In 1924, Franklin D. Roosevelt selected Judge Frederic Kernochan, his close friend and fishing companion, to head the search for a new, expansive summer camp for New York City Scouts.   Three years later, Roosevelt appointed Kernochan to chair the committee to raise $1 million to pay for what we know today as the Ten Mile River Scout Camps.      

No other individuals had a greater impact on the creation of the Ten Mile River Scout Camps.   Both men came from wealthy and privileged families and were active in Democratic politics.   Both made substantial contributions to Scouting in New York City and nationwide.      

In 2005, the Ten Mile River Scout Museum will sponsor a special exhibit on the lives of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Frederic Kernochan and the roles they played in the Boy Scouts and the Ten Mile River Scout Camps.     

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT established his reputation as leader of independent Democrats in the New York State Senate in 1911, attacking the Tammany Hall bosses. He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913. In 1920, he ran for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic Party ticket. In May 1921, Roosevelt was appointed chairman of the   Committee on New York City Scouting. In June 1922, the Boy Scout Foundation of Greater New   York was incorporated, with Roosevelt as president, a position he held until 1937. He was elected New York State Governor in 1928 and President of the United States in 1932.      

FREDERIC KERNOCHAN graduated from Yale University and New York Law School and fought   in the Spanish-American War. In 1908, he received a Congressional Medal of Honor for saving   the life of a drowning woman at Highlands, New Jersey, in 1886. He was appointed Justice of the Court of Special Sessions in 1914 and Chief Justice in 1919. In 1932, Kernochan testified against alliances between Tammany Hall and racketeers. He was present in February 1933 when Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate President-elect Roosevelt in Miami, Florida,   after a cruise on Vincent Astor's yacht. Kernochan later interrogated Zangara in his prison cell.