Info session for former Camp Barton park July 1 in Trumansburg 

The village of Trumansburg and the towns of Ulysses and Covert will host a public information session on July 1 at the Trumansburg Fire Hall to share details on the newly opened state park at the site of the former Boy Scout Camp Barton property. 

The new park, which has not yet been named by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP), was announced by state and local officials at the beginning of June. Trumansburg, Covert and Ulysses, operating collectively as the Three Falls Local Development Corporation (LDC), will be tasked with managing and overseeing the park. 

The new 90-acre state park is located in Trumansburg at 9640 Frontenac Rd. on Frontenac Point on the western shore of Cayuga Lake.

OPRHP acquired the property from the Baden-Powell Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which had operated the facility as Camp Barton, in 2023. The property includes a half-mile of Cayuga Lake shoreline, dockage, bathrooms and a caretaker’s residence. The property, several miles north of Taughannock Falls State Park, also includes the 128-foot Frontenac Falls.

Visitors are encouraged by OPRHP to engage in passive recreational activities like hiking and nature observation. The trail to the falls, buildings/facilities and bathrooms are all closed due to the need for significant safety and infrastructure improvements, officials with the Three Falls LDC wrote in a press release.

Additionally, swimming, camping and watercraft use are prohibited. 

“Three Falls LDC looks forward to working with State Parks over the next several years to improve and modernize the site and its facilities in order to bring it up to the standards one would expect from a New York state park, while preserving and protecting the property,” LDC officials wrote.

More outdoor recreational activities, environmental education and cultural events are also planned for the future, OPRHP officials said in a press release.

To kickstart management, OPRHP awarded the new local development corporation a $100,000 grant to develop a comprehensive plan and facility assessment strategy for the park. 

Trumansburg Mayor Rordan Hart told Tompkins Weekly that the village being able to have a say in the park’s future is incredibly significant. 

“Not only because half of our water supply is located at the former Camp Barton, but because with so little public access to Cayuga Lake remaining, it’s a tremendous benefit to the community to have additional space available in the heart of the Finger Lakes,” Hart said. 

Hart said the park symbolizes “a pristine piece of nature.”

“Once again, there is very little [such nature] left which is available and open to the public, so it’s fantastic that this will be preserved in its current state for future generations,” he noted.

At the July 1 information session, Hart said he hopes to hear the public’s expectations about the future of the park. 

“Public input is important from the standpoint of finding out what the community would like to see in terms of programming — events, what type of public amenities, etc.,” Hart added. “In terms of improvement to the space, it’s a state park, so New York state will have the ultimate say, but day-to-day programming is where public input will be most useful.”

The addition of the 90 acres to the state park system also supports the state’s goal to conserve 30% of its lands and waters by 2030. 

Hart said he hopes to bring new information to stakeholders at the meeting.

“Also [I hope to] provide long-awaited information on what can and can’t be done or how the park can and can’t be used in the interim,” he noted.

Eddie Velazquez is a local journalist who lives in Syracuse and covers the towns of Lansing and Ulysses. Velazquez can be reached at edvel37@gmail.com.