With the Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association’s purchase of the historic reservation on Northwood Lake, Lantern Light Camps gains a permanent home, the stability to plan and invest for the long term, and the promise that campers for generations to come will grow up on the shores of Wah-Tut-Ca.
The press release from the Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association follows.
Alumni Group Purchases Historic Wah-Tut-Ca Reservation
Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association · Northwood, New Hampshire · For immediate release
Ensuring Northwood Lake camp will serve future generations. Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association acquires the nearly 90-year-old camp from the Spirit of Adventure Council. Lantern Light Camps will continue to operate summer programs on the property.
NORTHWOOD, N.H. — October 1, 2026 — Wannalancit Realty Holdings, doing business as the Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association, has purchased the historic Wah-Tut-Ca Reservation on Northwood Lake in Northwood, New Hampshire, from the Spirit of Adventure Council of Scouting America. The purchase, led by a group of Wah-Tut-Ca alumni, secures the future of the nearly 300-acre property, which has welcomed thousands of young people since 1937. Lantern Light Camps, which has operated a summer camp at the site since 2021, will continue to lease the property from the Association.
“In a day when children are isolated and tied to screens, Wah-Tut-Ca is more than a piece of land,” said Brian J. Lobao, President of Wannalancit Realty Holdings. “This camp is where generations of young people grew up in the woods and on the lake, with their friends eagerly searching for what is over there. There is magic in that forest, that captures imagination and shapes your character. The Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association is dedicated to ensuring that new generations of kids have experiences that will lead to a healthy life.”
Wah-Tut-Ca traces its roots to the Greater Lowell, Massachusetts, community, whose members purchased the Blake’s Hill property in 1936 and opened it as a Boy Scout camp on July 4, 1937. The founders hoped to create a place where young people could explore, test themselves, and discover the world beyond their own neighborhoods.
Over the following decades, volunteers, Scouters, and supporters built, maintained, and expanded the camp, carrying it through the shortages of World War II and the social upheavals of the 1960s. As regional Scouting councils merged — the Greater Lowell Council joined the Yankee Clipper Council in 2000, which became part of the Spirit of Adventure Council in 2015 — Wah-Tut-Ca continued to grow in reach and reputation. By its 75th anniversary in 2012, it was the largest camp of the Yankee Clipper Council, receiving Scouts, families, and adult leaders from more than 50 communities across northeastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. For more than 80 years, generations of Scouts walked its trails, swam and sailed its waterfront, and gathered around its campfires.
The setting itself is part of the story. The reservation spans about 300 acres of woodland, with more than a mile of shoreline on Northwood Lake, a 700-foot forested cliff face, vernal pools, and four brooks. Stone walls and old foundations scattered through the forest recall the 18th-century farm that once occupied the land, and the property is bordered by thousands of acres of parks and protected natural easements.
The Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association is made up of alumni who saw the potential of the property and knew how it could benefit future generations of campers. By taking ownership of the reservation, the Association intends to protect the land and its heritage while keeping it in active use as a camp for young people.
Since 2021, Lantern Light Camps has leased the property from the Spirit of Adventure Council and run a highly successful summer camp program. Lantern Light, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provides age-appropriate, year-round outdoor adventure experiences for children, young adults, and their families.
Through its facilities, counselors, and programs, it gives kids room to follow their own curiosity, build critical-thinking skills, and enjoy imaginative, play-based time outdoors with their peers — an experience the organization believes is increasingly important as childhood has become more screen-centered. Lantern Light also makes the reservation available to outside youth-serving organizations that share its goal of getting kids outside and active, and works to make camp accessible to more families.
Under the new arrangement, Lantern Light Camps will continue to lease the property from the Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association. The partnership pairs an owner committed to protecting the land and its history with an experienced operator committed to filling it with campers. Ownership by mission-aligned alumni gives camp families, staff, and partners added confidence in the property’s future, and allows Lantern Light to keep its focus on program quality, care of the facilities, and expanding access to camp.
“Wah-Tut-Ca has been a special place for generations, and we are grateful to the Preservation Association for their commitment to protecting it,” said Nick Wood, Executive Director of Lantern Light Camps. “Every summer we see what happens when kids trade screens for lake water, campfires, and new friends. Having an owner who loves this land as much as we do lets us dream bigger. We are excited about what the future brings for our campers, our staff, and this remarkable place.”
More information about the Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association is available at wahtutcapreserve.org. To learn more about camp programs, visit Lantern Light Camps.
About the Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association
Wannalancit Realty Holdings, doing business as the Wah-Tut-Ca Preservation Association, is an alumni-led organization formed to acquire, protect, and steward the Wah-Tut-Ca Reservation in Northwood, New Hampshire. Its mission is to preserve the property’s natural beauty, buildings, and nearly 90-year tradition of outdoor adventure, and to keep the land available to young people through partnerships with youth-serving organizations that share its values, beginning with Lantern Light Camps.
About the Spirit of Adventure Council, Scouting America
The Spirit of Adventure Council, headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts, is the Scouting America council serving Boston and surrounding communities. Its mission is to serve others by helping to instill values in young people and prepare them to make ethical choices throughout their lives, so they can reach their full potential. Those values are rooted in the Scout Oath and Scout Law and are delivered through volunteer-led programs that help youth try new things, serve others, and build self-confidence.
About Lantern Light Camps
Lantern Light Camps is an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to provide age-appropriate, year-round outdoor adventure experiences for children, young adults, and their families. It develops and maintains the Wah-Tut-Ca Reservation on Northwood Lake in Northwood, New Hampshire, offering immersive, peer-shared outdoor programs that build social-emotional skills, physical health, and mental well-being. Learn more at lanternlightcamps.org.