FRANKFORT, Ind. — Clinton County families, Scout troops and camp alumni gathered at Camp Cullom on Saturday for an ice cream social doubling as “Hoppy Appreciation Day,” a tribute to the man who has worked behind the scenes to maintain the 90-acre youth camp for three decades: Camp Ranger Hoppy Bray.
Bray, dressed in his tan Camp Ranger uniform, spent the afternoon greeting Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and families in the camp’s lodge for hot dogs, chips and ice cream — a fitting scene for a camp he says belongs to the community it serves.
“Camp Cullom’s a 90-acre fantastic place,” Bray said. “It’s owned by the kids of Clinton County from age zero to eighteen. After eighteen they come back and help take care of the place, serve on the board, and keep maintaining it.”
A Camp with Deep Roots
Camp Cullom has operated since 1941, Bray said, tracing its history from a Girl Scout retreat to the community resource it is today.
“The camp’s been here since 1941,” Bray said. “It started as a Girl Scout camp. And in 1947, it was converted over to the youth camp of Clinton County.”
As Ranger, Bray oversees nearly every aspect of camp life — from swinging a hammer to leading a classroom in the woods. “I take care of a lot of the maintenance stuff that has to be done,” Bray said. “I take care of teaching classes, outdoor classes. We taught kids how to survive out in the woods, how to cook. A little bit of everything. We teach people about ecology and outdoor skills, and all that good stuff. So we have a good time.”
Nearly 20,000 Visitors a Year, and a Calendar to Match
According to a program list provided by camp organizers, Camp Cullom draws close to 20,000 visitors annually, the majority of them youth, through a roster of partner groups and events that runs far longer than any single conversation could cover. Bray rattled off several from memory during Saturday’s interview.
“We have the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, we’ve got the Boys and Girls Club, we’ve got the LDS groups that come in, we’ve got Farm Days that goes on out here once a year,” Bray said. “We’ve got the Cops and Kids program that goes on out here every year. We have the school visitations once a year — for like first through third grade, they come out for a while — and the Science Academy.”
He continued: “Indiana Family Star Party — that’s a big one, we just got done with that one. Maple syrup. We have an ice cream social going on today. We’ve got a variety of things going on. We have people come in late at night for meteor showers, stuff like that. You might even have a few mushroom hunters — lots of mushroom hunters in April.”
The partial list of programs and partner groups hosted at Camp Cullom each year includes:
• Science Academy for 5th graders
• Cops & Kids
• Farm Days
• Cub Scout Summer Camps
• Learning Network
• Jr. & Sr. Naturalist Programs
• CSA Cooking Weekend
• National Trails Day
• Great Backyard Bird Count
• Cross Country Meets
• Cub Scout Fun Day
• Indiana Family Star Party
• Observatory Open Houses
• Disc Golf Events
• LDS Pioneer Trek
• Maple Syrup Days
• Flag Retirements
• Boys & Girls Club Events
• Ice Cream Social
• Chili Supper
• West Central Native Plant Club
• Local Business Team Building
• 4-H Club/Projects
• Central Indiana Bee Keeping Club
• Orienteering Competitions
• Trail Life Classes
• Scouting America (formerly Boy Scouts of America)
• IDNR Hunter Education
Two of the newer additions to that calendar are still building momentum, Bray said. The Maple Syrup Days event, held on the second weekend in March, taps into the camp’s own sugar shack operation, while the Chili Supper — set this year for Oct. 24 — has become another community mainstay.
“We’re just getting our legs on the maple syrup festival,” Bray said. “And then the chili supper and Observatory Openhouse— that’s the twenty-fourth of October this year.”
New Comfort at an Old Lodge
One recent upgrade has already made a noticeable difference for camp visitors: donated air conditioning in the lodge.
“We have air conditioning at the lodge this year too — that’s new,” Bray said. “That’s been a game changer. That’s been used a couple, three times already. That was all donated, and it’s really doing a fantastic job keeping the place nice and cool for us.”
Bray also credited the United Way of Clinton County for decades of backing.
“United Way helped support our camp quite a bit over the past 30 years that I know of,” Bray said. “Our fundraiser out here is also a Pacesetter program for the United Way program.” Half of the net proceeds from today’s “Hoppy Appreciation Day” will be donated to United Way and the Camp Cullom United Way Pacesetter Drive for 2026/2027.
Spring Creek, a Sugar Shack and a 200-Year-Old Spring
The camp’s natural landscape — Spring Creek, a series of ponds, campsites and a disc golf course — remains central to the Camp Cullom experience, Bray said, even as it has changed over the decades.
“Spring Creek goes through our camp,” Bray said. “Back in the ’40s and late ‘50s, we used to have a dam down there, and there was a big lake where kids could go swimming and boating, got those swimming badges and everything. But when the dam went out, DNR wouldn’t allow them to put it back in.”
Still, Bray said the woods hold plenty to discover.
“We have a spring that’s been here for over 200 years,” Bray said. “It’s still got the stone basin around it where people used to get drinking water from. It’s out here in the woods. And if you get out here and you see a bunch of what look like green lines or blue lines going through the woods, that’s actually collecting sap — that’s going to be collecting sap in March for our maple syrup. And then we have our own maple syrup processing sugar shack.”
The camp also turned a recent challenge into a lasting improvement. When an emerald ash borer infestation forced the removal of roughly 100 ash trees on the property, Bray said camp leaders sold the timber and reinvested the proceeds.
“We had to take out about a hundred trees,” Bray said. “What we did before they died out — we actually took the money, sold the trees, they processed them, took them up to Fort Wayne, and we put a brand-new metal roof on top of our lodge from it. So we’re kind of self-supporting.”
Thirty Years and Counting
Bray, who has spent 32 years at Camp Cullom and has served as its full-time Ranger since 2012, brushed off any suggestion that Saturday’s appreciation day was a farewell.
“You’re not retiring — I don’t want to start any rumors,” the interviewer said.
“No, I’m not going to retire till they chase me out the front gate,” Bray replied.
For Bray, what makes Camp Cullom worth protecting is simple: it belongs to everyone in the county.
“The camp out here is unique,” Bray said. “It’s friendly — you can bring the kids out, go camping at no cost. We just have to know what day you want to go camping on, so we get your campsite and everything. But it’s owned by the community, run by our community, and it’s a highlight in Clinton County. It’s a real gem.”
Camp Cullom is owned and operated by the Clinton County Foundation for Youth and is a United Way for Clinton County Partner.