Pee Dee Area Council
The Pee Dee Area Council was a Boy Scouts organization located in northeastern South Carolina. The Indian Waters Council headquartered in Columbia, SC absorbed the council on August 1, 2022. The combined council, Indian Waters Council #553 continues to operate Camp Coker, and maintain an office in Florence, SC.
Organization
- Atakwa District
- Chicora District
- Great Northern District
- Henry Shelor District
Camp Coker
Camp Coker is a Boy Scout Camp located just outside Society Hill, South Carolina. Camp Coker is operated by the Pee Dee Area Council. The fully accredited Camp Coker offers programs and activities including COPE, aquatics, canoeing, rowing, sailing, kayaking, handicrafts, rifle shooting, shotgun shooting, archery, ecology and environmental science, fishing, natural sciences, Scoutcraft, and Trailblazers. Camp Coker is a year-round facility. In addition to the Boy Scout summer camp program held June to August each year, Camp Coker host a variety of events, from unit camping opportunities to training courses, Wood Badge, Council events, District events, and Order of the Arrow functions.History
Camp Pee Dee
Czarnitzki returned to Camp Coker for the council anniversary camporee in November 1978. He and Wilbert H. Bernshouse from Sumter were the only people from 1929 at the camporee in 1978.According to the 1941 Camp Coker bulletin, the question of how the site for Camp Coker was chosen is answered by a story about a good pot of fish stew. The bulletin recounts that a group of men from Darlington were out looking for a site to be used by the Boy Scouts for camping. The men traveled to a grist mill dam on Spot Mill Creek near Society Hill. They had come for a fish stew but later decided that the land looked ideal for the camp site they had been searching for. The grist mill building was still there in 1943 but was torn down sometime after that.
Soon after the trip buildings were constructed as the site was developed. The original camp was built on and called Camp Pee Dee after the name of the council. "Pee Dee" is the name of an Indian tribe from the area as well as a regional name for this part of the state. The Great Pee Dee River flows just miles from the camp. The Little Pee Dee River also flows through the council's geographic area.
The camp was located on the site of an old plantation. Spot Mill Creek runs through the heart of this site. In the 19th century a dam was built to form a pond for a grist mill. Turpentine was also extracted from some of the tall pine trees on the land.
In the original camp there were several buildings. The boys stayed in one of six screened-in cabins, each housing eight campers with four sets of bunk beds. The cabins were given names after famous Native American tribes such as the Apache, Sioux, Iroquois, Cherokee, Navajo and Seminole. In addition, there was one cabin for the cooks. The camp director, W. E. Czarnitzki, also had a cabin near the entrance to camp that served as an office. The cabins were screened in with canvas that could be dropped down in case of rain. They also had a front porch that extended out a couple of feet.
The other original buildings at Camp Pee Dee were the dining hall and the handicraft lodge. The dining hall was built by men from Darlington in 1929. It was erected on a hill overlooking the cabins. It was a wooden building on stilts over uneven ground. Water came up to the dining hall from an electric pump located near the road. This dining hall was used through the 1951 camping season. It was torn down to make way for the new dining hall. The new dining hall opened for the 1952 camping season and was constructed on a concrete slab after the top of the hill had been graded to an even surface.
The Handicraft Lodge was located just below the cabins on a hill. Many projects were completed in the Handicraft Lodge. Among those that the boys worked on were leather vests, along with sets of bows and arrows. The Handicraft Lodge and the Ecology hut are the only 1929 buildings that are still there in 2006.
Camp Pee Dee opened officially on July 1, 1929. Boys from Darlington, Sumter, and Bennettsville were the first to use the camp with a total of about 40 boys in camp. The flag pole was located on a hill above the dining hall and the cabins. The boys assembled outside their cabins for flag ceremonies. The swimming area was located right off of the dam. A pier was constructed for use and a platform was built in the water for diving.
The camp newspaper, called the Pine Needles, reports a lot of the activities that were going on in camp. Morning inspections were conducted by Sgt. Murrel Rose of Fort Jackson with the Cherokee Cabin and the boys from Sumter being five-time winners. The paper reports there were no cases of homesickness, although staff members Marion Yates and Dana Crosland were cited for love sickness. The best fisherman of the season was C. C. Griffen of Troop 14 in Bennettsville. He was responsible for landing three big jackfish in one day and causing a big stir in camp during the second week. A whole host of weekly individual awards were given out including biggest grouch, biggest eater, sloppiest Scout, funniest Scout, and the biggest "sheik" to name a few.
