About The Camp
Camp Mowglis is a seven-week residential camp for boys ages 7 to 15 in central New Hampshire. Approximately a 2.5-hour drive from Boston, Mowglis is a fun, challenging, and expertly-managed environment where boys are empowered to become strong, independent and self-confident young men. The campers live, play and engage in challenges together every day, summer after summer. Through the comradeship of the Wolf Pack, they learn to get along with many different personalities and how to find their own place within a community.
During a typical summer, there are as many as 20 states and 10 countries represented among just over 100 campers and staff. Boys can find out what they eat for dinner in Spain, what school is like in France, or what it is like to grow up in a different region of the U.S. – just by getting to know the Pack.
With a staff ratio of 4/1 and a maximum of 85 campers, Mowglis boys and their counselors are a tight, family-like community. The great majority of the camp’s highly-devoted staff members were once campers themselves and remain involved because Mowglis is a place they feel very passionate about. Adding to the atmosphere of connectedness, many campers are from families who have been sending their sons to camp for generations. Each summer, there are boys who will sit around the same campfire circle that their fathers, grandfathers, or even great-grandfathers did many years before.
Camp Mowglis believes taking a break from technology is an essential part of summer camp life. It enables boys to fully engage in their surroundings and each other. Without cell phones and computers, they gain a new appreciation for a good joke told around the campfire, summer sunsets, brisk morning swims, and other simple yet meaningful life experiences. And if campers do miss that constant connection with the outside world, they don’t miss it for long. With 160 acres and many miles of trails to explore, in addition to as many as 16 different activities, it’s not difficult to leave it behind. Instead of spending their days watching TV or surfing the ‘Net, Mowglis campers will be climbing to the summits of mountains, singing goodnight songs under the stars, canoeing remote stretches of river, taking daily “soaks” in the lake, and improving their skills at everything from Archery, Swimming and Windsurfing to Arts and Crafts, Drama, and Photography.
Screened, open-air dormitories, named after characters in The Jungle Book, serve as the boys’ home-away-from-home. After a full day of fun activities, campers look forward to curling up in their bunks for the nightly read-aloud and drifting off to sleep with the smell of fresh pine needles in the air and an occasional loon calling in the distance. Each dormitory has a sunny porch that provides the perfect spot for writing letters or for playing rainy day games.
While the dorms are organized by age, campers of all ages participate in activities together, creating an opportunity for the boys to learn from and inspire one another. This big brother-little brother experience is an important part of being at Mowglis.
A Brief History
Founded in 1903 by Bostonian Elizabeth Ford Holt, Mowglis is one of the longest-operating summer camps in America. Mrs. Holt was inspired to start the camp after reading Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and the story of Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves. Her vision was to create a place where an entire pack of Mowglis could experience the Jungle Book lessons she so admired: the importance of positive mentoring, loyalty, honor, integrity, and persistence. Today, those lessons remain deeply rooted in the Mowglis experience.
Campers arrive at Mowglis as boys and leave as young men ready to face the challenges and opportunities that await them as adults. Over the past century, the camp has helped thousands of boys become strong, confident and principled leaders. Today, Mrs. Holt’s vision continues to live on as the camp prepares to welcome the next generation of Mowglis into the Wolf Pack.
