W. D. Boyce Council

The W. D. Boyce Council of the Boy Scouts of America serves youth in central Illinois, from Lincoln to Ottawa, and Peoria to Bloomington.

It is now owned by Easter Seals of Central Illinois and has been renamed Timber Pointe Outdoor Center.

[3] The Boy Scouts sold the property to the Peoria Park District in the 1990s and built a new camp farther north of the city.

This is most visible at "Dining Hall Hill," the main thoroughfare of the camp, which is located on a long incline overlooking the broad Cedar Creek Valley.

The reservation is home to many native Illinois wildlife species, including white-tailed deer, raccoons, wild turkey, foxes, and coyotes.

The RMS Lodge houses 44 staff members during the summer and acts as the premier conference center during the off-season.

The climbing tower features 3 walls of varying difficulty, a giant's ladder, and a 350-foot zipline to the ground below.

The lakefront area, completed in 2008, contains a sand beach, a large dock, boat storage, and teaching space.

Other program facilities at Ingersoll include the Scoutcraft shelter, the Ecology/Conservation building, a STEM area, and an outdoor chapel.

Horseshoe Bend takes troops far out of the main camp for an Old West dinner program, where they help prepare a chuckwagon feast and learn about blacksmithing and lassoing.

Many sites were considered, but eventually, a 600-acre plot located 36 miles west of Peoria on Illinois Route 116 near London Mills was chosen for its rolling hills, meadows, and natural woodlands, as well as its river access and location within the famous Spoon River country.

Hoping to find one donor who could cover the whole cost, an appeal was made to William P. Ingersoll, a philanthropist from nearby Canton, Illinois.

After confirming for himself the validity of the request, Ingersoll agreed to pay for the entire property on the condition that his donation remains anonymous.

In 2022, the W. D. Boyce Council authorized the sale of two parcels of Ingersoll Scout Reservation totaling about 300 acres.

The parcels included the "far east side" and "cross creek" areas of camp, and consisted mostly of inaccessible wilderness that was seldom utilized for program.

The council is served by the Wenasa Quenhotan Lodge of the Order of the Arrow, the Boy Scouting program's national honor society.

Council HQ