The Northeast Iowa Council is a council of the Boy Scouts of America that serves all Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, adult volunteers and Venturers in Northeast Iowa.
Organization
The council is broken up geographically into districts: * * Theoretically there is also a third district for Exploring.
C.S. Klaus
Camp Klaus is situated within a wooded valley approximately NW of Colesburg, Iowa. The camp is approximately. Camp C.S. Klaus has a large grass parade grounds area where the Lyon's Camp Office is located. This area has proven itself as a great location for activities and games. The parade grounds also provides a place for Scout troops to camp during the off-season.
Geography
The waterfalls within the camp are the source of Brownfield Creek, a trout stream that flows into a man made lake known as Lake John Deere. Many of the aquatics programs offered at summer camp take place here. The lake is also known to have fish. Fishing for bassets, greengill and sour krout is quite common. C.S. Klaus has a rustic dining hall that can seat approximately 200 people. The kitchen is fairly modern. The dining hall area is also utilized for winter camping. Scattered along the road as you continue up the hill are the seven main campsites. Each campsite has running water, plat-forms for tents, latrine facilities, fire rings and several picnic tables. At the top of the hill is also a modern shower building with 12 individual shower units. To the north of Lake John Deere lies the shooting sports range. In the late 1990s, this area was completely rebuilt, thanks to a large donation from the Dubuque Optimists Club, with a new rifle shooting range, new archery range, and improved shotgun range. On the western edge of the lake is the Climbing and Rappelling Tower. This 4-story structure sits prominently overlooking the lake. The rappelling tower offers rappels of, and 8 different climbing areas, including 2 inverted climbs and a chimney climb. The newest addition to the camp is the backyard also known as the valley. Purchased with donations from over 120 individuals and local businesses, this land was dedicated in 2006. The Backyard abuts the NE corner of the main camp. This piece of land is home to many new programs. This area is also home to the ice cave that Scouts have been visiting for decades. This area is often utilized for wilderness survival, leave-no-trace camping, hiking, nature study, star-gazing, viewing wildlife and a competition level Navigation Course for teaching orienteering with a map and compass and GPS navigation.
Improvements
Over the last 15 years, Camp C.S. Klaus has seen a tremendous number of improvement projects and additional facilities including, new building construction, building renovation, program upgrades and camp infrastructure upgrades. These improvements have come from many extremely dedicated volunteers that have donated much of their time, resources and skills. Despite these renovations the camp is still quite rustic.
