Sam Houston Area Council of Boy Scouts’ Camp Strake, which had housed the scouts since the 1940s.

Still a great experience, the troop leader said, campers compete for space with non-primitive vacationers. When travelling to beach parks, for example, the troop had to be bused to the water for lack of space nearby.

“When Strake closed, we didn’t have very many options,” Jellins said. “We were camping next to grandma and grandpa in their RVs with televisions and water — which is great for grandma and grandpa — but not what we’re looking for.”

Since Strake closed, area Scouts have been using Bovay Scout Ranch in Navasota, Camp Brosig in Sealy and El Rancho Cima near Wimberley.

The new campground, northeast of Conroe between Waverly and Coldspring, is expected to be ready in summer 2019. It replaces a site that sold for $62 million to the Johnson Development Corp., which plans to build 350 homes, a business park and a shopping center on the land near Exxon Mobil’s Montgomery County campus.

The Council’s COO, Thomas Franklin, said the original site was sold because of encroaching suburban sprawl. Noise and light pollution from

surrounding communities was beginning to diminish the natural experience at Camp Strake.

While former scouts bemoaned the closure of the beloved campsite, animosity toward the project has since cooled, Franklin said.

“Right now, people are very excited about the new campsite,” he said. “I get asked on a daily basis how it’s coming and when it’s going to open.”

The 2,816-acre site will remain isolated since it is surrounded on three sides by the Sam Houston National Forest. It’s accessible from Interstate 45 and a future stretch of the Grand Parkway. Jellins said he’s thrilled for the new campground. The location is convenient to scouts and troop leaders who live in the suburbs, as well as the city, but still secluded enough.

“There’s a sense of seclusion and being away,” Jellins said.

Renderings released last week by design firm Gensler show wooden buildings with a distinct modern style — the 500 acres that will be developed will be split into a camp for weekend and residential operations for Boy Scouts and Venturers and a leadership institute.

Scouts will have access to shooting sports and archery centers, a zip line, low ropes course, an ATV area, sports fields and a climbing and rappelling tower, as well as cabins and campgrounds with pavilions.

Because of blistering Texas summers, Franklin said the new Camp Strake includes more water features. The camp will include a pool and man-made lake for non-motorized water activities, including canoeing, kayaking and small boat sailing.

The camp also will feature a science, engineering, math and technology center where they’ll learn about sustainable energy and environmental science.

Jellins thinks his scouts will love their new space.

“From a 12-year-old’s perspective, they just know they’re going to camp,” Jellins said. “Once they see it, they’ll be really excited.”

Troop 212 has produced 24 Eagle Scouts, all of whom have gone straight to college. Jellins says having a positive camp experience is crucial to development as a scout and as a leader.

“A lot of what they have to do is learned in the outdoors,” said Jellins, who has worked with the Boy Scouts most of his life. “We have a saying in our troop — you can’t take the outing out of scouting.”