The Twin Valley Council of Scouting America has listed the 634-acre property for sale for $2.75 million.

The decision follows an 18-month study by a volunteer task force. It comes as Scouting America deals with declining membership nationwide.

“Scouting historically had about three million members at its peak. That’s now under a million,” said Nick Maxwell, a Twin Valley Council board member who served on the sale task force. “Camps are great resources and great assets, but they are also big financial responsibilities for a council. If you can’t run a resident Scout camp, it really starts to become a strain financially.”

The entire property, which includes six lakes on site, will be sold. The lakes are Pickerel, Little Pickerel, Goodrich, Russell, Grass and Lily. Approximately 463 acres are under conservation protection.

The entrance to Camp Cuyuna welcomes visitors under a canopy of trees. The camp is listed for sale and will close following its farewell reunion. (Photo by Rob Groebner)

Troops from New Ulm attended Camp Cuyuna for many years.

Erik Karre, field director and acting Scout executive for Northern Star Council, previously worked for Twin Valley Council for eight years and served as camp director last year. He said troops from New Ulm have found other camps to attend.

“You can’t take away your memories of Cuyuna,” Karre said. “The kids coming up today will make new memories elsewhere.”

Pat Kunkel, chair of the Camp Cuyuna Alumni Association, is organizing a farewell reunion on June 20. Kunkel worked on staff from 1981 to 1991 and has returned with his family for Memorial Day weekend camping since the mid-1980s.

“Our number one goal is to provide a time and a space for alumni to get together and reminisce and say farewell,” Kunkel said.

Longtime Camp Cuyuna staff members, from left, Jon Bartel, Donny Halverson and Andrea Lund pose at the camp entrance sign. (Submitted by the Cuyuna Farewell Committee)

As of this week, 328 people had registered for the reunion, with more expected. Planned activities include guided historical tours of the property, a memorabilia sale featuring camp signs and items with special meaning to alumni, on-site meals with sandwiches for lunch and pulled pork or chicken for supper, and a traditional evening campfire program with a chapel service.

Kunkel described the property as having five named lakes on the main camp side and family camp operations that have continued since 2018. He said some memorabilia will be moved to other camps at Norseland and Cedar Point, while many items will be made available to alumni in a fair way.

“They wanted to make it fair, a fair and equitable way for everybody to have those things. It’s not going to really be an auction per se because what they did not want to have it do is go to the people that have the deepest pockets,” Karre said.

New Ulm’s Tom Henderson served more than 50 years as Scoutmaster of Troop 25. He guided over 1,000 youth and more than 120 Eagle Scouts. Last year the council renamed the main lodge at Norseland Scout Camp (near St. Peter) as the Tom Henderson Lodge after he made a significant charitable gift to the endowment campaign while still alive.

Karre, who has worked with Henderson for eight years on various projects, said, “The fact that he made a charitable gift to our endowment campaign and we renamed the lodge after him says volumes about his character. Tom had a vision of, ‘I want to see this.’ A lot of people will leave endowment-type gifts after they pass away. Tom wanted to see the funds in action.”

Scouts fish from a dock at Camp Cuyuna. Fishing and waterfront activities were longtime favorites for campers. (Photo by Rob Groebner)

Maxwell said proceeds from the sale will support ongoing Scouting programs across the council’s 15-county area. Units that previously attended Cuyuna have already found homes at other camps.

“It wasn’t a decision that was approached casually,” Maxwell said. “There was a lot of care taken to look at all the options the council had when it came to this issue. And ultimately, while the decision has been made to sell the camp, that is in the interest of our Scouts locally and the council’s ability to continue to serve Scouts locally.”

Family camp operations on one side of the property will continue until the sale is finalized.

Maxwell’s three sons, Cole, Hayden and Kaid, are all Eagle Scouts who attended Camp Cuyuna. He said the program gave them opportunities for peer leadership.

“It’s the opportunity to provide peer leadership,” Maxwell said. “That’s what I think really boils down to. That’s the hardest kind of leadership when you are leading other people who are your age trying to do some of the same things you are trying to do.”

Campers work together on a challenge course project at Camp Cuyuna in this archival photo from 1971. (Submitted by the Cuyuna Farewell Committee)

Karre encouraged families to explore Scouting. He has a kindergartner in the program and said it has been a great way to make memories with his son, who has autism.

“Our organization teaches both young men and women, starting at kindergarten, great values,” Karre said. “Establishing opportunities for service and civic engagement. And I think families really should consider Scouting as a way to be your partner in parenting.”

As the June 20 reunion approaches, the camp’s legacy of leadership, friendship and outdoor adventure lives on in the thousands of Scouts it served from New Ulm and beyond.

The property is listed with Colliers International. For reunion registration or more information, visit the Twin Valley Council website or GoScouting.org and enter a zip code to find local programs.