Oh, the joys of being young - dreaming about playing baseball morning, noon and night, every sunshine-filled summer day, then going swimming in between and finishing the day with a good time among wonderful friends.

And the joys of being an adult, able to make the dreams of young men come true, having the mind of a major industrialist yet the heart of a young child who still believes in all the good things the world has to give.

These were among the joys of Edwin A. Jones - the dreamer, the doer, and most of all, the ultimate giver and the man, who for nearly a thousand young men, made dreams into reality. There are also the joys of being a young man and working with young boys, seeing them turn into men. Is there no greater feeling of gratification than to see a young man reach his potential because you were able to say the right word and point him in the right direction?

These were the joys of D. Merrill Davis - the man who could have lived and worked anywhere in the world, but gave his exquisite talent to the county which had been his home since birth, and the man who most likely influenced in a positive way, more lives than anyone in his county's history.

All that was left was for these two giants to join forces, and when two great men put their equally great ideals into one - the result became known as Camp Arrowhead, without question one of the finest boys' camps in the United States and located right here in Jackson County.

It has been almost 30 years since the last young man spent his nights at Camp Arrowhead. It is now owned by the State of Ohio and is known as the Lake Katharine Nature Preserve, but still stands as a statue to the beauty of life and the excellence of man.

During the 1950s, if you were a young boy, there was one place to be and that was Camp Arrowhead. "It was every boy's dream," said former Jackson Mayor Tom Evans, who was one of those boys who dreamed about the camp but never attended. "All the boys at the high school wanted to go. It was the ultimate boys' camp around."

Young and old alike revered the camp, possibly because it exemplified all the ideal many people were looking for during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

"In its heyday, Camp Arrowhead was one of the most prestigious boys' summer camps in the Midwest and an important part of the summer scene in the Jackson area," recalled Ed Clark, the long-time Jackson newspaper editor who arrived in Jackson during the camp's third summer of operation.

"It was the source of many news stories, such as the selection of Edwin A. Jones Foundation campers from Jackson," Clark continued. "Arrowhead sports teams competed in Jackson and we always did several feature stories each summer on some facet of the camping program. I have many warm and pleasant personal recollections of the camp as Camp Director D. Merrill Davis extended me an open invitation to visit the camp, a privilege I used and cherished each summer," concluded Clark.

For Davis, being the camp's director was a year-round project. He recruited the young men for the camp, going out on weekends after teaching school all week to find counselors and prospective campers. He traveled the state far and wide and many times reached beyond its boundaries.

D. Merrill Davis never did anything unless he could make it first class. Camp Arrowhead was no different and Eddie Jones knew this when he hired him to be the director of his camp.

"Edwin Jones had the idea of a boys' camp for youth for quite some time," said Davis. "He was quite a philanthropist, helping many through college and he thought Southern Ohio would be the best place for his boys' camp."

Jones was the president of Globe Iron at the time, the blast furnace which occupied the space now housing the Jackson Square Shopping Center, and was one of Jackson's leading employers. But the money he earned from his successful business ventures more times than not went back to the community he loved and the young people he wanted to serve.

Jones owned some land in eastern Liberty Township and he and Jim McKittrick together bought land around where Jones already owned. The land was bought prior to World War II and it was at that time a lake was constructed, later to become the beautiful Lake Katharine, named after Jones' wife.

Jones had already started the Edwin A. Jones Youth Foundation, and raised money for it in various ways including a Red and Blue Golf Tournament at Fairgreens Country Club. Then in the fall of 1948, Jones made a call to Jackson High School and asked Davis if he could have a half hour of his time.

Jones took Davis to where the future camp would be and to where a footer had been dug for the director's cabin. "Merrill, your family will live here and you are going to run my boys' camp," Jones told him. Davis had experience in being involved in youth camps as he had been active in 4-H camps before World War II. He had built up programs for college seminars and 4-H camps that were used around the country during the summers, but they now took a back seat to his new summer occupation.

"We opened in June, 1949, and it was one of the finest facilities in the United States," Davis proudly recalled. "Everything was first class. There were Grumman aluminum canoes, Moosberg rifles, archery, tennis and basketball courts, a fine dining hall and a good staff."

Davis said there was a mixture of boys, from the boys who hailed from affluent families to those who otherwise would not have been able to financially attend. That was where the Edwin A. Jones Youth Foundation came in, paying the expenses for the boys who could not afford it.

