Our Roots Run Deep

Our volunteer-staffed camp is run at a beautiful camp facility known as Camp Butano Creek in the redwoods of the San Francisco peninsula.  Below you will find both the history of our camp and of the facility.

History of Our Site

Long before the Girl Scout Council of Central San Mateo County formally dedicated its new camp on October 7, 1956, the history of Camp Butano Creek is remembered. . .
 
The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans, Native American people of the Northern California coast, taught their children to hunt throughout the tall redwoods of Butano.  The name Butano is of Costanoan origin and means “place of friendly gatherings.”  In the area that is now Pescadero they hunted, fished and lived from the abundance that Butano offered. 
 
The Spanish explorer, Gaspar de Portola, and his expedition were the first white men to enter this area.  In 1769, his party created an overland coastal route near Pescadero to establish a route of twenty-one Missions up and down California, this is now known as the El Camino Real.  Butano & Pescadero became part of the Santa Cruz Mission area and later in 1838 were part of a Mexican land grant designating it as part of the Rancho Butano.  The Rancho stretched as far as the eye could see, some 4,438 acres, from Butano Creek to Arroyo de los Frijoles (this encompassed what is now Butano State Park to Bean Hollow State Beach) to the boundary line of Rancho Punta del Año Nuevo. California became the 31st state on, September 9th, 1850 and so ended Spanish and Mexican rule of the Butano area.
 
Around 1900, Johnny and Jake McDonald, early settlers to the Butano Creek area built a cabin, cured tobacco, raised oats, made home brew and had beehives everywhere.  An ivy-covered log cabin, called the “Honey House”, once stood in Laurel Meadow and it was there that Johnny separated the rich golden honey from the honeycombs, he harvested from the beehives.  Jake died in 1911 and Johnny died in 1928.
 
With America’s entry into WWII, on December 8, 1941 there was a high demand for lumber.  The sharp sound of logger’s axes and saws sounded throughout the forest, a sawmill was built, and logging operations began.  A five-foot dam was constructed at the spring and a one-hundred-foot reservoir was created up the canyon.  In 1947, a house of redwood (Sawmill Cabin) was constructed for the caretaker, Mr. Sam Ward, who built and operated the sawmill.
 
In 1955 and February of 1956, the Girl Scout Council of Central San Mateo County acquired the land that we now know as Camp Butano Creek; this included the purchase of the large redwood grove at the entrance of the property and for acres of level land.  The following June, two experimental five-day camp sessions were held.  Fifty-two qualified older Girl Scouts pioneered these early camping sessions near Sawmill Cabin.  Their experiences during these two weeks helped to name some of our camp areas of today; Pennyroyal Unit, and they designated the ridge where the water tanks now stand as Huck Hill.  Neighbors from the Pescadero community, county officials, Girl Scout families, and other dignitaries gathered around the campfire on October 7, 1956, and dedicated Camp Butano Creek in a dignified traditional Girl Scout ceremony.
 
In 1957, a bequest of $5000 from the estate of Mrs. Eunice Turkel of San Mateo made possible the purchase of an additional acre of land across the creek, Laurel Meadow.  Laurel Cabin was used for troop camping and was the original dining hall for this camp.  To make the site a better place, a log jam in Butano Creek was cleared and those logs were used as fences on the high creek bank where Johnny McDonald once raised oats.  Dangerous logs, left over from the logging operation, were removed from the upper ridges, unit sites were leveled, and a channel dug from the spring to the road so that the water from the hills could find its way to the original creek bed.  This channel was then officially listed on the maps in Sacramento as “Girl Scout Creek”.  In the late 1960’s, some troops helped to mark the camp trails they used Campbell’s soup cans nailed to the trees.  These cans were labeled with symbols assigned to each trail. 
 
Now fast forward approximately forty years, to the year 2000; this is the year that the current dining hall was built.   Then in 2003, Girl Scouts of the San Francisco Bay Area was a council of great strengths and great challenges.  At a time when most councils boasted one sleep away camp, GSSFBA proudly owned and operated FIVE summer sleep away camps, plus numerous additional properties.  Like every thriving non-profit organization, our council personnel were stretched thin to staff all five camps, and the council-run summer program at Camp Butano Creek was struggling to keep up with the same level of excellence that was being provided by other council sites. ​

History of the Volunteer Run Camp

While attending a weekend training at Camp Butano Creek, Laurie “Clover” Herbert was struck by the beauty and potential of the site.  She was a director at the wildly successful volunteer-staffed Camp Two Sentinels, where they had turned away 40 campers that year alone.  "If we can use the same blueprint at CBC as we use at Two Sentinels, we could provide the priceless gift of camp to hundreds more girls every summer," she thought.  So she wrote a proposal to council, it was approved, and in 2004, the first volunteer-staffed sleepaway camp at Butano Creek was launched.

