The 10×14 ft. muslin map, created by horseback riding instructors Mary Lou Goggin and Kay Connor in 1961, still graces the lodge wall to this day. Mary Lou has few memories of actually making this map and Kay has not been found to question her on her memories, but it hangs from the ceiling on the west side of the lodge. At some point in history, it was attached to the open beamed rafters of the lodge overlooking the dining and fireplace areas.

According to a copy of a 1947 “Loon” another map existed. The Junior Counselor trainees of 1946 dedicated a cloth map on July 30, 1947. The creators of this map included Joan Grushow, Rose Ann Mannix, Kay Brownyer, Nancy Suliburk, Mary Jane Nicols, Gretchen Lodewyck, Phyllis Kelso, Gerry Folkert, Julie Ford and Laya Hennes. (Laya and Gerry were interviewed but have no recall of this map.)

When fifty of the first hundred girls interviewed for that book gathered for a mini reunion at the lodge in 2013, copies of the 1961 map were posted for each camper to pencil in where they remembered buildings stood in their childhood memories.

No one from thirties who attended that function recalled the placement of the buildings, but the forties’ girls remembered there was no band shell, counselor’s brownie or laundry area. The campcraft building and camp store did not exist, but a tent for the counselors sat behind the lodge facing the lake. Senior Village had not been built yet, nor had the Infirmary or the cook’s cabin. The corral was on the right side of the road as you entered from the second road built and primitive camping did not exist. Dutton was home to the health unit and nature center; the lodge housed the camp store and various wooden outhouses sat on the wooded property.

A few other roughly drawn maps of the camp remain in the archives. One was featured on page 88 of the book “Camp Maqua”, which was drawn by Emogene Host, crafts director in 1969. Others included similar hand drawn sketches of the property in general terms.

Jennifer Fenton (1971-78) came armed to her ‘in person’ interview with her penned map, which helped her remember her childhood at Camp Maqua during those transitional seventies when the camp went co-ed during her reign.

“Ice cream in Hale between sessions, piccolo mini, fried ham, hobo pies, banana boats, bras up flagpole, scrapers, hoppers, toothpaste to sign names, driftwood creations for last night ceremony, boys camp across lake, swam across lake, swim tests, 3+ raft, lanyards, wishing boats song” were some of her little notes on the map.“ Salt was always there”, she scribbled near the drawing of the boathouse.

The game field across from the lodge, archery/parking to the east, waterfront with the canoes and the red kayaks with various cabins dotted her primitive map. (The fun part for most of the girls, including Jennifer, was trying to remember what cabin sat where and how old they were when they were in that hut.)

What do you remember of the large muslin map that used to hang from the lodge ceiling? Do you remember the first map that no longer exists? If you were able to draw the camp from memory, could you?

 

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