It Happened in Hillsborough: Girl Scout Camp Meiken

The year was 1926, and the Girl Scouts of New Brunswick had a problem. Summer was fast approaching, and they

had yet to secure a suitable location for their annual camp season. For years, they had been a somewhat itinerant
troop - moving from one undesirable campground to another. Whether it was being flooded out by the Millstone
River at Rocky Hill or being overcome by mosquitoes at Silver Lake in Mountainside, they vowed that 1926 would
be different.

Girl Scout Camp Meiken

Troop leaders began traveling the backroads of Middlesex and Somerset Counties, asking country store proprietors
if they knew any good spots for girls to camp, particularly with a good old-fashioned swimming hole nearby. In
Neshanic, they were told of a spot just down Montgomery Road at the site of the old covered bridge across the
Neshanic River. It was perfect!

Miss Louise Peterson was brought in from Estherville, Iowa, to lead the camp program. Sleeping tents were pitched
at the top of a small hill, with the kitchen and dining tents in the meadow below - a field full of pink azaleas,
Quaker ladies, and large moss violets. Altogether, the camp comprised about 12 acres with 400 feet of river
frontage. They named their camp "Meiken"- an Indian word meaning "scout."

The successful first year encouraged the Scout leadership to buy the property outright from local farmer Chris
Knudsen and to engage the Danish immigrant in constructing a permanent cabin for the camp. This he did with
such skill that the building - with a living room and fireplace on one end, a kitchen with pantry on the other, and a
long porch across the front - stood for decades despite years of flooding and the wear and tear from thousands of
girls.

A typical two to four-week campout during those first years would include plenty of games and arts and crafts -
especially basket-making - as well as swimming in the Neshanic River. Older girls might also go on a canoe
expedition on the Neshanic - camping out in the woods after a day of paddling and enjoying nature. Parents were
told not to worry, since in those days the Neshanic was still navigable by canoe or small boat and was quite
shallow.

Besides hikes and canoeing along the river, the scouts - typically 40 in number - would also hike the trails up the
Sourland Mountain. Evening activities might include singing and also dressing up - Pirate Night was a big hit! At all
times, the girls were fed the freshest local NJ foods, including, as reported by the New Brunswick Home News,

milk from Guernsey cows from a nearby pasture, fresh eggs from the adjoining farm, and plenty of fresh green
vegetables."

The New Brunswick Girl Scouts continued to make active use of Camp Meiken throughout the 1930s. Then the
course of the river changed, and swimming - so important then as now to the Scout Camp experience - was no
longer feasible. The camp then became a mecca for shorter excursions of about four days. With the water from the
deep artesian well still coming up pure and cold and the main building still functional, girls were able to enjoy a
few days in the country each summer. New Brunswick Girl Scouts last used the camp in the late 1950s.

Gregory Gillette has been writing about local history for 20 years, starting with his Courier News column “Gillette
on Hillsborough” and continuing today with a Facebook page of the same name. He was named as Hillsborough’s
first Local Historian in 2025.