1934: Education Begins

Maruice Broun speaks to gatherers at the Lookout rocks

Researched and Compiled by
Jeremy Scheivert, Education Coordinator

Reprinted in part from
Hawk Mountain News, Autumn 2009

Education is multi-dimensional and complex as a food web, so its little surprise that Hawk Mountain has used many vehicles to share its message over the past 78 years.

In 1934—the Mountain’s founding year—Maurice Broun began a tradition of simple interaction with the curious and the campers.

In 1939 supporters received the first written record of activity in its News Letter to Members by Mrs. Edge, wherein she shared a strong belief that when groups visited Hawk Mountain they would take a greater understanding of raptors and nature. Throughout the 1940s Maurice Broun interacted extensively with a growing number of such groups…

Sanctuary founder Rosalie Edge

“Scout Groups, boys and girls, and hiking clubs came to avail themselves of our excellent camping facilities, and to enjoy the Curator’s guided tours and informal talks,” Mrs. Edge wrote in 1948.

Broun’s talks, she shared, “have become a feature of interest” and the 1948 newsletter included the first list of visits made by advance arrangement.

The 1950s were a time of enhancement. Schaumboch’s received electricity in 1952, allowing the Brouns to present even more programs on the back porch, and the staff broke ground for the Common Room.

May 1954 a group of 26 Pottstown Girl Scout leaders learned “nature-guiding methods,” the first record of educator training. That autumn, Maurice commended David Karraker of the National Park Service who assisted at North Lookout, marking what may be the first education volunteer in what we now call “the Counter’s Pit.”

The following spring, the first public building opened in time to host Hawk Mountain’s 20^th Anniversary. The wood and stone structure would serve multiple purposes, and so was called The Common Room. Part staff residence and part meeting area and lecture hall, the building still stands six decades later, but was being underutilized.

Upgrades initiated in 2011 returned a focus to Hawk Mountain education programming, and to resurrecting and improving the space to transform into a true headquarters for raptor education. But we’re jumping ahead of ourselves…

Photo at left, the 20th Anniversary celebration at the newly opened Common Room.