By Dan McCarthy
Located in the New River Gorge region of West Virginia, the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve sits on 10,600 acres of forested mountains adjacent to more than 70,000 acres of the New River Gorge National River area. On July 15-24, the summit played host to the first of many national Scout jamborees that will be held at the site, which is the new permanent home of the event. By all accounts, the inaugural jamboree at the summit was a resounding success—both for the Boy Scouts of America and for the State of West Virginia.
An Economic Boost
Nearly 40,000 attendees spent 10 days in the Mountain State for the 2013 National Scout Jamboree, including Scouts, volunteer staff and members of the coed program of the Boy Scouts of America known as Venturers. The economic impact of those thousands of extra people visiting the state during the month of July is still being calculated and will be felt for years to come. As West Virginians await the final economic impact figures from this year’s jamboree, it’s important to note that prior to the first Scout setting foot on the property this past summer, West Virginia had already seen a huge boost to its economy because of the summit.
Before construction even began, many of those involved in creating the summit helped support the economy in West Virginia through expenditures such as hotel rooms, meals, car rentals and airfare. It is estimated that since the 2008 announcement of the plans to build the summit in West Virginia, these purchases have contributed more than $1 million to the state’s economy.
Construction on the summit, which began in 2010, immediately helped create hundreds of jobs in the Mountain State and resulted in material purchases that further impacted the local economy. On-site contractors employed 952 people—80 percent of whom were from West Virginia—to create and build all of the features at the summit’s site, including 77 acres of lakes, 336 shower houses, 24 miles of roads, six base camps and numerous high adventure activity venues for visitors and Scouts. According to the most recent figures collected, those contractors paid more than $34.5 million in wages during the construction of the summit, $12 million of which was paid directly to subcontractors of companies based in West Virginia.
To build the structures at the summit, contractors purchased $16 million in materials directly from businesses in West Virginia, and more than $9 million of that went to vendors in Fayette, Raleigh and Nicholas counties. For site construction, more than 100 miles of electric, fiber, gas, water and sewer lines were installed. These utilities create an ongoing demand for services that are being provided by West Virginia. The West Virginia Department of Highways, local utility officials and a host of other agencies will continue to develop and build additional infrastructures that will support the needs of the summit and provide an economic benefit to the state for years to come.
Challenging Terrain
Building the summit in the hills of West Virginia was certainly not without its challenges. The summit is built on the site of a former coal mining operation, and, as such, much of the topography of the site contained features from those bygone coal mining days. The coal mine benches, for instance, proved to be a challenging element for the builders of the summit. By using the benches as the foundation for many of the roadways throughout parts of the property, however, builders were able to create easily navigable paths for visitors and vehicles.
Additionally, the terrain featured a number of ravines that would have made it difficult to move easily from one part of the summit to another. To address some of the issues with the deep ravines, builders created four lakes on the property where some of those ravines were located, and the dams of those lakes became walkways that made it easy to pass from one side to the other.
One of the deepest ravines required a different approach. To address this issue, the iconic CONSOL Energy Bridge, the only bridge of its kind in the world, was installed, providing convenient access between two key areas of the summit property and giving the summit one of its most recognizable and impressive structural features. During the jamboree, thousands of Scouts walked across the CONSOL Energy Bridge each day as they passed back and forth from the base camps to the Summit Center area.
To address the challenge of the distances Scouts and staff would have to travel each day between their base camps and other areas around the property, site developer Trinity Works created a rectangular base camp footprint that helped reduce the amount of space from each camp and reduced distances between points. For instance, the site was constructed so that the farthest tent from the Summit Center was approximately half the distance of the farthest tent at the jamboree’s previous location at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia.
Another major challenge was preserving the area and contributing to the protection of the New River Gorge and its quality of water. To help ensure the water quality of the area would not be affected by the thousands of additional temporary residents of the area, extensive work went into the design and construction of the summit’s water system. This included low-flow, ambient-temperature showers; a grey water recycling system and overall reduced water usage measures.
Through the use of a state-of-the-art, on-site water treatment facility and forest-based irrigation system, the summit is able to treat its sewer waste on the property. This helps to protect the New River and the area watershed while minimalizing any impact from the temporary increase in population to the area that occurs during each jamboree and throughout the summer during regular high adventure program years.
Adventure Awaits
The summit’s 10,600-acre property is home to the Summit Center, the James C. Justice National Scout Camp, the Paul R. Christen National High Adventure Base and the high adventure areas known as Adventure Valley, Thrasher Mountain, The Ridge and The Canopy. It is within these areas that Scouts experience activities centered on the summit’s core mission areas of adventure, sustainability, leadership and service.
The Summit Center, which features 100 acres of exhibits, zip lines, BMX courses, a skateboard plaza, ropes courses, a 3,500-foot boardwalk and more than 60 climbing, rappelling and bouldering stations, is also home to the Sustainability Treehouse. Standing 126 feet tall and featuring 4,000 square feet of interactive exhibits, the treehouse serves as the centerpiece of Scouting’s commitment to leave the world a better place. It was designed to generate as much energy as it uses through a combination of photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and geothermal energy.
The Paul R. Christen National High Adventure Base features mountain biking, shooting sports and zip lines in addition to the monster whitewater rafting and world-class climbing offered by the region’s natural landscape. Programs at this adventure base will begin in June 2014 and will include the Summit Experience, which will give first-time visitors a chance to experience all the summit’s high adventure areas.
Adventure Valley consists of 200 acres of world-class climbing, mountain biking and zip lining. Representing one component of the adventure program for the jamboree, Adventure Valley is a core activity area of the summit’s ongoing high adventure programs set to open in 2014. Adventure Valley will feature The Rocks, one of the largest man-made climbing facilities in the world; The Ropes, a network of zip lines, balance beams, cargo nets and other challenges that facilitate the development of self-confidence, teamwork, physical fitness and communication skills; The Zip, a 5.45-mile area of zip lines that helps the summit rank among the top sites in the world for total mileage and Low Gear and High Gear, two mountain biking adventure areas that provide more than 36 miles of varied mountain biking trails.
Thrasher Mountain is home to The Park, The Trax, The Pools and The Cloud. The Park, at more than 100,000 square feet, ranks as one of the largest outdoor skateboard facilities in the world. The Trax, designed and constructed by the designer for ESPN’s X Games, is one of the largest BMX facilities in the world with more than 273,000 square feet of outdoor BMX areas. The Pools’ above-ground swimming pools and lakes were the locations for water activities at this year’s jamboree, and The Cloud held activities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
At The Ridge, The Bows, which ranks third in the world in total archery opportunities, features 60 static stations, 36 sporting stations, 10 long-distance stations and 10 sporting arrow stations. Offering more than 200 unique shooting opportunities, The Barrels allowed Scouts and Venturers attending this year’s jamboree to participate in sporting clays, five-stand, rifle and pistol programs as well as the “Steel Challenge.” The Canopy, which is among the leading zip line sites in the world in terms of total mileage, utilized its 60 zip lines on eight courses to create a fun environment in which Scouts could learn about the summit’s ecology, flora and fauna.
With the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in Southern West Virginia, the Scouts have created a world-class high adventure camp; the State of West Virginia has received an economic boost and the world has an up-close view of everything wild and wonderful the Mountain State has to offer.
To see the amazing collection of photos from 2013 National Scout Jamboree, check out the Boy Scout’s of America’s flickr page.
