ABOUT Methodist Camp

Eagle River United Methodist Camp, or simply “Methodist Camp” to the locals, is a year round wilderness camp set on 48 acres of old growth forest 28 miles “out the road” from Juneau, Alaska. Many of our huge spruce and hemlock trees are 100s of years old and we regularly see the full spectrum of southeast Alaska wildlife; crows, blue jays, magpies, ravens, eagles, voles, squirrels, porcupine, salmon, deer, and bears. Methodist Camp is widely used by locals and out-of-town visitors for camps, meetings, retreats, weddings, birthday parties, family reunions, and memorials. There is a large community Thanksgiving Day Potluck Feast held every year. Summer and winter families come out to Methodist Camp to get out of town and spend the weekend in the trees. The schools bring their students out for school sponsored camps. Alaska native groups use Methodist Camp to teach cultural heritage. The State park facilities at Eagle Beach and the trails to Herbert and Eagle Glaciers are just down the road.

Methodist Camp was founded almost 75 years ago in 1954 by a small group of intrepid souls with the goal of creating a church camp for the increasing large group of church kids, over 100, at the two Methodist churches in town. “Intrepid” because in 1954 Glacier Hwy ended at the eastern bank of Herbert River. The Highway Dept had put in a foot bridge across Herbert River with a “corduroy road” running to the eastern bank of Eagle River. In order to cross Eagle River the new Camp Committee built a raft using empty 55 gallon drums for flotation and then rigged a running line with pulleys tied to trees on both shores to pull the “ferry” back and forth across the river. There was no electrical power so no electric lights and only hand tools could be used to build buildings. The progression of civilization reaching Methodist Camp is fascinating to contemplate and Larry Hayden’s book “A Comprehensive History of Eagle River United Methodist Camp in Juneau Alaska 1954-2020” documents that progression extremely well.

Even today, in 2022, we are still a fairly rustic wilderness camp. We have city power now, but not city water and rely on wells and a water treatment system to provide potable water. We have a Bathhouse with flushable toilets and hot water showers, but the cabins don’t have indoor plumbing and rely on outhouses. While the Four Season Sleeping Cabins are insulated and have heat and electric lights, the Summer Sleeping Cabins do not and are a fairly rustic experience for modern kids. Even more telling for modern kids, we are so far out the road we don’t have internet connectivity! There is an “old school” land telephone line, but cell phones do not work out at Methodist Camp. God, it seems, doesn’t need a cell phone to speak to us out here.