Camp Josepho stood in the Santa Monica Mountains for 84 years, its massive, wood-paneled Malibu Lodge hosting generations of Scouts.
Then, as the Palisades fire erupted in early January, a dreaded announcement came: The camp, once situated in Rustic Canyon, had been totally lost in the flames.
In March, two months after the fire, Scouting America, formerly Boy Scouts of America, decided that the camp will be rebuilt.
The future of the camp was initially unknown, though “whether it’s at a rebuilt Camp Josepho or somewhere else,” the Scouts would continue to provide opportunities and nature skills, said Scout Executive & CEO of the L.A. County Council Lee Harrison.
It will be a long process to rebuild, beginning with restoring the road up to the camp.
The lodge, cabins and bunkhouses have been reduced to nothing, sitting among burned vehicles, remnants of archery ranges and a still-standing pool house, the pool next to it murky with ash and debris.
The rebuilding of the camp will be funded by insurance, donations and possibly government assistance, but there is not yet a cost or time estimate for the process.
While the reinstatement of the facilities will take some time, bringing back a chance for Scouts from Los Angeles and Southern California to experience the outdoor education, wildlife and leadership training that the camp offered will be worth it, the Scouts say.
One such Scout is David Forbes, who saw the camp through a myriad of eras: bringing his son to experience his first camp out in the 1980s, the years Forbes spent driving up the road to attend council meetings held there, then his grandson Meyer following in the footsteps of the two generations before him, going to the lodge just recently.
“You were in the middle of Los Angeles and in the middle of nowhere at the same time,” Forbes said. “At that camp, you couldn’t see houses or signs of civilization anywhere. You were just in the camp. And I think that’s what made it such a great place.”
Forbes says the camp has entertained “scores of kids,” the grounds are where many young Scouts truly became leaders through the challenges of camping as they traversed the 110 acres of land that was Josepho.
One such Scout is his son, Micah Forbes, who spent many a weekend camping out at Josepho, did leadership training there, eventually became a leadership staff member at the camp and chose the lodge there to hold his Eagle Court of Honor Ceremony because of the trove of fond memories the place holds for him.
“[At Josepho] we did really typical Scout things, like you set up a camp kitchen and you try and convince boys to make their own food and make it edible and safe and that was a big challenge,” Micah recalled.
The only camp in the Scouts’ portfolio in the city of Los Angeles itself, it was a staple in the scouting experience of California Scouts for decades. The proximity to the city was also integral to other uses of the camp, making it accessible for many groups to use the grounds for retreats and conventions. For kids raised in a city, the rugged surroundings of Camp Josepho offered access to a different side of nature.
“Josepho was one of those spots where it was accessible and wilderness at the same time,” Micah said.
“It’s normal stuff that you see in your neighborhood, coyotes and rabbits, but you’ll also see hawks. Occasionally you’ll see an eagle and you’ll see falcons. You might run across rattlesnakes,” Forbes said. “There’s a wide variety of wildlife out there and there was a wide variety of plants and trees and other kinds of flora and fauna and the creek beds and the things that you find in a creek bed. So the breadth of experience for a kid in a matter of 36 to 48 hours is pretty amazing and they get a lot out of that.”
The camp was established in 1947 and notably housed the Order of the Arrow Malibu Lodge, an honor society within Scouting America, whose members are those who best live out the Scout Oath and Law.
While there are two other Scout camps in Southern California, Camp Emerald Bay on Catalina Island and Camp Whitsett near Big Bear, the role of Josepho in the lives of L.A. Scouts, as well as schools and other groups, is important to the L.A. County Council, so the camp will be rebuilt.
Forbes, who serves as vice president of marketing on the council’s board, says the biggest question looming now that they have decided to rebuild is what the vision will be for the next iteration of Camp Josepho, a process that will involve the camp’s constituents.
“First, we want to think about how quickly can we do things that will serve not just the scouting community, but the schools in and around L.A., because we’ve always been open to bringing in other parts of our community to take advantage of what’s there,” Forbes said. “So what kind of programs do we create? Will we rebuild camp sites? Yes, of course, we will. And we will try to create opportunities for the STEM experiences for a variety of training programs.”
For Micah, it was not the buildings that made the camp so special for him and other Scouts, but the location and the essence of a weekend away, disappearing from the world and becoming immersed in all that the mountains had to offer, from discovering fruit trees in a canyon to finding the perfect place to set up a tent, shaded by California live oaks just so.
“What I would love to see for Josepho isn’t holding on to whatever buildings existed there in the past, but that the camp gets developed for the next generation of Scouts and that means looking at how you structure camp very differently,” Micah said. “In the 1950s and 60s when these buildings were built… You had a lodge that was used for ceremonies and services and then a variety of things like an outside kitchen and there was also an indoor kitchen and it might not be necessary to have all of those things anymore.”
As a current assistant scoutmaster, Micah also notes that 21st century challenges that now affect a weekend campout. With access to technology increasing, disconnecting and leaning into the analog nature of a Scouting campout has become all the more difficult. At a rebuilt camp, he believes that this should be taken into consideration.
“You can’t ignore that technology exists. But you also have to consider what it means to create an alternative to that technology that’s appealing for kids now,” Micah said.
With the loss of the majority of trees and forestation on the property from the fire, there will be more land to work with, another consideration for the rebuilding process.
Whatever form the rebuilt camp takes on, for scouts like Micah, a future generation getting to experience the camp is hopeful, that there will be a place for Scouts to learn knots they will use for years to come, cooking skills, how to camp and be a steward of the community.
“It was more that it was all of these small pieces that came together to make the place a wonderful one to visit,” Micah said. “It was incredibly sad when when I found out that it had burned and is equally hopeful that there’s a plan moving forward to rebuild the camp that’s going to make better than it was before.”