Camp Jened
The Roots of a Revolution
The Hunter Branch Rail Trail (HBRT) passes directly through hallowed ground: the former Camp Jened site. Immortalized in the Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary Crip Camp, this summer camp in the Catskills ignited a movement that led to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It was here that young people with disabilities found empowerment, community, and the spark to fight for civil rights.
In 2021, spearheaded by Gary Slutzky, Linda Geary and the Mountain Top Historical Society, a New York State historic marker was placed along the future HBRT route, commemorating the lives and activism born from this soil. The wording on the marker was written by Judith Heumann, who attended camp Jened and is well known as the “mother of the disability movement” and who Gary and Linda consulted with during the process. She passed way in 2023.
Today, the trail stands as both a recreational path and a monument to the ADA’s origins.
