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By Kate Day in The Olean Times Herald
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It was the early part of 1971 and throughout several counties in Pennsylvania and New York, children and adults were making plans for their
summer at Camp Cornplanter. Camp Director Annabel Bollinger, now deceased, had worked for most of the year getting the Allegheny Forest facility
ready and in place for the first busload of mentally retarded campers. "Mrs. B." as she was called by all who knew her, had carefully selected her
teen aged counselors months before camp opened and knew all the workers as if they were her own children. The pay for many of these counselors was
approximately $35 a week, but none complained because they saw this as an opportunity to experience camp life while at the same time learning about
those who were mentally retarded. Days were filled with exercise, arts and crafts, nature hikes, swimming, and evening campfires with "Chief
Cornplanter". Portrayed by a counselor. The camp was a success story and had been since it first opened in 1959 through the combined efforts of the
area's Association for Retarded Citizens.
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"Love these children of the Lord; show them compassion and love, today; for we may not pass this way again"
Unsigned inscription found on Cornplanter Cabin wall
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Through the 1960s and 1970s the camp provided an outdoor experience to a segment of society with limiting handicaps. During the peak years it would
service 135 campers a week during a two month period each summer. But, by the early 1980s, all of that would change. To better understand what
happened to Camp Cornplanter, former district ranger of the Allegheny National Forest, Donald Burge of Warren and current district ranger Corbin
Newman were contacted.
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Mr. Burge said when the ARC was issued the permit in 1959, "the facility was in very poor condition." The former official said the facility, to the
best of his knowledge, remained empty following its use as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the 1930s. "We, the forestry department, worked out
a permit and the ARC agreed to make improvements." Through the years the camp was improved and the ARC added an arts and crafts building and laundry
building, he said. Even with all of the improvements, however, the poor conditions of the outdoor toilet facilities and poor wiring started to become
a problem became a problem by the early 1980s, he said.
"The wiring in the cabins was not good and the pit toilets were leaking and having cave-ins," Mr. Burge explained. What was needed was a sewer treatment
plant and a new water supply system that would have cost approximately $650,000, he said. "We don’t serve as a landlord. We’re not going to build or maintain",
Mr. Newman said. When asked how much it would cost to build a new facility comparable to the existing camp, the officials said several million dollars.
Former officials who had served on the Camp Cornplanter board of directors viewed the downfall of the camp in a different light. Bob Keim of St. Marys,
former board chairman, said one of the problems was the inability to get counselors in the later years. "We couldn't compete with the fast food places.
They were looking for more lucrative jobs," Keim said. He said it was also difficult to obtain grants because the camp was on federal land and not owned by the ARC.
Participation at the camp began waning during the final years with only a few counties involved in the program, he said. Cattaraugus and Allegany counties in New York
were two areas that continued to send clients until the camp's closing in 1983, Mr. Keim said.
"I used to take kids out there from the area," said Margaret Peavy, who had worked at the ReHabilitation Center in Allegany, N.Y.
Ms. Peavy said that since the facility has closed there have been few other opportunities for the handicapped to camp as a group during the summer.
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