In Jackson, a faculty committee would choose the boys for the scholarship on the basis of scholarship, character and citizenship and surrounding towns and school districts such as Oak Hill, Wellston, Portsmouth, Logan, Chillicothe, Gallipolis, Pomeroy, Lancaster, Middleport, Marietta, Waverly and others were each asked to choose their top junior high boy to attend the camp.

For most of those young men, their tuition was paid by the Edwin A. Jones Youth Foundation, which basically amounted to an out of pocket donation by Edwin Jones himself.

"Each year, he would donate between $30,000 and $40,000 for tuitions for these youths," Davis said. "Most of them would have never had the chance to attend the camp otherwise."

There were between 60 and 65 boys each year who came to the camp and around 12 counselors would also be on hand to help care for the boys. All told, Davis remembered there were about 80 to 90 people living at the camp during the summer. "They came from all over the United States, but mainly from Ohio, although we had some from as far away as Florida and Connecticut," he noted.

Davis was not only the camp director, but the bookkeeper, recruiter and about anything else the camp needed. "It was thrilling to start something brand new in a society of boys and young men," he said, adding that his experiences with 4-H camps had been a big help in getting things started.

Each camping season was unique in that it set its own standards.

"There was no tradition coming in, good or bad," Davis recalled. "We set our own tradition. This helped us to lay the foundation for the 'Arrowhead Spirit,' and we encouraged the young men to enter all the activities and everyone played together," he pointed out.

Davis said the camp's goal was to build around such things as the basic traits of character, honesty, integrity and compassion. He added he wanted the campers to gain a feeling for morality, integrity and manliness while attending the camp.

And when the first day of camp came, everyone started out as equals.

"There was no way to tell once camp begun who was rich, who was smart, who was this or that, they were all the same," Davis mentioned. "Compassion was the big word. We wanted them to learn how to be nice to people, learn to be tolerant. We tried to have each boy understand the worth of his fellow camper," he continued.

From its first season, the camp was a trademark of excellence for Jackson County through the decade of the 1950s. But after the 1960 camp closed and 12 years as its director had passed by, Davis decided it was time to use his summer to pursue new activities.

"I wanted to devote more of my summer time to music," he recalled. "It [being the camp director] was very time-consuming. The responsibility for 80-90 young men for six weeks, 24 hours a day, is wearing."

But the 12 years Davis spent as the camp's director were well worth it.

"My relationship with Eddie was the finest," he recalled. "I cherish the years we worked together. To him, the goal was much more important than the money."

The camp during the 1950s was as well known as the Apple Festival, and he added that word-of-mouth was the best advertising the camp had. Jones, who is now 91 and lives with his daughter in Newark, New Jersey [at the time of this original writing], had attended camp himself as a young boy and had also been a camp counselor.

"His joy was helping other people, especially other young people," Davis remembered.

He said the counselors were picked for quality and all had good backgrounds, and that many campers later became counselors. "The backbone was the counseling staff," Davis said.

The camp only operated a couple of years after Davis left and then was turned over to the Girl Scouts for $1 a year before the state finally bought the property and it became the nature preserve it is today.

Davis was proud of the many good programs and good counselors at the camp. There was a full-fledged nature program, an archaeology program and many others.

The list of campers and counselors in addition to the accomplishments they compiled later in life would read like a "Who's Who." Among the assistant directors were John Finch and long-time Athens coach Harry Lackey. "Being the director was a difficult job, but it was very satisfying," stated Davis.

But in the end, Camp Arrowhead was no more than two great men, with great ideals, putting them to a great use and turning out great young men. The legend of Camp Arrowhead has lived for many years and should live forever. The camp which some don't even know existed is one of Jackson County's greatest treasures.

For Eddie Jones, it was the side of the man often kept in the background and silent. While he has given in many ways to his native community, no better monument for his true greatness could ever be erected than his work with his camp.

And D. Merrill Davis, the silent leader who brought forth a demeanor that most men only idealize about perfecting, has the undying gratitude of a thousand young men and more for being that important part of their lives.

"I had one man say his boy came home different, a young gentleman. Other young men have told me it was the high point of their lives, they gained a great deal of tolerance," remembered the man they all grew to love and respect so much.

For every boy who went through Camp Arrowhead, a little bit of the camp left with them. And with that "Arrowhead Spirit" and the efforts of two remarkable men, a society and thousands were better served for it.

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Courtesy of Randy Heath