Each summer, Night Eagle deliberately creates a world that is significantly different from the one in which boys normally live. By doing so, we invite boys to explore and be daring, to look beyond themselves and toward their relationship with the earth and others. In his book, The Hurried Child , David Elkind suggests that society is pressuring our children to mature both emotionally and intellectually faster than they can handle. By de-emphasizing play and overemphasizing ac

I strongly believe that everything that happens in a person's life is meant to be. Years ago, I visited a good friend and his wife in northern Mississippi, arriving at their house on a Saturday afternoon. That evening they were preparing to attend the opening of a play and invited me to join them. I thanked them for the invitation, but declined, saying that I'd rather find a book to read and just relax. After they left for the playhouse, I wandered over to the bookshelves tha

Last spring not long after I had sent out the spring edition of the Night Eagle News , I received a surprise email from Heart Spirit , a...

I recently re-read a news article from the Wall Street Journal that focused on camps that are springing up around the country to cater to boys who are growing up accustomed to the easy life and expecting more comfort. One camp in California built a million dollar dining hall with big picture windows over-looking a lake, to go along with better air conditioning in the cabins because, according to the director, “We have to keep the kids coming back.” A camp in Maine installed p

I’m going to do something here that I’m guessing very few camp directors would ever do. It might surprise you if you’ve never talked with...

Summer camps have an opportunity and an obligation to reintroduce boys to Nature, its power, and its beauty in order to offset the...

Unlike most boys today who are focused on their cell phones, when I was young, I would spend most of my time roaming around in the bayous near my house in Natchez, Mississippi, or peddling my bike to the many creeks and wooded areas around my hometown to explore them. When I was twelve or thirteen years old, my mom would sometimes drive my best friend, Jason Cooke, and me to the Natchez Trace, a prehistoric buffalo/Indian trail that is now a National Park, about twenty-five m

For forty-five weeks every year, the moose, otters, blue herons, beavers and their wilderness playmates have Night Eagle to themselves and enjoy the lakes, wetlands, and solitude of camp. However, when June rolls around, they have to move over and learn to share their adopted part of the Green National Mountain Forest with thirty-six boys who are anxious to become part of nature. Adults seem to be drawn to water, and campers are no different. They love the water, and at Night

This is a paper written by a former Night Eagle camper for his high school English class. He signed up for a three-week session his first...

The following article by Laura Moss from the Mother Nature Network was sent to us by Fisher Cares . He thinks we may have a “trail tree”...

"The buffalo is a symbol of self-sacrifice; it gives until there is nothing left. This was imitated by the people in their lives. To be...

(Blue Heron [below right] spent five summers at Night Eagle as a camper and more as a counselor. He still attends Work and Play Weekends...

(Each day in the summer during Morning Reflection at Night Eagle, someone tells or reads an American Indian story or myth that has been...

For as long as I can remember, the woods have beckoned to me. As a boy, armed with my trusty Daisy bb gun and my two-bladed Boy Scout knife, I spent much of my time exploring the banks of the Mississippi River and its many creeks and bayous, spearing fish, and catching turtles, crawfish, salamanders, and snakes (both poisonous and non-poisonous). Many of my favorite memories are tied to the time I spent barefooted and shirtless surrounded by nature. On one of my excursions, I

One of the most important ceremonies in American Indian teachings (and one that we hold frequently at Night Eagle) is the Give-Away...

There is no doubt that Night Eagle is a "magical" place, and you know that some of that pixie dust has fallen on you and that Night Eagle...

Justin Wexler (Earth Song), a former Night Eagle camper, our first AC, and later a counselor in the early years of camp has published a...