CONROE -- A Houston landmark that's been home to thousands of Boy Scouts over the years is closing its doors.
Tuesday night was the final night of activity out at Camp Strake, which used to be in an isolated patch of land near Conroe.
It's the last campfire, the last projects and the last chance to earn merit badges at the camp, a place that's become an institution for Houston-area Boy Scouts.
"I've done archery so far and I thought that was really fun," said scout Joseph Kohlmaier.
"It's kind of hard to see it go. I've been here since I was 4 years old," said staff member Zachary Jaramillo.
It was the peace and quiet of these piney woods that first brought the Boy Scouts here in the 1940s, but since then a lot has changed.
Outside the camp's main entrance you can see why.
The property sits along I-45. As more and businesses have come in, so have developers wanting to purchase the campgrounds.
"Certainly over the last decade it has grown tremendously," said Camp Director Bobby Warren.
Johnson Development purchased the property and is planning residential and retail space on the 2,000-acre site that includes several lakes and bayous. The Boy Scouts are relocating away from the sprawl.
"It is generally in the Sam Houston National Forest Area," Warren said. "The best way I can think of to describe it is you go out there. You stop and you listen; you don't hear a thing."
"I actually came here as a Boy Scout myself many years back," said Tom White, who alongside his wife, Pam, has been a camp medic for the last 25 years. "Conroe has kinda encroached on us and is surrounding us now, so we are happy to move to a new location."
They know the Boy Scout family will move with them, along with all the traditions that started here.
"A family is not just a father, mother, son—it's a father, mother, son, scoutmaster, the boys in his patrol, the boys in his troop," said staff volunteer Donny Abrahmson.
