Former Youth Detention Camp to Become Recreation Area
Former Youth Detention Camp to Become Recreation Area
Through his company LifeCap Resources LLC, Travis Baugh bought the Great Valley property, which is located near many beautiful recreational areas including Allegany State Park & Holiday Valley. The Town of Great Valley hopes to spark interest of other groups to use the park for public venues, such as marathons, music festivals, cross-country ski races, horseback riding clubs and other recreational activities.
At its peak, the Great Valley Youth Residential Center, a 41-acre site that borders New York state forest land, was home to more than 100 boys who had entered the state’s juvenile justice system. The GVYRC was one of many juvenile “camps” in New York state that were established by the Office of Children and Family Services to rehabilitate its residents: boys who had committed nonviolent crimes and were still in need of a high school education. The Great Valley camp opened in the 1960s according to Travis Baugh, who now owns the property.
“It ran for about 50 years until the state decided the concept didn’t really work,” Baugh explained. Indeed, residency at the GVYRC dwindled to just two residents in 2008. Although state lawmakers were able to stave off closure of the camp during state budget proceedings in 2008, one year later, the GVYRC and several other similar facilities were closed for good, as most had few or no residents but full-time staff of two dozen or more. A 2007 study of the state’s juvenile justice system corroborated the decline in residency: 80 percent of the children entering the state's juvenile justice system returned or went to prison within three years of their release. Baugh pointed out that budgetary reasons were not solely responsible for the closure, as community-based rehabilitation approaches in which youths were kept closer to their homes and families reduced recidivism more effectively than residential programs.
The GVYRC was mothballed by New York state until 2016, when the property was put up for auction. “I live about a mile from the camp,” Baugh said of the home he and his wife built in 2010. “I just wanted this to remain a peaceful area and wanted to make sure that whatever ended up there would fit in with our area.”
Through his company LifeCap Resources, LLC, Baugh bought the property, as it is a well-equipped facility located near many beautiful recreational areas including Allegany State Park and Holiday Valley and only an hour from Lake Erie and Niagara Falls. “I spent the first couple of years trying to find a suitable non-profit to take it over,” Baugh explained. “I tried to give it away to the Boys Scouts, Ronald McDonald House charities, and church groups for camping in the summer or winter, but no one wanted the buildings there.”
The six buildings included offices, classrooms, dormitories, a kitchen and dining hall, gymnasium, a sewage treatment plan, and a garage/maintenance building. As no one was interested in the property’s buildings, in 2020 Baugh decided to tear the buildings down and convert the property to a park to transfer to the town of Great Valley. “I found out most of the buildings were full of asbestos – very costly to deal with,” said Baugh. After working with an asbestos abatement company, Baugh has successfully torn down all but one building that the town of Great Valley would like to keep. This 40x50-foot structure is a newer building on the property that originally housed the camp’s computer lab. Great Valley Town Supervisor Dan Brown said the building is in great shape and would be ideal for use by various groups, including schools, conservation groups, or other community groups who may need a classroom or gathering space.
Brown explained that the transfer of the property is in the hands of the attorneys now, and the Town is waiting for the legal process and paperwork to conclude. “Originally, we were going to receive just the property lot where all of the buildings and the lawns were, but now Travis is going to turn the entire property over to us, so there are a few more steps that need to be completed before the transfer is final,” Brown explained.
He is enthusiastic about the park, which already has so many recreational features leftover from the former residential camp. “There is an area that was used for sledding by the kids, a baseball diamond, volleyball courts, and a picnic pavilion,” Baugh listed. “Dan has talked about putting an ice skating rink in there on the concrete pad where the gymnasium was. The property does have a few waterwells. It all depends on what can be done and what kind of budget there is to work with, but there is so much potential for a really great park.”
Brown noted that the property’s location next to McCarthy Hill State Forest makes it a great place for recreational groups to visit. “An idea I had is to make it available for horseback riding clubs to unload horses; there is plenty of room for corrals, trucks and trailers,” Brown said. “It could also be utilized for snowmobiles. We already plow the drive. It would be great for cross-country ski races, and mountain bikers and hikers could access it for a safe area to park off the road.” The property is adjacent to one of the Western New York Mountain Biking trails, as well as the Western New York Snowmobiling trail, which is also enjoyed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
The Town hopes to spark the interest of other groups to use the park for public venues, such as marathons, music festivals, and other recreational activities, as long as they conform to the state’s guidelines regarding land use around McCarthy State Forest.
While Brown and Baugh have many ideas for the property’s future use, both agree that it is very important to honor the property’s past. “I want to have something that acknowledges what this place was, the years it operated, and recognize those who came here, turned their lives around and became successful,” said Brown. Along those lines, Brown is looking forward to locating a time capsule that is buried on the property. “We think we know where it is,” he explained. “It was buried sometime in the mid 1980s. We’d like to locate it, unearth it, open it and then add to it before we rebury! Maybe that’s the site where we create some kind of memorial to the youth camp.”
As far as the naming of the park is concerned, Brown said, “I’m going to leave that up to Travis and his wife – however they want to do it. This park is something that should be here for years to come and it will definitely be part of Travis’ legacy.”