The Summit: Bechtel Family National Scouting Reserve
From West Virginia (WV) Cyclopedia
The Bechtel Family National Scouting Reserve, also known as The Summit, is a 10,600 acre scouting facility being developed by the Boys Scouts of America (BSA) at Glen Jean, WV, adjacent to the New River Gorge National River in an area known locally as the Garden Grounds.
Originally purchased for use as a center for summer programs, BSA officials announced in 2010 that the reserve would also become the permanent site of the organization's Jamboree, its traditional gathering of scouts held every four years. The event historically attracts more than 10,000 visitors daily over a 10 day period, the BSA estimates.
The Bechtel facility is being designed to accommodate 40,000 scouts and 6,500 adult participants expected during the first Jamboree in 2013 and as many as 100,000 scouts annually when the facility is fully staffed and operational after 2015. Development of the site was made possible by a $50 million gift from the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, the largest donation in Boy Scout history.
Development plans call for the construction of camping areas to accommodate more than 100,000 scouts as well as an amphitheater with matched capacity and action and adventure activity areas that include zip lines, canopy tours, climbing walls, challenge courses, and mountain-biking courses. Scouts will also be routed off the site to participate in adventure activities elsewhere nearby, including bouldering and rock climbing, rafting and kayaking. Scouts will also regularly help with regional development projects outside the reserve, according to BSA officials. More than 2,000 scouts will spend summer 2011 helping build more than 40 miles of new National Park Service trails in the New River Gorge area.
Much of the site was strip mined (using contour-mining methods) by The New River Company from the 1940s through the early 1960s. In August of 2010, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced (http://www.dep.wv.gov/news/Pages/DEPbeginsworkonGardenGroundMountainproject.aspx) that the agency had committed $10-12 million over a three year period for eligible reclamation projects within the Garden Grounds property. The DEP will address dangerous highwalls, exposed portals, old coal refuse piles and abandoned concrete structures -- all remnants of underground and surface mining on the property that ceased prior to 1977, when federal laws began requiring more responsible reclamation from coal companies. The DEP’s Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation program is funded by a fee placed on coal currently being mined in the state.
In January 2011, the BSA announced that the Bechtel site was chosen to host the World Scout Jamboree, a 12 day event, in 2019. This is the first time the World Scout Jamboree will be held in the United States in more than 40 years. The facility is located at 37° 53' N 80° 06' W., according to the BSA.
