Camp History

Camp Davern was established as a traditional overnight residential camp for girls ages 6-16. With some equipment acquired from the War Assets Corporation and the former Service Canteens & Leave Centres, Camp Davern opened in July of 1946 on it’s stunning 150 acre site located just 25 kilometres from Perth, Ontario.

In the beginning, the camp was able to accommodate up to 60 campers each session. It was operated by the Ottawa YMCA from inception until 2014. During those years many community organizations lent a hand to help build the facilities and raise money for the programs. Over the years, Camp Davern has been home to thousands of campers and part of millions of amazing memories.

The camp transitioned to the current ownership in 2018, thus beginning a new chapter in Davern’s history. [Read the announcement here]. With the camp gates open again for the summer of 2018, Davern officially welcomed girls and boys to its site. The Ontario summer camp experience lives on and as we head into the future, we are excited to welcome many new campers and families to our Davern community.

If you have a Davern story you’d like to include in our growing archives, we’d love to hear it! You can email us your best tall tale. We promise we’ll read everything you send us, and we promise that some of it will end up on the website.