Camp Navarro's Vision and Past

The Camp Navarro Mission

We invite people to experience nature and community by hosting inspired events and practicing responsible stewardship.

We believe that it is vitally important to protect and perpetuate the use of irreplaceable and historic recreational properties such as Camp Navarro... properties that are increasingly and unfortunately being lost forever.

These special places allow all of us a significant opportunity to connect with nature. They provide an opportunity for us to participate in human powered activities and benefit from relating with others, without distraction. Our team understands that our success is not measured by what we leave, but rather, what we leave behind.

Beginning in the early 1900's, the Camp Navarro site was a private camp. It began as a lumber camp of the Albion Lumber Company. The camp was used as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp during the Depression, and then as an army camp during World War II. The Masonite Corporation sold Camp Navarro to the Sonoma-Mendocino Area Boy Scout Council in 1956 and it was renamed Camp Masonite Navarro. It was a private Scout camp and the 'crown jewel' property used by the Scouts as well as other youth groups for over 60 years.

In 2012, Camp Navarro Stewards completed the purchase of the camp from the Boy Scouts and made it available to the public for the first time in 100 years. A continued focus of the Camp Navarro Stewards' team has been the enhancement and restoration of the natural attributes and environment of the Camp. In 2013 Camp Navarro partnered with the Mendocino Redwood Company, the US Department of Agriculture, the California Conservation Corps, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District, and others to restore one of the tributaries on the property. The completed work will enhance the habitats for the Steelhead and Coho Salmon population which run up the Navarro River.

We recognize the irreplaceable environmental and social value of Camp Navarro and its long history in the community. We are committed to opening the camp to you, for your event, with creative sensitivity and the enjoyment of the delicate balance of human and natural interaction surrounding us.