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HIDDEN VALLEY CAMP
Freedom, Maine 04941
Peter & Meg Kassen - Directors

An International Children's
Community for 60 Years

Email:
summer@hiddenvalleycamp.com

Phone: 800-922-6737
From Overseas: 207-342-5177
Fax: 207-342-5685

About HVC · History

Hidden Valley Camp History

Prior to its 50+ years as a camp, HVC was a farm surrounded by many similar farms in the town of Montville, Maine. We are still in Montville (which is so small that it has no post office, so we use neighboring Freedom's.) Old folks in the area recall walking from their family homesteads deep in the woods, past the Tasker Farm (now Hidden Valley) and then another 3 miles up the camp road toward Center Montville and its one-room schoolhouse.

Dean and Hal Tiffany

In 1948, Hidden Valley started out as a work and farm camp for twelve teenaged campers. This small group and their directors (and the founders of Hidden Valley) Hal and Dean Tiffany, converted a manure filled dairy barn into the beginnings of what later became a our dining hall and which now houses a library, game area, etc. These camper groups constructed various buildings around camp to provide living space. These buildings — with names like the Loons, Tasker Hall, and the Buckhorn — now host camper programs such as dance and batik.

At its height, this incarnation of Hidden Valley hosted 75 campers. In 1964, the Tiffany's decided to retire — the responsibilities of caring for such a "large" camp having caught up with them — and put the camp up for sale. They began to spend summers in a cottage which has since become the camp office.

Jay Stager Strikes a Silly Pose

In 1969, Jay Stager purchased the camp. In those days, the camp hosted 70 campers, among them Peter's brothers Philip and Jeremy. Peter at that time was a camper and counselor at nearby Med-O-Lark. The 70's and 80's brought many changes to HVC. Over time, campers moved out of the barn and into new cabins which now house over 200 children. Jay opened up the property on the east side of the camp road, making room for expanded llama and horse areas and for human campers as well.

To set the stage for the next phase of Hidden Valley history, we need to go back in time. Though most of the Tasker farm had been sold to the Tiffany's, a "small" (80 acre) piece remained with the Taskers until 1956 when they sold it to then HVC parents Jerome and Irene Cossman. The Cossmans converted this piece into their summer estate, building additional buildings, riding areas, and a swimming pool. When they retired in the late 80's they moved to "Deer Meadows," as they called it, full time.

Meanwhile, Peter had met Meg teaching lifesaving at Med-O-Lark. From 1979 to '86, they directed M-O-L. Married in 1985, Meg and Peter took over at Hidden Valley when Jay and his wife Karen chose to retire. Recently, when their neighbors the Cossmans decided to move closer to the Maine coast, the Kassens purchased the last of the Tasker farm, reuniting it with the rest of HVC and converting the Cossman's Deer Meadows estate for camper use.

Jay and Karen Stager have repurchased Med-O-Lark and direct camp programs there. The Cossmans live nearby, managing two antique stores on the coast. And the Tiffanys' ashes are scattered at the top of Tipi Hill near three evergreen trees.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A 50'S ERA CAMPER

Ledge Pond Circa 1958

"There were fifty campers and 10 on staff. All of the girls lived in the Barn and the boys lived in three cabins: Carriage House, Crows Nest, and the Buckhorn...

"Every Sunday morning, there was an all camp softball game and everyone played. Thirty people out in the field. Thirty in the batting order... The field by the Carriage House almost all the way to the top was corn, and as it ripened we had to sleep in the corn field to be sure that the porcupines would not get the corn...

Carriage House, 1950's

"I went into teaching because of Hal and he influenced me perhaps more than any other person I know. He created an environment that was accepting, honest and one in which each person was made to feel good about him/herself and proud to be part of the community."

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