Hankins Tales: Recalling the Quiet Weekends at Camp Powhatan

(Originally posted to social media on May 17, 2023)

By 1969, I was into my second year on Staff at Camp Powhatan. I remember that was the summer I became an Eagle Scout. It was the same night that they landed on the moon. We were able to watch some of that grainy footage up in the Staff Camp. I recall that it was a wonderful summer in a lot of ways. My favorite times were the weekends. Most of the Staff took off and went home. But I was part of a very small number of staff who stayed every weekend.

I could take a canoe out into the lake without having to worry about all of the rules and standards. I did have a lifejacket for a pillow. I could drape a fishing rod over the side and let the wind push me around that small lake. I would catch trout until i got tired of it and then I would just chill out in the sun. I was not teaching any classes or trying to corral hundreds of small boys.

Up in the camp office there was a central speaker system that connected to dozens of speakers that were attached to the trees around camp. You could make announcements or you could put on a record to play for the masses. There were recordings of Reville and Taps that had been played so many times that they had deep grooves in the records. On weekends people would come in and play their own music for the few of us who were still on the property. There was a lot of Johnny Cash. I still know all of the words to most Johnny Cash songs. They also played a record from a duo who had a one hit record called 2525. It was all about the distant future and it was a haunting song. I also still know all of the words to that one. The guy who wrote it did so in about 10 minutes after a night of hard drinking. It was his only hit. I remember a song called Ruby. “Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town”. They would sometimes play hard rock by Iron Butterfly or the Who. I did not care, I loved it all. Drifting around and staring at that cloudless sky, it created a wonderful memory. I was alone but I was not lonely. I was by myself but I could sense the sprits of thousands of young men who had passed this way. It was a wonderful place to be a kid.

With permission of the author, these stories by noted scouter and storyteller John Hankins are featured here at Natahwop.Org. He shares these as part of the history and lore of Camp Powhatan, Camp Ottari, and the High Knoll Trail, where he spent many years of his youth. John has an incomperable first-hand knowledge of this scout reservation, as he blazed most of the original trails for High Knoll, and has hiked the rest of them several times over.

John Hankins grew up in Troop 50 (Woodlawn United Methodist Church) in Roanoke, VA. He attended Camp Powhatan as a young scout, then worked at Philmont Ranch as a ranger. He returned to the reservation to serve on camp staff from 1968 to 1978. He was a legendary naturalist who could interpret the outdoors unlike any other. As a teacher, John often relied on the element of excitement to get his point across. His weekly lectures at the nature lodge, for example, introduced scouts to either a live rattlesnake or copperhead – usually dangling on a stick within a few feet of the front row.

John and several others first envisioned the now-legendary High Knoll trail system. They took it to council leadership for prospective funding, where the idea gained several key advocates (but no funding). John recalls how – in those days – they couldn’t pay the staff with money, so they gave them patches. The High Knoll Trail would go on to become one of the best outdoor programs in the country.

John applied in 1979 for the open job of Camp Ranger, but the council said he needed more experience in that post. With his rejection letter in hand, he was immediately hired by Camp Chickohominy, and then by Camp Brady Saunders where he served for 33 years as Camp Ranger. John moved with his wife, Cheri, to West Virginia where they enjoyed the spoils of retirement: grandchildren, travel, and the great outdoors. As of 2024, they are living on the outskirts of Richmond where they can be closer to family.

(“Hankins Tales” are shared here by permission of the author. Each story is copyrighted by John Hankins, and may not be reproduced in any form without his express written permission.)

The Natahwop

Hankins Tales: Recalling the Quiet Weekends at Camp Powhatan

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