SAUGUS — When you arrive at the American Outdoor School cabin, you are transported to a place filled with greenery and wonder.
It’s almost as though you aren’t in Saugus anymore. You are taken to a place where you can be one with nature. The mission for owner Eliot Goodwin is to create community close to home, specifically the outdoor community.
As a kid, Goodwin spent a lot of time outdoors. His dad enjoyed fishing, and the founder told the Daily Item that he enjoyed camping as a child.
There is one moment that stands out to Goodwin: He was at a camp and went on a canoe trip on a small lake in New Hampshire. Witnessing the sunset, Goodwin described a euphoric feeling that he had.
“It was like remembering something that already existed,” he said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience where you are just outside and you just remember something, but it’s like an emotional remembering … Your body remembers something being outdoors.”
Saugus wasn’t originally going to be the home of the school. Goodwin applied for his first permit in 2019, and since he lived in Medford he applied for a permit in the Middlesex Fells Reservation. His request was denied, but a DCR property adjacent to Breakheart Reservation and just off Walnut Street, was recommended.
When Goodwin arrived at the site, which is called Camp Nihan, he couldn’t believe the place. He said it was almost as if he were transported to a wilderness in Vermont or New Hampshire.
All the programming at the outdoor school is for adults only. Goodwin’s goal is to have a consistent place to provide people with outdoor experiences. The school boasts a wide range of classes, such as wildlife tracking and wilderness survival, as well as plant identification classes.
The instruction is about more than just teaching skills for the founder. Goodwin also believes that such knowledge helps people care more about the natural world.
“How are we ever going to protect the environment if we have zero connection to it? You just can’t. If you don’t give a crap about a tree, you’re never going to want to protect it. I’m not pretending that we’re the answer, but it’s certainly a path towards an answer.”
Goodwin believes for true environmental change and care to occur, people must make a connection with nature, not just simply buy green products.
“I think we have an opportunity to build that relationship. A lot of indigenous wisdom was really about doing things that encouraged the Earth to flourish in its own way. Now indigenous people are also responsible for pretty much wiping out every major mammal in North America. They’re not the saviors here. I’m just saying that you can’t protect (nature) until you have that relationship.”
Even though he spends a lot of time with nature, Goodwin said that he is still working on building that relationship.
People who take classes at the outdoor school seem to enjoy it. Goodwin said that more than 50 percent of his students return for another class.