Camp Morehead By-The-SeaVirpetual* Reunion Web Site

The Closing Of Camp Morehead

Here are a couple of newspaper articles which describe camp's closure and the demolition of the cabins.

An era ends

Counselors at Camp Morehead used to tell campers that because of all the ghosts, monsters, and murderers in the woods, Cap'n Purcell couldn't sell the camp.

But apparently the ghosts, monsters, and murderers have been caught or fled, or that was just a fairy tale, because with the end of its 1995 summer season, Camp Morehead By-the-Sea, a summer sailing camp for the past 56 years on Bogue Sound west of Morehead City on Highway 24, has closed. Families of campers who attended the camp recently were notified this week. J. Purcell Jones, camp owner and operator since 1960 and known affectionately by campers over the years as golf-cart-driving "Cap'n Purcell" will develop the 40 acres on the sound side for 10 waterfront lots and about 50 lots off the water.

Mr. Jones, whose family was involved in the camp operation, said the decision to close Camp Morehead was the toughest decision he's ever made.

To run it as a summer camp, "No one could pay what it's worth and make it pay,", he said, adding that Camp Morehead has been attended by campers from every state in the union.

"And this past summer we had campers from 15 foreign countries, including 10 from Madrid, Spain."

The camp was started in 1938 by the late "Cap'n Pat" Crawford, formerly of Kinston and Morehead City, who played for the New York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds and the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, for whom he was a pinch-hitter in the 1934 World Series. Mr. Jones, a World War II Seabee who worked in the Durham Recreation Department and coached all forms of athletics at Clinton High School, joined the staff in 1948.

Mr. Crawford sold the camp to Mr. Jones after the 1959 camp session and became a camp adviser.

Camp Morehead originally offered summer activities - swimming in the Bogue Sound and the ocean and everything associated with it; sailing on a myriad of sailboats, motorboating, water skiing, hydro-sliding and tubing, canoeing, kayaking, golf and tennis, revelry and archery, softball, baseball volleyball, crafts, area trips and knuckleball - only to boys.

With the arrival of Mr. Jones in 1948, girls could attend a three-week pre--camp before the regular for boys, two four-week sessions, began. Eventually Camp Morehead included girls as regular campers.

Though camp experiences varied somewhat, learning to sail - or if one didn't learn to sail, at least gaining confidence on the water - was the main skill that permeated practically everyone who went to Camp Morehead. Other camp adventures in which everyone shared included eating meals family style, sports, listening to ghost stories, attending dances in the camp's gym/dance hall, cleaning cabins, toilets and showers, in short, learning teamwork.

There were countless other experiences enjoyed by campers: the cooling, soft southwest sea breezes (this was before air conditioning), finding seashells, crabbing, claming and fishing, perusing the moon over Bogue Sound, discovering Morehead City, a meal at the Sanitary Seafood Restaurant.

Among some families, tradition followed tradition inasmuch as generations of campers followed their fathers to Camp Morehead. And where these campers went to college - UNC, N.C. State, Virginia, W&L, Hampden-Sydney, or VMI - a Camp Morehead fellowship developed. They were all members of the fraternity, they'd shared experiences and knew one another intrinsically.

But the fairy tales are over. The ghosts, monsters, or murderers are no longer. Camp Morehead is closed, and it's undeniably sad. It's the end of an era.

Camp cabins razed

By Lisa Taylor
Staff Writer

Teamwork.

That was a key element in the values that for years were part Of Camp Morehead, a private sailing camp on Bogue Sound off Highway 24.

And that was the focus of dozens of volunteer firefighters who burned three of the camp cabins during a training session Saturday.

"With 10 different departments you have 10 different groups of people who seldom work together," said county Fire Marshal Al Hadley, one of the instructors. "You get to know the guy in the department next to yours and find out he puts his pants on the same way you do. It helps foster teamwork and increase confidence in others when it comes to a real fire."

Camp Morehead, which operated for 57 years, was shut down after last year's season. J. Purcell Jones, camp owner and operator since 1960, made a tough decision when he closed the camp, but said last fall: "No one could pay what it's worth and make it pay."

Mr. Jones plans to develop the 40 acres into 10 waterfront homesites and 50 lots off the water.

He watched Saturday as firefighters from 10 of the 23 fire departments serving the county trained and as three of seven cabins were burned. Mr. Jones said he offered to give the cabins away to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, but moving them apparently proved too expensive, and there were no takers. At a cost of $2,000 apiece, five cabins were moved to the large field on the north side of the camp site, and three were used Saturday for the training.

Water was drafted from Bogue Sound via a portable pump to a Wildwood Fire Department pumper on the shore. From there it was relayed to three dump tanks. Another pumper drafted from the tanks to supply the fire hoses.

Fires were lit inside the cabins one at a time. Teams of firefighters went in to put out the fires. "We set fires again and again," the fire marshal said. "We set them, and they put them out. I guess we did that over 50 times."

Volunteers that didn't go inside practiced drafting from dump tanks, transferring water and maintaining a required level of water. "The firefighters got a lot of experience. We have relatively few structure fires per department in the county," Mr. Hadley said. "It gives them good hands on experience and training."

Four cabins are left to be burned, and instructors hope to train volunteers from most of the remaining fire departments in the county. A date has not yet been set.

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