Camp Campbell Gard is a YMCA

YMCA

The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...

 camp located on 600 acres (2.4 km²) along the Great Miami River

Great Miami River

The Great Miami River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in southwestern Ohio in the United States...

 six miles (10 km) northeast of Hamilton

Hamilton, Ohio

Hamilton is a city in Butler County, southwestern Ohio, United States. The population was 62,447 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Butler County. The city is part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area....

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. The camp is on Augspurger Road in St. Clair Township.

Founding

The camp was dedicated to the memory of a World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 airman, Campbell Gard, by his father Homer Gard in 1927, six years after the Campbell's death. The dedication on Friday, July 1, 1927 featuring remarks by former Ohio governors, James M. Cox

James M. Cox

James Middleton Cox was the 46th and 48th Governor of Ohio, U.S. Representative from Ohio and Democratic candidate for President of the United States in the election of 1920....

 and Charles P. Taft II, son of William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...

.

When it opened in 1927, the new camp had 20 buildings, including a 20 feet (6.1 m) by 80 feet (24.4 m) dining hall with electric stoves and refrigeration; five cabins (quickly expanded to ten), each housing 11 campers and a leader; a recreational building "for rainy days"; an informal playground for games; and a guest house "equipped with hot and cold shower baths." As specified by Homer Gard, the camp also featured facilities for “crippled children” to make the facility accessible to the handicapped. Today the camp has expanded to 600 acres (2.4 km²) and features heating and air conditioning.

Camp Tall Tales

Since its founding, the camp has been inhabited by “The Green-Nosed Harpie.”

For a period when the camp was home to Camp Quest

Camp Quest

Camp Quest, founded in 1996, is the first residential summer camp in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Norway specifically for the children of nontheistic or freethinking parents .-Purpose and identity:Camp...

 the camp was inhabited by two invisible unicorns that cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled, tasted, that cannot hurt you, that do not eat and that leave no mark.

Noted Counselors and Directors

Robert McCloskey

Robert McCloskey

Robert McCloskey was an American author and illustrator of children's books. McCloskey wrote and illustrated eight books, two of which won the Caldecott Medal, the American Library Association's annual award of distinction for children's book illustration.Many of McCloskey's books were set on the...

, who carved the camp totem pole

Totem pole

Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, mostly Western Red Cedar, by cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America...

 was a famous author of childrens' book including Make Way for Ducklings

Make Way For Ducklings

Make Way for Ducklings is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. First published in 1941, the book tells the story of a pair of mallard ducks who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden, a park in the center of Boston,...

and Lentil.