After working as summer counselors at a boys' camp in North Carolina, former Furman University roommates and basketball teammates Nield Gordon and Everette Pigg envisioned their own boys' camp. In 1956 they located an established resort, Lake Jemiki, in Walhalla, SC, that they leased as a camp for five summers.
    As the camp grew, the coaches and their wives found farm property for sale ten miles up the Blue Ridge foothills in picturesque Mountain Rest. With the purchase of this property, now 60 acres completely surrounded by Sumter National Forest, they were on their way to establishing Camp Chatuga.
     The farmhouse became the camp dining hall and is the only original building still on the site--with numerous additions. The cornfield with the spring-fed Orrs Mill Creek winding through it became the 15-acre lake. The old apple orchard became tennis and basketball courts.
     Chatuga was named for, though spelled differently from, the nearby Chattooga River and the Chattooga Ridge on which the camp is located. "Chattooga" is a word the Cherokee Indians adapted from the Creek. "Tsa-tu-ge" means "we crossed here." (We like to think of all the campers who cross here from childhood to young adulthood, and who cross paths with friends from around the world.)
     Since Coach Gordon had three daughters and many parents were requesting a place for their daughters to also attend camp, Chatuga became coed in 1979. Ten girls joined the boys that first coed summer. Today the numbers are evenly split between boys and girls, and many children of former Chatugans (even 3rd generation!) have enjoyed Chatuga vacations.
     Coach Gordon's daughters and sons-in-law now own and run Chatuga which has been accredited by the American Camping Association since 1990.
     Along with the traditional summer camps, Chatuga has expanded into year-round group retreats. Our love for Chatuga and commitment to continuing its tradition are reflected in the fun-filled vacations still being enjoyed by a new generation of Chatugans! 

Photos: Above are Coach Gordon & Coach Pigg in the early years at Chatuga. Left is Camp Chatuga today.

     Other history: Nield Gordon had an outstanding basketball career followed by an outstanding college coaching career. He is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame and the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame. He is retired.
     Everette Pigg was a high school basketball coach and for 31 years a biology teacher. He ran an award-winning JTPA-sponsored drop-out prevention camp located in a facility near Chatuga for five years in the early 1990s. He is also now retired.
     David Pigg, a long time Chatuga camper and staff member, lives in Huntersville, NC, with his wife Karen and son Grant.
     To learn more about Kelly Gordon Moxley, Lucy Gordon Barnett & Angela Gordon Sullivan, see the About Our Staff page.