1970’s

Families Who Felt Camp Was Theirs–The Emmett Williams Family

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

In 1957 Emmet and Florence Williams made the decision to search for a summer place within a reasonable distance from their Detroit home. They discovered their dream property that year, close to two national forests and an easy three-hour drive for their two daughters Denise and Sharon, who were two and five at the time.

The shell of the summer house was already built, with knotty pine inside, just waiting for installation. Ira Schofield had developed the property, known as Palisades Park, on Hillsdale Avenue, bordering Loon Lake. Emmet, his father and uncle built the first rustic home with a water heater under the sink. Florence remembered boiling water for hot baths.

The last of the knotty pine was taken down in 1986, and the old stove was removed when the family needed extra space. Emmet retired in 1986 and the renovation on the original home was completed in 1987 with heat, insulation, larger closets and an extra bath.

“We loved it,” said Florence. “My husband worked nights and my parents lived in Ohio. We spent three weekends up north and one weekend a month in Ohio. We had no car and no phone.”

Florence recalled the fence between their property and the camp, which stood about 6-7 feet and was of natural wood. The fence stood on the property line and was installed when the camp worried that boys would move in next door to the girls camp. “We could not see over the fence, but from our dock daughters Sharon and Denise learned to swim different strokes, kayak and canoe just from watching the instructors at camp!”

“There were five stations and two L-shaped docks with two rafts. Sharon and I would watch the girls with their instructors in the canoes or playing Marco Polo from our dock,” said Denise.

The Williams’ family could always hear the singing from the campers and counselors as they ate or sat around the campfire, but on rainy days songs could be heard with stomping feet and clapping hands with the children’s voices from the lodge. “We always enjoyed all the activities from our home and it was never too loud or annoying,” said Florence. “It always appeared to be a very well-run camp until the late seventies and it just wasn’t the same with the boys there.”

“The boys would come over from Camp Mahn-go-tah-see on a giant Viking ship, calling to the girls,” she laughed. “The counselors would act nonchalant, but they probably wished for them to leave.”

One day Denise was babysitting at her home and she spotted a huge albino skunk eating baby food out of a jar in the yard that had been left out. There had been reports that the same skunk had been spotted in camp by counselors and campers alike. Denise loved living next to Maqua, but she loved it more when they left and she could ride the horses up to Chapel Hill and walk around the property. “We knew every path like the back of our hands,” she said. “Mr. Watson, who took care of the property used to call us “My girl” and we called him “My man”.

Read More

Others Who Rented Camp

Published on by Kathy Baker

A group of men and women were to go to camp June 11, 1934, to clean and open Maqua, according to minutes and ledgers of the camp committee. Following the opening, “The Cigar Factory Girls” were to spend a weekend vacation at camp with a lifeguard on June 18. Camp was to open on June 27, but the counselors and other staff were up there ahead of opening day on June 23 of that summer.

“The committee agreed to allow fifteen business girls to attend Camp Maqua as a weekend trip with a charge of twenty-five cents per girl”, noted the minutes from May 22, 1936. By February 1937, the camp committee discussed keeping the camp open for families after season.

Minutes stated the camp was used for a conference from Michigan Sate University in 1941. By 1957, the camp committee was pondering how to rent the camp to school groups off-season when the lodge and cabins were not winterized.

By 1958 the Bay City Council of Churches and the Sterling High School Band utilized the camp. The band was charged $225 and they had to provide their own Red Cross certified lifeguard and prepare their own meals. It was mentioned in 1959 that the profits were increased by renting to these extra groups, and the structures did not “lie dormant” with no-one using them, so it was in the best interest financially to figure out the best plan.

The camp committee agreed on June 20, 1962 to run a blind ad in the Bay City Times stating that the camp could be rented by responsible parties for groups during the month of August. Various churches used the camp for their retreats in the early sixties, as well as the Oscoda High School band, and the Young Adult Group (the Y-Teens) with payment around $380. There were also mentions of exchange students participating in camp activities though the Council of Churches in the later sixties.

The Camp Maqua committee met on January 15, 1964 and one of the main topics concerned “Family Camp”, which started August 15-24 and was limited to ten families. The fee structure was $50 for adults 17 and older; $30 for children 5-16 inclusive; and $10 for children 4 and under. The camp investigated the type of insurance required for this type of camping and medicals were required. At the end of this camp experience, a letter arrived to the camp committee from Wayne State University in August regarding the creation of a family camp at Maqua.

Other mentions of rental were in 1971, when the Live-Y’ers used the camp and Peace River Lutheran Chruch from Rhodes, Michigan used the property and facilities for $400 and $10 per cabin. The committee restricted the use of boats and campers were restricted to the field, most likely in part to liability with water safety.

The entries found in some of the archival scrapbooks at the Great Lakes Bay Region YWCA in Bay City held pages of articles referring to the Girl Reserves and Business and Emplyoyed girls who would rent Camp Maqua off-season, as well as many other organizations.

Read More

Viking Boats Across The Lake–

Published on by Kathy Baker

When Elaine Levinsohn (1927-30) camped at Maqua, there were no homes around, just a pretty lake with many trees. “All the girls knew there was a boys’ camp there,” she laughed, as she recalled a vague memory of boating over to the camp, like many before and after her years at camp.

