In 1927 the craft hut and boathouse were built, under the watchful eye of Mr. Clark, who chaired the construction committee. “He was ably assisted by Mr. Perry, Mr. Fifield, Mr. Davidson and Mr. Clift,” noted the minutes from that year. In 1936, the minutes contained a mention that a screened porch was needed on the “arts and crafts hut”, but it took a few years before it became a reality.
Maryetta Simmons wrote about handicrafts in the “Loon” of 1949, which was run by Jackie Dawson and Vicki Smukal. “The campers may buy craft strip bracelets, plastic belts, scotch purses, earrings, wooden plates, pill boxes, flowers and leather articles,” she wrote of the crafts that were usually made for parents. She remarked the craft hut was a great place to go on rainy days, because “there is a bright fire in the fireplace and happy girls”.
The craft hut was also a great place to take photos for publicity. Many postcards, brochures and feature articles in the Bay City Times displayed the photos of the girls sitting on the long bootstrap benches around the linoleum covered tables, working on their projects.
Mary Obey found herself in two copies of the Bay City Times, dated 1957, seated at a craft table, concentrating on a project. She laughed, saying,”I might be in the craft hut in that photo, but that part didn’t carry over into my adult years!”
Each year, the supplies were ordered for the crafts that were considered to be popular items for the girls. In 1961 Kay Rahn and Judy Talford taught, utilizing copper, leather, wood and paper in their crafts. In 1966, Emmy Host (and her assistants Gayle and dog Sam) used copper, wood, painting, weaving, leatherwork, and gravel photos. Samples were usually made ahead of time, so the girls could visualize what the end results would be.
Emmy Host drew a floor plan of the craft hut in 1969, which was featured in the book “Camp Maqua”. She loved that it had a fireplace, and kept firewood and kindling under the hut to keep it dry. There was a sand box outside the hut used for pouring plaster and broken pieces and scraps were saved and emptied into a “Keep Maqua Clean” barrel to ensure no plaster went down sink drains.
In 1969 the supplies were ordered from Magnus, Delco and American Handicraft catalogs, which were kept in a cupboard with directions for the projects, which were usually selected for their simplicity.
‘The tools have dwindled to a wooden mallet, one handsaw and a pair of pliers,” lamented Emmy in end of summer report. The west wall of the craft hut had black shadowed paintings of where each tool was to hang.
The favorites in the sixties were candles, decoupage, Indian pouches, copper pins, metal medallions, Indian key rings, key chains, mosaic pictures, I.D. tags, flowers, beanies, paint by number paintings, plaster forms, pop-up puppets, vevet wall panels, metal tooling, lanyards, thermometers, memo bulletin boards, chests, spin art, cork animals, pin wheels, reed baskets, watercolors, sketches and free scrap leather and reeds to form friendship bracelets.
Arts and crafts were always popular, and the campers attended two to three times a week. When crafts were popular, she usually paired the younger girls under the supervision of the older girls. The younger campers seemed to like to make things for their families, and the older girls leaned toward the creative projects.
Do you remember what craft projects you worked on when you were at camp? 