A former Boy Scout camp near Hardy now offers its facilities for free to youth groups. The Memphis, Tennessee, Boy Scout Council opened the facility in 1916, calling it Kia Kima, which means “nest of eagles” in Chickasaw.
The camp operated through 1963, when a larger camp was established as Cherokee Village encroached on Kia Kima. Despite extensive residential development, the forty three core acres of the camp remained, though the buildings were deteriorated and it had become a dumping ground. In August 1996, the Old Kia Kima Preservation Association was formed by former Scouts to restore the camp, which includes sixteen native stone cabins and the two-story stone Thunderbird Lodge.
Kia Kima reopened for camping in 2000 and in the twenty-first century offers a modern bathhouse, a forty-four hundred square foot activities building, and swimming on the Spring River. Operating primarily on donations, Old Kia Kima is available for use by qualified youth groups at no charge.
To learn more, visit encyclopediaofarkansas.net.
You can read the entire Encyclopedia entry Old Kia Kima - Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
