INTERVIEW WITH MARNEY WATSON 
Sister of Stewart Watson and daughter of William and Alma Watson
“My folks made a trip to California after my father retired as a carpenter and when he returned to Bay City in 1951 or 1952, he applied for the job as caretaker of Maqua and they hired him,” said Marney. “That started an adventure for our family for the next sixteen years. As far as I know, they had never hired caretakers, but they felt like they needed them. My Dad was the kind of man who loved to surprise his employers with whatever he was working on, so they could see how well it could be done. It would be his glory to do a great job and it was the way he approached every job.”
“My parents would start in the early spring and we would help them with the big jobs, even though they always told us they didn’t need any help. My sister and brother and all our kids would help with the cleaning. If the varnish was fading, my Dad would scrape the whole floor and re-varnish. He loved to surprise the counselors. He worked so hard.”
“In the fall we would empty the cabins and the mattresses were stored in two metal lined buildings, where we would pile them up to the ceiling so the critters wouldn’t get into them,” she said. “ We didn’t like to see them doing all the work by themselves, so we told them if we can bring our three kids up and stay in the lodge, then we would help them. We would stay there for two weeks and get the camp all closed up.”
“They were good kids and were close in age, so they never squabbled and were content to play outside. In the evenings, we would light a fire in the big fireplace and sing songs, play games, and roast marshmallows. We played the ribbon game, but I guess you have never heard of that.”
“Sometimes my Mom made homemade cinnamon rolls. My sister and I would dream up a hunt for the kids with a prize at the end. We went ahead and tied the cinnamon rolls in a cloth with a knot and the end result was the cinnamon rolls were the prize. We mostly worked, but we had fun, too,” said ninety-five year old Marney. “It was a special place.”
“My Mom made the curtains, cleaned the cupboards, varnished and painted and she was never the one to be idle. She put the woman’s touch on the camp. My husband was an electrician, so he helped with that. My brother built the fountain and my Dad was good with carpentry and all that needed to be fixed.”
“My daughter Marilyn and her cousins would take and sit in a rowboat on the water for hours. They spent time fishing and all were big fishermen. Back then they caught mostly Trout, but back in Maqua time, the Walleye were thick. These years I think the Walleye are fished out.”
“We loved swimming and so did our children. They had learned at the state park because we lived by the bay here, but the found new strokes at Maqua. They loved walking through the woods. We would look for trilliums, wild violets and wild raspberries. “
“I always thought the wealthier kids were the ones that went to Camp Maqua, but I know there were many from Ohio. There were no inland lakes in Ohio, so many of the counselors came up to Maqua. I know my Mom and Dad heard from counselors year after year. On the weekends of registration, they would plan a cookout and have home cooking with things like fried potatoes,” said Marney. “They always tried to do nice things for the counselors.”
Marney remembered Dutton was the place the director would stay and there was an outhouse with a path from Dutton. Her parents would stay in the lodge until the holidays, living in kitchen with the rest of the house basically closed off. She remembered buying them an electric blanket, but the roads were not good, especially in the spring when they turned muddy, so the Watsons would have to stay with Marney.
Marney’s sister Eleanor and her husband created “Deer Acres” and nephew Roger sold it to a pharmacist. The figures were carved by Eleanor.