Abandoned Summer Camp With Everything Left Behind: Towels, a Canoe and a Popcorn Machine

This is a summer camp that closed a few years ago and left nearly everything in it. Gatorade jugs on a freezer, towels in the sheds, a canoe stored overhead, art supplies, movies and a popcorn machine. The exact location stays off this page.

Vato and I explored it together. One of us said the camp was coming down in about a week. The camp’s name was on almost everything, so I blurred it out of the video as best I could, and I am keeping it off here too.

What we found

We started in the storage rooms. Gatorade jugs sat on top of a freezer with nothing in it, there were stacks of mats, a little drum kit, and a play set where most of the pieces had been broken off. The equipment room was packed. The scooters were in there, and I had just seen a viral video saying the handles are actually finger guards you put your hands inside, so I felt like an idiot. Something in there smelled weird.

Outside, the tennis court had nothing left on it. There was a little go kart thing, an arcade game, an archery setup, a space ball game and a trampoline. Past that was a basketball court, a small stage with soccer nets and little bleachers.

In the sheds were the towels, umbrellas and chairs, plus finger traps, bowling pins and pool stuff. A sign said access to grounds prohibited, check in at the office. There was paint, a whole canoe stored up high, pool floaties and a pyramid thing, and all the art supplies. There were welcome bears that I could not tell whether the kids had carved. Another sign listed the names of everyone who had gone to the camp.

The rooms had crayons, chairs, beds, shorts, flowers, cords, more movies, puzzles and trophies up high. Somebody had smashed the TV. Somebody had also stolen the Xbox. We found tickets and a cowboy hat, an award, and a lot of pictures of the people who went there.

This is why we do not give out locations. People always vandalize everything. We had talked before the video about how easy this place would be to expose, because the name was everywhere, and I did my best to blur it. I might have missed something.

The smoke alarms were scaring me. They were chirping with dying batteries, like they were asking to be changed.

The tools looked like they had been stolen. There was a box of electronic parts and another of shop parts. Then there was a kitchen, with a popcorn machine and actual popcorn still up in the cabinet.

Down the way were what looked like pictures of kids playing baseball, and then the pool, covered up, with a slide. There were more towels and some rags, nail polish and makeup, and a pile of movies including Karate Kid and The Parent Trap. The last room was lifeguard gear and plumbing for a water softener, and there was not much else to see.

Why places like this end up empty

I do not know why this camp closed, and the video does not say. Camps in general have been under pressure for a long time.

In 2006, the Associated Press reported that traditional sleepaway camps were struggling against specialty camps, which pulled campers away. Some owners sold scenic land to developers who made attractive offers. Many private camps were handed down in families, but heirs were not always willing to take on the work, and some parents were less comfortable sending children away for long stretches. The American Camp Association said the number of camps had grown from about 8,000 in the 1970s to about 12,000, largely through specialty camps, and its CEO said the change could be seen as the demise of the resident camp.

The money is rarely easy. In July 2020 the Associated Press reported more than 15,000 camps in the country, with many of them closed or at risk of closing. In Maine, only 20 of 110 licensed overnight camps were opening, and the camps that did open were mostly losing money, according to Maine Summer Camps.

Somebody said it was coming down in about a week, and the popcorn was still in the cabinet.