Camp Pee Dee becomes Camp Coker
The name of the council camp was changed from Camp Pee Dee to Camp Coker before the summer of 1932 in memory of Charles Westfield Coker, of Hartsville, South Carolina. He was President of the Southern Novelty Company from 1918 until his death in the fall of 1931. The lake in the center of camp is named Lake Westwood in honor of Charles Westfield Coker and Joseph Norwood. Joseph Norwood was a developer who took the Cox Plantation and subdivided it into lots in the year 1915. One of those lots of was the original land for the camp.Improvements to the camp followed at a steady rate. A map made in 1940 shows that among the new additions were a first aid lodge, the long house, a campfire ring, and a bridge to the island in the lake. The camp latrines were given affectionate names. Wilbert Bernshouse recalls that in 1943 they were called Egypt, because "that's where the pyramids are". In 1944 he recalls them being called linen closets because everyone took their sheets there.
Camp Coker has gone through a number of different stages of growth from the original buildings in the summer of 1929 to what the camp looks like today. Many activities that boys at Camp Pee Dee enjoyed like swimming, archery, and handicrafts are still the foundation for the modern Camp Coker program. Although the activities are similar, the buildings have changed. By using old photographs and maps it is possible to construct a sort of historical tour of Camp Coker.
There have been several waves of construction at Camp Coker. There are also three corresponding types of architecture that can be seen at camp. These waves were the original construction, development in the early 1950s and development between 1962 and 1963. There are some buildings at camp today which do not fall into these waves. Among these buildings are the old winter cabin, the shooting sports buildings, and the Shaw Training Center.
Bill Stallworth became the PDAC Scout executive on January 1, 1952. He had previously served the council as a Field Scout Executive. He initiated the construction of several buildings at camp. The style of architecture used was basically concrete block. The current dining hall was one of these buildings. It was constructed of concrete block and had a porch on the end. A storage building now called the warehouse was built behind the dining hall. Directly beside it was a shower building which was the only one in camp. This structure now serves as a paint shed.
A string of buildings was built along the road adjacent to the winter cabin. Among these additions was a trading post, health lodge and the director's cabin. A new dock was built at the waterfront along with a bridge leading to the swimming area from the central part of camp. Many troop camp sites were improved. A caretaker's house was built prior to camp in 1951. This caretaker's house was later moved up the hill and across the road and the present ranger's house was built – 63. William Lucas Shoemake became the first full-time ranger in November 1962 and served through the summer of 1981. Mr. Shoemake was a fine Christian man who was greatly admired by the Camp Coker Staff. He was the only person to ever be granted a lifetime membership in Santee Lodge 116.
The camp was changed significantly in the 1950s when a sand causeway was built across the lake. A small bridge linked the causeway to the shore on the main side of camp. This bridge was replaced by a bigger, nicer bridge in the 1962-63 renovations that was high enough for rowboats and canoes to pass underneath. The bridge and causeway made the other side of the lake more accessible and it was no longer necessary to walk all the way around the lake to get to the other side. The wooden 1962-63 bridge was replaced by a bridge with steel supports and rails in 1993.
The swimming area at camp during the 1950s featured a "T Dock" and had the canoes docked at the swimming area. A diving platform was also located a little further out from the dock. The current dock has been in the shape of an "F" since the 1970s. There is also a floating dock further out in deeper water. Swimming at Camp Coker is done in Lake Westwood. There has never been a swimming pool at Camp Coker. Camp Coker used to have a marathon in which troops competed in a foot race, archery, rifle, obstacle course, rowing, canoeing, and swimming. The marathon began at the spillway and ended in the nearby swimming area so a spectator in that vicinity could see the beginning and the end of the marathon. Another program feature for adult leaders in camp was the greased watermelon where adults tried to put a greased watermelon into a canoe in the nonswimmers area. The sight of adults trying to hold on to a slippery greased watermelon provided many laughs. Another program feature for boys was the war canoes in which boys went in the lake in two canoes with fire buckets but no paddles. The object was to swamp the other canoe by bailing water into it.