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In 1982, the Union Camp Corporation donated lands to the Coastal Empire Council, Inc. for the development of Camp Blue Heron. It was previously used as the Union Camp Hunting Club. Twenty-one Summer Camp Programs have been conducted at our facilities. Many improvements and additional buildings have been added to the camp since its beginning and there are several ongoing construction projects being conducted at the present to better the camping facilities. The camp has 10 campsite areas, 1 High Adventure Base Camp  and a Family Camping area that will accommodate tent camping as well as RV hookups. We recently added a High Adventure Campsite for use by our Sea Kayak and Nature's Adventure at Ossabaw programs.

Camp Blue Heron is located 50 minutes south of Savannah, Georgia. Its location is just east of I-95 and Hwy 17 South, southeast of Riceboro, Georgia. As you leave the inhabited world, you enter into the seclusion of some of the most beautiful woodlands in the entire southeast. Decorated with Loblolly Pines, Sassafras, Wax Myrtles, and many flourishing Live Oaks, it is a camper’s paradise. The surrounding woodlands are inhabited by deer, squirrel, wild boar, fox, opossum, raccoon, and bobcats, with an occasional sighting of otter, coyote, alligators, and a multitude of feathered fowl. Turkeys, quail, dove, Osprey, wood ducks, blue birds, panted buntings, redheaded woodpeckers, to name a few, and of course the mascot of the camp, the Great Blue Heron.

Our camp is located on 300 wooded acres with a 23-acre lake known as Lake Bryant. The camp is surrounded by 15000 acres of forestland owned by Hampton Island Company. Originally the property in the area was owned by a wealthy landowner, Roswell King, and was known then as the Hampton Pastures. There are some very large Live Oaks that were once part of the entrance to the plantation, which can be viewed near the Family camping area. These Oaks are probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 to 400 years old.

Once a rice plantation, Hampton Pastures dates back to the Pre-Civil War period. Actually, there is a lot a history woven into the surrounding area of the camp. Located approximately 1 mile from the center of camp are several cannon entrenchments that were used during the Civil War. There have been finds of Creek Indian pottery throughout the camp area as well. During the operation of the plantation, both Black slaves and Creek Indians worked the land. There is a secluded area of the camp that has many gravesites. They are not presently marked, but they are ancestors of both the slaves and Indians that now live in the nearby towns of Riceboro and Midway. The colonial town of Sunberry is just around the corner from the camp. Located there is the historical area of Fort Morris, of the Civil War era.

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