The Virtual Museum
Special Exhibits
While the Permanent Exhibits section provides you a general overview of Boxwell and how the camp has worked, the Special Exhibit section focuses on, well, special exhibits! Here you will find a more detailed look at the reservation's past.
Given the nature of these exhibits, there are two things to keep in mind. First, this section of the museum will be a work-in-progress. As time goes by more special sections will be added. The year you see in the title is when the exhibit was originally published. Second, just like a real museum, as time goes by, we'll add new exhibits. We may even take some down (though it's hard to see why we would do that!).
The 1959 Capital Development Campaign built Boxwell at Old Hickory Lake. Most people know that the reservation opened in 1960, but very few are aware of the history behind the opening and how it came about. This exhibit will explore the plans, the development, and the opening ceremonies of Boxwell's 1960 opening.
For most staff members and Scouters today, Camp Murrey has never existed. However, Murrey was part of the original Boxwell at Old Hickory Lake and its history deserves some exploration. This exhibit will look at what Murrey was and how it operated. It is, in short, a look back at a different world of Scouting.
1993 Camp Parnell captures one of the last summers of Parnell as a Boy Scout resident camp. Parnell closed in 1999, served a few summers for Webelos and Venture, and then reopened with the STEM Center in 2016. The Staff Hat Project is an attempt to catalog all staff hats from their first appearance in the early 1970s. Other exhibits are coming...
A Working Farm
From its opening until 1976, Boxwell was not only a Boy Scout resident camp, but was also a working farm. Tobacco was grown on the backside of the reservation in fields now encompassed by CubWorld. Cows were kept on Explorer Island. There were even pigs!
Historically speaking, Scout camp was looked at as a venture that would lose money. Thus, to offset the costs of Scout camp, the reservation sold off tobacco, milk, and pigs. Indeed, at the end of the summer, Staff would actually help with these processes!
Of course, having your camp be a farm led to some interesting scenarios. Sometimes the cows got out. There are tales of cow patties on Parnell's porches awaiting the camp in the morning. There are also quiet stories of staff members who rode around on the hood of cars, chasing cattle at night!