That first session was comprised of 83 campers and 28 staff.  The excitement and anticipation of that first year was breathtaking.  Today, the thought of 100% of camp staff being new might seem terrifying, but in 2004, it was a great unifier!  With everyone in the same boat during this new adventure, each new discovery was exhilarating.  Most of the careful planning paid off, but sometimes implementation was the best teacher of developing procedures and traditions that made sense for the site.  The off-site adventures like beach visits, tide-pooling, and other unit specific trips were a big hit.  From the first singing of the Banana Slug song, the anthem and camp mascot were instantly enshrined.  2005 expanded to two sessions, and in 2007 we expanded to the three sessions, serving 315 campers and utilizing 150 adult volunteers, which continue to this day. 
   
After Butano Creek was identified as one of the two most used camps within the council, plans were made to improve the property in order to better serve the needs of the Girl Scouts and other groups.  Organizations such as S. D. Bechtel and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation donated 1 million dollars each to the improvement project.  The Sempervirens Fund, a conservation group, purchased the rights to the old growth redwood forest so that the trees may be protected in years to come; funds from that have also assisted in council wide improvement projects.  In 2014, construction was started on the North Commons area, which included the Lodge, a new unit area with tree house buildings, an outdoor cooking area, and a new outdoor bathroom and shower house.  The renovated North Commons area was dedicated on June 20th, 2015 with a ribbon cutting ceremony, which included county officials, Girl Scouts of Northern California Council staff, and staff and families of Butano Creek Summer Sleep Away Camp program.  In 2019, the original Laurel Bridge was replaced and then dedicated to Laurie ”Clover” Herbert, one of Camp Butano Creek’s founding directors, on a sunny Saturday in June. 

In 2020, there was a worldwide pandemic that prevented Camp Butano Creek from running their in-person sleep away camp.  The C.A.L.M. directing team, pivoted from three sessions of in-person camp to three sessions of Monday – Friday virtual camp for that summer.  Later that same summer, in August, there were a series of lightening complex fires in northern California.  One of these wildfires was the CZU Lightening Complex Fire, which encompassed areas of San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.  This wildfire affected part of our much beloved camp, with a slow burn around the borders of Camp Butano Creek.  The structures survived, however, many of the outlying trails had wildfire burning through them for a couple of months.  Much of the undergrowth was burned away, leaving blackened hillsides and downed trees. Our facilities were surveyed by foresters, downed/dangerous trees were removed, and the camp is once again ready to accept campers who will now get to experience first-hand how our native forests are designed to recover after a wildfire.

Camp Butano Creek Facility

Recent Site Activity

CZU FIRE COMPLEX - SUMMER/FALL 2020
Here are a few pictures taken in November 2020 after the CZU fire complex was mostly out.

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LAUREL MEADOW BRIDGE REPLACEMENT
​​In summer of 2019 the long-awaited replacement of the bridge to Laurel Meadow was completed.  The old bridge had been condemned and was not usable.  In June 2019, the bridge was dedicated in honor of Laurie "Clover" Herbert, a founding director of our camp.

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NORTH COMMONS LODGE AND TREEHOUSE CONSTRUCTION
In 2014-2015 a major construction project expanded our facilities.  A new sleeping unit was created with the installation of 5 "tree houses" along with bathrooms and a common area.  A lodge complete with kitchen, sleeping areas, and bathrooms was also built.
Thank you to all our donors who made this happen!

This history was compiled from a 1956 Camp Butano Creek History by Mrs. Nadine Slinde.  Her sources were:

• Mrs. Louise Williamson (Louise Moore) of Pescadero.
• Miss Helena Hanson of Palo Alto and Butano.
• Dr. Frank Stanger of the San Mateo County Historical Museum.
• Mr. Francis Winner

It was added to in 2015 by Colleen “Daisy” Coensgen.  Her sources were:

• http://www.girlscoutsnorcal.org/camp-and-properties/rental-directory/butano-creek
• Herbert, Laurie. "Butano." 28 May 2014. E-mail.
• Girl Scouts of Northern California Council

Updated in 2016 by Linda “Cookie” Coensgen.  Her source was:

• Herbert, Laurie. "Awards" 9 April 2016. E-mail.

Updated in 2021 by Linda “Cookie” Coensgen.  Her source was herself, as she experienced these events.