Camp Corbly, near Curry Run, in Greenwood Township, began with an initial land sale in 1931 and opened as a church camp, in 1940, sponsored by the Western Pennsylvania Baptist Association.
Church camps and religious retreats, such as those in Bell, Burnside and Covington Townships still exist and thrive in Clearfield County.
They have traditionally been centers religious and Bible study, as well as places for outdoor summer fun and activities for families of all ages.
The camp, throughout a given summer, housed hundreds of youths who added baseball, hiking and swimming to their days. It would have been a time to enjoy their younger years and learn the rudiments of their faith.
Mr. Jim Bennett’s well-done local history of Curry Run recounts that in the summer of 1949, the Pittsburgh Steelers used Camp Corbly for their summer training camp.
This was long before the team went to Latrobe and long before professional football became as popular as it is today. Football fans, then, mostly stuck to their favorite college teams.
Professional football games received some newspaper and radio coverage, but Major League Baseball was still America’s dominant sport of choice.
Local fans, or at least those who were curious, were said to drive or even walk to Camp Corbly to watch the Steelers practice.
Groceries were ordered from local stores to feed the players and some attended services at Grampian’s Methodist, Catholic and Friends churches.
The photo shown is likely from the 1950’s when Camp Corbly was in its heyday. It shows some of the simple but adequate camp housing and a 48-star U.S. flag.
The last season for the camp was in 1963. The encroaching backwaters of the newly-built Curwensville Dam caused roads, houses and even cemeteries to be moved. By the next year, Camp Corbly was gone and the buildings removed.