As the boating director, Anne Pennington (1964-72) recalled some of the fun on the water on Hawaiian Day when the girls would decorate the canoes and rowboats. The boys across the lake would also decorate their large boat, which she said resembled a Viking ship. The boys tried to throw things from their boat onto the girls’ boat. One summer she was dating Larry Roberts, who was caretaker Homer Robert’s son from the boys’ camp and she enjoyed the mixers with the boy counselors in the pre-sessions the week before camp opened.

“I remember a beauty pageant in bathing suits with a Hawaiian theme’” said Tami Nagel, who camped in the sixties. “Although I can’t remember her name, she had blonde hair and she won something, and I remember the boys from Camp Mahn-go-tah-see coming over.”

Sarah Smith, whose camping years spanned the late sixties to the mid-seventies, had a vivid memory at the end of her camping experience when the boys came over from camp and she was chosen to be the Indian Maiden. “I had dark hair and dark skin, so that’s probably why I was chosen, but I was thrilled since I was a chubby kid.”

Read More

Maqua Declares War–

Published on by Kathy Baker


“One of the years I think some of the pranks got out of hand with the boys from Camp Mahn-go-tah-see. We had never had any official activities with them, but this one summer there was a mixer, so we got to know some of the boys. We would wave to them when we saw them on the lake and there was some pranking back and forth. One day we got a call on the phone, with the question of what would ten pounds of molasses do to our horses, so while we were at the stables checking, they showed up at the lodge and tee-peed the place, I think Carol  Nieman thrived on it, personally, “said Betsy Falvey (1968-75). “She was single, and flattered by the attention since she was young. But, all I could think of was how much work my Mom had done to raise money to keep the lodge and camp going and if it was going to get damaged. I was probably overly-sensitive.”

The banner at the heading of the “Loon” spelled “WAR” in huge letters. “On July 17, 1975, the sovereign and free, peace-loving land of Mahn-go-tah-see served upon Camp Maqua a declaration of war. This was not our first tangle with Mahn-go, but one of many”, the article continued.

“According to the declaration of war, Maqua was the camp that gave cause for the war to be declared. How? Well, on July 13, when some “young ambassadors” from Mahn-go entered our territorial waters, the declaration states that Maqua ambushed their “mere lads”. But, we say these men have nerve calling themselves “mere lads”. They are no more mere than we mere gals, and we know they are not mere. Therefore, these guys should own up to the fact that they came over here looking for some action, and we gave it to them.”

Read More

Pranks Between Two Camps–

Published on by Kathy Baker

“We loved to torment the boys across the lake,” laughed Geraldine Folkert (1942-47). “Every year we would paddle over and take their canoes, so they would have to paddle our boats back over to get theirs. We never really had any social outings with them, but I think some of the counselors used to mix with them.”

“We did little cabin pranks every summer, but by far the best prank was paddling over to Mahn-go-tah-see and escaping with their war canoe,” laughed Cindy Knapp (1968+). “We decorated it, renamed it the S.S. Maqua, covered it with shaving cream and seaweed. We were so proud of ourselves. Thankfully, we didn’t get into too much trouble.”

Judith Moore, assistant director, agreed that there were no organized mixers when she was at camp in 1970 and 1971, but also agreed the boys could get up to no good in the evenings, but never anything serious.

Carol Wahl (1974-75) loved that they never got caught when they took the big canoe, which could handle most of the staff, and paddled across the lake to the boys’ camp. “There were about ten of us that “tee-peed” the entire beach with toilet paper. Of course, they retaliated, but for the life of me I cannot remember how.”

“It was always tantalizing knowing the boys were across the lake,” said Pamela Hartz (1966-75), but for the staff, there were patrols to make sure the boys were not in Maqua. Shelley Harris (1965-75) recalled a whistle system for alerting when boys were in camp. Since Hut 5 was elevated, they could crawl under and knock on the floors to scare the girls.

“At night we could hear all the noises outside the cabin and when we were in Senior Village, we would do patrol or guard duty around the camp to check to make sure everyone was in their cabins and all was well,” said Chris Lambert (1958-65). “We were never worried about animals, but we were worried about the guys across the lake. One night we chased some of them and came pretty close to catching one, but he ran up Chapel Hill and made it to the property outside the camp. Good thing we didn’t get a hold of him,” she laughed. “He would have been a mess.”

Read More

Where The Boys Are—

Published on by Kathy Baker

For decades Camp Maqua girls made jokes about the  Camp Mahn-go-tah-see boys’ camp across the lake; how maybe they would swim over to see them; or the boys would boat over past them, so they could see them. And as many of them that dreamt of that, there were thse girls who said they were far too young to even notice.

Andrea Gale (1970-74) said she was too young to pay attention, but by the time she left camp that last year, she was just as boy crazy and screamed like the other girls. Randi Wynne-Parry (1969-73) said they all knew the boys were there, but all they did was talk about them. Cindy  Rose(1968-70) figured the talk of the boys and girls meeting in the middle of the lake was just talk– the great boy talk.

Patrica Purcell, a self-professed late bloomer in the fifties, loved the concept that there was a boys’ camp across the lake, but laughed that she would not have known what to do with them had they boated over!

“I was a late bloomer and I was so glad there were no boys at camp, “ said Jan Schreiber (1962-70). “In fact my least favorite part was when the boys from the camp across the lake would come over. I didn’t even have my first boyfriend until I was seventeen. I was glad not to have to deal with boys because it facilitated the freedom from the issues and pressures to be a particular way.”

Read More