Putnam Camp Returning guests Reservations for Summer 2025 are open Click here to view the Reservation Letter Reservation Form and Virus Policy Putnam Camp About Located in the Keene Valley region of the east central Adirondacks Putnam Camp is an extremely wellpreserved woodland summer retreat that has maintained its original character and purpose since its establishment in the mid1870s by a group of Boston intellectuals. The site played an important role in the valleys history as a 19thcentury destination for distinguished artists scholars and literati whose attraction to this Victorianera cultural colony in the isolated High Peaks reflected a direct response to a national backtonature movement that promoted wilderness contact as the antidote to the stresses of a rapidly industrializing society. The founding members of the campHenry Bowditch William James and Charles and James Putnamrepresented the socalled Boston School a tightly knit group of psychologists philosophers neurologists and psychiatrists who ranked among the most erudite and progressive thinkers of their day. Set against the extraordinarily beautiful backdrop of the High Peaks their simply appointed woodland sanctuary served as a summer escape not only for family but also for countless colleagues and friends to whom the culture of Putnam Campplain living and high thinkingepitomized the essence of a proper wilderness retreat.