Firing blank shotgun shells, the cannon  was also sometimes used as a signal gun for campwide events and became a sort of emblem of the camp. For security it was chained to a concrete block embedded in the ground.

Many a Scout spent their siesta polishing the brass barrel of the cannon after forgetting their buddy tag on the board.

Roz Jettinghoff, wife of 50s camp director Dave Jettinghoff,  has told us that she was a bit upset to learn that Pine Tree cabin, where they lived, was also the storage facility for boxes of cannon shells!

Other camps became jealous of this gun, so at times it disappeared from camp, turning up at Camp Bomazeen or at Treasure Valley in Massachusetts, but it always came back until the year when it disappeared. Lots of rumors linger as to where it went but no substantiating evidence has ever turned up. It’s a Camp Hinds mystery!

One rumor of its disappearance is that it left on the bus with Troop 360 from Huntington New York in the late 60's.  Is it a coincidence that a likeness of a cannon appears on the 1970 neckerchief of Sanita Hills Scout Camp from the Greater New York Council ?