Camp Rock Enon

Camp Rock Enon
Camp logo on a patch
Owner	Shenandoah Area Council
Location	Gore, Virginia at the base of Great North Mountain
Camp Rock Enon Show map of USA Virginia West Virginia border Camp Rock Enon Show map of Shenandoah Valley Camp Rock Enon Show map of Northern Virginia Camp Rock Enon Show map of Virginia Camp Rock Enon Show map of the US
Country	United States
Coordinates	39°12′51″N 78°23′16″W / 39.2141313°N 78.3877145°W / 39.2141313; -78.3877145
Camp size	877 acres (3.55 km2)
Founded	1944
Website Camp Rock Enon

Camp Rock Enon or CRE is a Boy Scouts of America resident summer camp for both younger and older youth with high adventure opportunities. The mineral springs of the area afforded the development of a resort in 1856. 89 years later in 1944 the resort and most of the land began the conversion to youth development resources. The summer camp includes familiar outdoor programs like aquatics, camping, cooking, fishing, handicraft, and shooting sports, yet also includes less common programs like canyoneering, rappelling, rock climbing, scuba, space exploration, volleyball, white water rafting, and wilderness survival. The property includes 14 campsites that accommodate from 16 to 56 campers in tents or Adirondack shelters as well as a dining hall that can serve 450 at a time. The camp is 1.6 miles (2.6 km) from the border of Virginia and West Virginia, 35 miles (56 km) from the Maryland border, and also 35 miles (56 km) from the Pennsylvania border. Units from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia most often frequent the property.

Most of the area history is wrapped around the four (alkaline, saline, chalybeate, and sulphuretted) types of mineral water springs that naturally occur on the land. The area was once called Capper Springs, named for area settler John Capper. William Marker bought the 942 acres (381 ha) in 1856 and built a hotel that survived the American Civil War. On March 24, 1899 the Shenandoah Valley National Bank purchased the property for $3,500. During the summer of 1914 botanists found polypodium vulgare, phegopteris hexagonoptera, adiantum pedatum, pteris aquilina, and cheilanthes lanosa on the property. The idea that soaking in the spring water had medical value was likely a large part of the tourism. In 1917 the Winchester and Western Railroad connected Rock Enon Springs with Winchester, moving both vacationers and supplies with far greater speed. In 1944, when that healing idea was likely no longer generally accepted as true, the Glaize family sold the property to the Shenandoah Area Council who turned what was once a resort into a summer camp. In 1944 the 5 acres (0.020 km²) Miller Lake was created by adding a 200 feet (61 m) earth dam across Laruel Run using equipment owned by the Federal Fish Hatchery in Leestown. In 1958 "walnut, chestnut and persimmon trees" were planted on the property. Today Rock Enon is accredited as both a Cub Scout resident camp and a Boy Scout camp.