Did Ya Know?: The Pocono Origins of Fonzie’s Shark Jump

While the Poconos are dotted with the remnants of defunct summer camps that have since become modern subdivisions, few hold a history quite as industrious — or as pop-culture adjacent — as the site of the current Blue Mountain Lake community in East Stroudsburg. Before it was a residential community, this land was the bustling grounds of Blue Mountain Camp, a traditional Jewish summer camp for boys and girls that thrived from its founding in 1921 until 1968.

The story of the camp begins with its founders, Morris and Bertha Escoll. Their vision for the site was ambitious from the beginning. Before the first camper arrived in 1923, the landscape was a rugged challenge. The creation of the lake itself was a grueling feat of labor, accomplished when a team of oxen was used to scoop away the muck and remove hundreds of tree stumps from the marshy terrain.

With the lake established, Mr. Escoll, who held a forestry degree from Cornell University, immediately began transforming the surrounding acreage. Over the first five years, he and his team planted 25,000 evergreen trees, creating the dense, scenic forest that still defines the community today.

Once the camp was operational, it settled into a classic Pocono rhythm. Days were filled with baseball games, swimming, canoeing, and hiking. To maintain its vibrant community, the camp actively recruited teachers and college students for staff positions.

While the original wooden cabins have long been replaced by homes, the community association ensures the history remains visible. Through the efforts of the Blue Mountain Camp Alumni Association, the original, restored Camp Office sign is now proudly displayed on the property. The original stone fireplace from the boys' lodge (which stood where the current clubhouse is today) was moved to the lake, where a gazebo was built around the structure.

The site is most famously known today, however, as the early stomping grounds of a future television icon. Henry Winkler has said in interviews that he spent a summer as the waterski instructor at Blue Mountain Camp long before he was leather-jacketed television royalty. The camp's waterskiing would have required a much larger body of water than today's Blue Mountain Lake, though published accounts don't specify where that was.

Decades later, that exact aquatic background would come full circle in television history: those real-life water-skiing skills allowed him to perform much of the famous Happy Days scene in which Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli famously straps on skis and jumps over a shark — giving pop culture the ultimate idiom for television jumping the shark.

Next time you drive past the manicured lawns and modern driveways of Blue Mountain Lake, take a second to listen for the faint echo of the past: the splash of an ox team in the muck, the rustle of 25,000 saplings, and the distant, legendary cool of the Fonz. Perfectamundo.