Camp Grady Spruce Est. 1949

Camp History

CGS History

YMCA Camp Grady Spruce, named after H. Grady Spruce, began in 1949 on Constantine Peninsula of Possum Kingdom Lake as a continuation of YMCA Camp Crockett, originally founded in 1924. The peninsula was donated to the YMCA and the Boy Scouts in memory of Eugene Constantine by his parents and family. Out Main camp site sits directly across from a breath taking state landmark, Hell’s Gate.

Each summer, hundreds of children experience Grady Spruce for the first time. Year after year, campers return, and soon summer camp becomes much more than new found friends and fun activities; it becomes tradition – a long-time tradition passed on from generation to generation.

1999 marked Grady Spruce’s 50th anniversary. Through the years, many changes and new developments have been made to ensure that each year Grady Spruce provides the best camp possible.

Frontier Camp was added in the 1960s to meet increased demand for summer and off-season camping. The Ray Bean Camp addition in the 1970s increased the opportunities for both families and YMCA groups in summer and year-around camping.

Co-ed camping, introduced in the 1970s, provided the opportunity for girls to attend camp all summer. International exchanges in the 1970s became part of the Grady Spruce curriculum and expanded the Grady Spruce family worldwide.

In the 1980s, the Challenge Course was introduced as a new state-of-the-art, outdoor activity helping campers develop self-confidence, leadership, and trust in others through individual and group activities.

The 1990’s brought the Outdoor Education Program, which is offered during the school year. It is designed for 5th and 6th grade students and allows children to experience firsthand the interaction between man and the environment.

With new developments through the years and changes still to come, one thing remains constant at Grady Spruce: the atmosphere of Christian living which enables campers to grow and develop personal faith through relationships with others, nature and oneself.

Grady spruce is a tradition that is representative of excellence in atmosphere, counselors, and programs. Each year a better, stronger camp is built so the first-time camper becomes a part of the Grady Spruce “family” and continues the tradition for the next 50 years.

H. Grady Spruce

Ray Bean

Ray Bean Camp

Construction on a dedicated summer-long girls’ camp began in 1972 on a piece of land further around the peninsula towards the dam but on the same property as Main Camp. The piece of land chosen had previously been the site of overnight campouts by barge from Main Camp, and where the camp’s pigpen was located during the years that camp recycled dining hall food scraps into pig sales to fund camp activities.

Initial structures at Ray Bean Camp consisted of a dining hall that would later become just the kitchen footprint, a two-story office with living quarters upstairs for the camp director, and four duplex two-story cabins (Cabins 1-8) equipped with a kitchenette and suitable for year ‘round family camping. The outdoor Vi Bean chapel was named for Ray Bean’s wife, who had died in 1973; that site was the first summer’s waterfront before a permanent dock was built.

Although there were boys’ sessions in its first summer of 1973, Ray Bean Camp became the summer-long girls’ camp location by 1974.

Main Camp

Camp Grady Spruce opened for its first summer camp session in June of 1949.

The land was donated by Eugene Pierre Cyprian (Gene) Constantin, Jr., constituting exactly half of a 1,070-acre peninsula on Possum Kingdom Lake directly in front of the iconic Hell’s Gate. The donation was made in memory of his only son, Eugene Pierre Cyprian Constantin III, who was killed in battle on Okinawa, Japan, in April of 1945 at the age of 22.

Camp Grady Spruce was named after longtime Camp Crockett director H. Grady Spruce, who served as director of the new Y camp for its first year. The Boy Scout Camp, which received the other half of the peninsula as a donation by Gene Constantin, was named in memory of his son Eugene Constantin III.

The property now known as Camp Grady Spruce Main Camp opened with a rock dining hall and four double-sided rock cabins in what became to be called the Indian Unit. Two units with permanent canvas tents slab foundations and outdoor rock shower houses were subsequently added on the hill for the Rancher Unit, and along the other shore from the dining hall for the Pathfinder Unit. Outdoor chapels were built in each unit.

Frontier Camp

Frontier Camp transitioned into a co-ed camp, with the Pioneer Unit for teenage girls and the Frontier Unit for teenage boys. Main Camp was dedicated to younger boys and Ray Bean Camp to younger girls.

The Brazos River Authority, which had negotiated a 99-year-lease for the Frontier Camp property in 1962, cancelled all of its existing leases in 2016. With the only option to buy the property outright, the CGS Board made the decision to let the property go in 2016.

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