Polk County Historical Association has another great presentation planned for its September program. For several decades the boy scout camp on Lake Lanier was a community fixture for young boys and teenagers in the Boy Scout Organization. Thousands of North Carolina scouts camped at Lake Lanier during the 56 year history of the camp. The program will be held on Tuesday, September 14th at 2pm in Columbus.
The speaker for the program will be Dwight Durham, Tryon native and graduate of Tryon High School. Durham is uniquely qualified for the talk since his parents Mack and Carolyn Durham were the Camp Ranger and caretakers of the scout camp from 1929 thru 1976. Dwight along with his parents and two brothers made the camp their year round home.
Durham will share some history of the camp and several of the key people who helped make it a successful experience for young scouts, predominantly from the Piedmont area of North Carolina. In addition he will share what it was like to wake up to reveille every summer morning for over 20 years.
In addition to being a local high school grad, Dwight Durham earned his BS in Civil Engineering from Clemson University and his Masters in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech. After a very successful career with the US Army Corps of Engineers he retired from the military in 1995. Then Dwight went to work at the Fluor Corporation running large construction and government service contracts around the world and retired as an Executive Project Manager. Then, Durham worked for a smaller German corporation named Bu-st LLC, as the Chief Operations Officer, until mandatory German retirement.
Dwight Durham currently owns his own engineering consultant services and home inspection business. Dwight and his wife Gay, live not far from the former Boy Scout camp and they have three grown children.
The monthly programs sponsored by the Polk County Historical Association are inside the Polk County Museum in downtown Columbus at 60 Walker Street. There is no cost to attend the programs and the public is encouraged to attend.