top of page

Welcome to Night Eagle!

 the way summer camp is supposed to be!

​

Night Eagle Wilderness Adventures is a unique, primitive, sleep-away summer camp consisting of no more than 36 boys, whose ages range from 10-14, and a staff ratio of one counselor to every four campers.

​

We are situated on 135 tick-free forested acres in the heart of Vermont's beautiful Green Mountains and are completely surrounded by over 465,000 acres of the Green Mountain Forest.

​

Our small 1:4 camper/staff ratio fosters the development of a strong community in which boys feel safe and learn to live and play without electronics in a spirit of cooperation rather than competition.

​

Four or five campers of mixed ages and a counselor live in each of our 20 and 22 foot Lakota style tipis.

​

The Appalachian and Long Trails are only a 20 minute hike from our entrance!

Two boys playing at summer camp

              Most boys have technology, school, and sports covered.

        Now, it's time to add ADVENTURE and let boys be boys again!

two boys in a debris hut - survival skills

The outdoor experiences at Night Eagle are intentionally different from those of our regular lives and are in keeping with the woods and lakes around us. There are few places in the world like Night Eagle where boys can be themselves, get back to nature, and learn to rely on their own ingenuity. 

 

"In wilderness is the preservation of the world."

​

- Thoreau 

​

                               

A boy weaving cattail leaves.

Why Night Eagle is Important?

 

Boys today need a place like we had when we were growing up, a place they can call their own, where they can use their imagination and have their own adventures - real adventures, not the kind you find in television shows, movies, or computer games. Boys are drawn by the irresistible "Call of the Wild." They want to challenge themselves, acquire new skills and self-confidence, and sit around a campfire with true friends and dream about boys who did the same thing centuries ago.

​

Through our activities and the slower pace of life in camp, boys naturally develop a deeper respect for the land and a sense of personal accomplishment as they learn to live competently in the woods and play together in a spirit of cooperation rather than competition.

​

Words from a former camper. . .

​

"Looking back, no other experience has had nearly the influence Night Eagle has had or continues to have on making me the man I am today. I find it difficult to express my gratitude through an email, but I can give it a shot.  

 

Night Eagle has never left my mind, nor will I allow it to. I find it difficult to express to others my experiences at Night Eagle and how it has shaped my life.  It is understandably ‘weird’ when I say I would like to go back to living in a tipi without electricity. I find myself torn between the binary lifestyle I am now living and the free one I was so lucky to experience. I find myself contradicting myself, building my own computer, owning an iPhone, working in a cubical; all intensifying my desire to clean the Maxwell houses!

​

The farther I find myself from Night Eagle, the closer my heart becomes to it. What you have done has exceeded any relevance in my life, shaping, defining, breaking, and rebuilding me into who I am. The gift you have given every boy who has stepped foot in camp has been that of miracle work that I can only wish to duplicate."

                                                                         - Raven Shines (Camper 2004-06)

A camper holding up a string of fish
Boy using a beading loom

. . . and a from a mom

 

"As a mother, I am deeply grateful that there is a place like Night Eagle, a place in the wilderness where men and boys can be themselves in all of their glory - - a place where it is okay to be quiet, peaceful, inquisitive, thoughtful, and a place where it is okay to be wild and free and humorous and spirited! A place where all kinds of masculinity, in community and individually, are honored and modeled. Camp for Woodland Wisp truly marked a rite of passage. He came home grounded, happy, and older. He came home with a renewed sense of community and caring, having had great experiences that were totally his."                    

                                                                                                - A. Heitmann (CT)

A camouflaged boy

Read a terrific article about us in Baystate Parent: page 72

Night Eagle has attracted campers from all over the United States (as indicated by the red states below) and from 12 foreign countries, including:

​​

  • Argentina

  • Australia

  • Canada

  • France

  • Germany

  • Hong Kong

  • Japan

  • Russia

  • Spain

  • Switzerland

  • Ukraine

  • United Kingdom

 

In 2025, in an effort to "color the map" and bring more families into our circle of friends, we will give any camper who lives in a gray state (or any country that's not  listed below) and enrolls in our program for the first time for two or more weeks a 25% tuition discount.

Map of U.S. showing camper states
Campers play Buffalo Robe at Night Eagle

About Us

Campers using a spokeshave bench

Program

A Night Eagle camper and his parents in front of tipis

Parents

A camper counselor starting a primative bowdrill fire
bottom of page