Walpack Valley Environmental Education Center - Abandoned in the Woods
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- Опубліковано 25 кві 2022
- The town of Walpack, NJ, is situated in the heart of the Delaware Water Gap Recreational Area. Huddled away in a hazy valley, it simply exists. Without people, though not bereft of life. Surrounded by thousands of acres of unspoiled nature, people travel from all over just to spend a day experiencing its grandeur. But, like any ghost town, Walpack holds its share of secrets. One such esoteric treasure can be found just off Main Street, in what was once the town center. There, beyond an open field of tall grass, and just past a long-disused observatory, hides the former Walpack Environmental Education Center. It weathers, without purpose, huddled at the edge of the forest.
Though decades abandoned, upon our visit the buildings appeared not unlike a typical summer camp that had been shuttered for the off-season, seemingly ready to reopen at any time. Though, that time is never to come. In the Spring of 2003 the Easton Board of Education, who had operated on the property for decades, voted to completely cut funding for the center. In short order the doors were locked, the lights turned off, and the rooms and halls of the Education Center fell forever silent. Remarkably the buildings were never cleared out, never emptied of furniture, fixtures, or materials. Everything remains behind, moldering through the seasons and the years. Countless items, though trivial during their time of use, now exist as unexpected relics. Windows to a past time and place, and to the lives who knew the school before it had been doomed to rot away.
Prior to the overgrowth and peeled paint, back when the center was at full operation, it served as a mixture of a school and summer camp. Programs here lasted from 2 to 5 days in length, with chores and exercises in communal living incorporated into the environmental curriculum. It truly must have been a spectacular place during its prime - Encircled by hundreds upon hundreds of acres of forests, mountains, waterfalls, and wildlife. To this day the region seems almost fictitious in its pastoral beauty, like a setting pulled from some grand adventure novel, though dotted with the occasional abandoned home and rotting structure.
On the parcel stands an old barn, which at some juncture was converted into lodging for the camp. Though it was likely a centerpiece of daily life at the center, it has grown unrecognizable through neglect. Within, dozens of bunk beds rust away in the darkness, and across the floors lay a thick layer of insulation and ceiling tiles, felled by the endless years of summer heat and freezing winters. Pillows and blankets remain atop mattresses, though they are badly deteriorated and discolored. The fetor of profound rot and stale air dominates the entirety of the building. It hangs thick around you, clinging to your clothes and remaining on your skin even long after you depart.
Past the converted barn and through a thin woodline stands an aging farmhouse. Within, the old house had taken on a bleak atmosphere. It was far darker than expected, with the upper hallways cast nearly black even in the midday sun. That gloom mixed with the echoing emptiness of the chambers to make for the most unsettling experience of any of the structures at the shuttered environmental center. Throughout the house droned an unusual sound, a faint buzzing mixed with a light and rapid tapping. It was a constant sound, but quiet enough that one could go for minutes without fully noticing it. But you will notice it, just as soon as you cast your gaze out any of the many windows of the home. All around, running down walls and across the wavy old glass panes of the windows crawled thousands of beetles. Mixed into their numbers were dozens and dozens of wasps, which were crawling their way out from the ceilings through grimy light fixtures. All of them were seeking the sun beyond the glass, and all of them failing to reach it.
Back across the property, far from the insect hoard, is the school proper. A building that now lingers as a time-capsule inadvertently left by the final class to have known the center. The crafts room brims with children's artwork and supplies. Ponchos yet hang on hooks in the entry foyer, and upstairs desks are stacked away for safekeeping. The last children to know this place are far from children any longer. In fact, some may even have a family of their own at this point. The years outside these walls have proceeded as usual, but within the flow of time seems to have slowed to a crawl. A school-turned time capsule, and a palpable model of just how slow or fast the years can pass us by - A reminder that childhood is fleeting, as is life. This is the final lesson that the old school reveals to us.
🔹Full story on our site - bit.ly/WalpackCenter
🔹Music - 'Mercy' by Kai Engel
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This channel is far and away the best of it's kind. Just read the descriptions.
Thank you.
That's really kind of you to say, thank you so much.
Some of my favorite childhood memories were from this place. Spending weeks here in the summer and winter. One of the teachers was a photographer and taught me how to photograph birds and work in a dark room. I have a scar from when a snapping turtle bit me in the pond by the class. I helped build a suspension bridge with that team about a quarter mile away over the summer of 2002.
Also it's haunted.
That's a great memory, and that last sentence was a surprising twist.
I stayed here as a kid I believe. As a program through school and stayed like a summer camp I remember sleeping in the bunks
It must have been an amazing place in ita heyday. The location and surrounding area is beautiful, even today.
Great research, man. Love your clear narration in the description to the video.
Appreciate the kind words!
I used to go here for a couple of weekends with my class in Elementary school. Our class would go twice a year, in Fall and in the spring. A lot of memories there. It's so sad how they let this place go to pot.
We're sorry that the property has fallen as it has, but those memories must be beautiful.
spent many weekends here when my friends were caretakers of the education center area in the late 1980s-mid 90s
sad to see what it's become
Sorry if the current state of the property upsets you, it must have been such an experience to know the place while operational. The surrounding landscape is gorgeous.
I was just there like three weeks ago and the main building (the one with the yarn) was vandalized badly. Every window was smashed out. The desks are thrown all over in side and out. Graffiti covers lots of it now too. Including the little observatory building.
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Love this! Perfect music and mood. The beetle infestation adds the perfect touch as well.
Thanks! The beetle infestation was an uncomfortable subject to film. We thought we were going to be finding them in our equipment and clothing that evening.
What a perfect video! Love how the music and the images brings us to the place, it looks like I am there! Thanks!
Thank you! The place had a very strange atmosphere.
I am still astonished that places like this are left to decay. Thank you again for finding these places and giving them life, even for a little bit.
Thanks! This place became an unintended time capsule,very compelling to document but also a bit more difficult than other places due to how different each building was.
There’s a whole abandoned but somewhat preserved village right next to it. That whole area is loaded with abandoned houses that had been eminent domain-ed in the 60s for what became a failed dam project on the Delaware River. Just look up Tock’s Island history. It’s pretty sad.
I went on a class trip here as a kid. It was an overnight trip. I really thought I’d made this up in my head because I could never find anything about it. Come to find out it was abandoned.
Sorry to say it's been abandoned since 2003. Must have been a great place when it was in operation though, so much to do and the landscape surrounding it is absolutely beautiful.
Those bugs were creepy 😳 HJ (xplorer llttf)
They were all over everything, we became paranoid they would get in our equipment bags.