Tents were also standard accommodations for the many girls who camped the previous years from 1916-1924 at Aplin Beach, Killarney Beach and Sand Lake locations. Notes from minutes in 1945 noted that a new hut was to be built with a $500 gift and “will house occupants of the worn out tent”.
The Aladdin Company of Bay City provided the many cabins over the years, building new ones as the demand for more space came with increased enrollment. The bare board cabins, sized 14 feet by 18 feet, were large enough to accommodate four bunk beds for the girls and one cot for the camper, footlockers and a meager walkabout. The wooden front door, screen door and eight screened windows with pulley windows kept out the elements or allowed for cross ventilation on hot summer days.
“I remember how the cabins were isolated and to use water, we had to walk to a separate building. I used a flashlight and I was uncomfortable and scared walking in the dark by myself. The cabins themselves were spartan, with bunk beds, and we had not reason to stay in the cabin except to sleep. I just remember a lot of brown inside and outside, dark and not much sunlight,” said one camper, whose description fit that of many.
Many of the girls had their favorite cabins, chosen for the proximity to the bathrooms or lodge, or chosen to be as far away from the counselors as possible. Beth Taylor could recall each hut and where they were located in the sixties. The younger girls stayed in huts 1,2 and 3 closest to the lodge; 4,5, and 6 were for middles and the older girls were in 7,8 and 9.
Jennifer Fenton provided two maps drawn of the waterfront and the lodge area. Her childhood memory (1971-78) jotted down where each cabin stood. She always tried to arrive at camp early to secure her favorite corner top bunk. Her last year in a cabin had a sign called “Potawatami” on it.
The best spot in the bunk house was not the left or the right, according to Dawn Sohigian (1966-71), but in the middle. “I had a fear of missing out, so I felt the best spot was in the middle where I could have my eye on the whole cabn,” said Dawn, who also remembered how organized her trunk was packed.
Bev Lemanski was eight years old in 1945 when she first attended camp and always chose Cabin Eight, “because it was the farthest away from the lodge and we could get into more trouble”, she laughed. “We always piddled in the woods and we also would collect fireflies in a jar and after we were told lights out, we would open the jar and let them out.”
“I have memories of Cabin Two, which was directly down the hill from the flagpole at the end of the stairs. There were rope windows on a pull and if it was raining, we had to stay inside. I can remember how stifling hot it was. We would pull them out and wrap the rope around a cleat’” said Laurie Cone, camper from the sixties. “But Cabin Nine had the best view by far. I never stayed long, but if a counselor was on an overnight on her break I would go up there. I camped in Senior Village, which you could hardly walk down to if it was raining. We slid down the hill, and it was very isolated and muddy.”
Did you ever experience the tents as your regular “cabin”? What was your experience?