The leaves are turning, but we won’t be here to see the brilliant fall foliage as we head to Florida for the winter the long way. (Down the east coast from Maine, hopefully with peak color.) What a wonderful summer with just the right amount of sun and rain, company, and downtime.

Our partner in the lodge and business passed away this summer. Bill’s Uncle Aaron Starks was a man of faith who raised three great children with his wife, Blanche. He will be missed by all who loved him and was instrumental in many restoration projects of the lodge and our golf course.

We were blessed to have three of our four children and families visit this summer, who enjoyed the lake activities, cart rides, and tourist trips. Hopefully, next summer is Covid-free, so our young ones from California can fly again. Somehow bonfires without the kids roasting marshmallows or catching fireflies are not the same when they aren’t there.

The saddest part of our summer was the loss of the giant sycamore tree that stood mighty and tall by the west side of the lodge. Rotting from the inside, we had to remove it before it fell. We grieved to see it come down, with all the history it must have seen. It was well over 100 years old, and the rings left on the stump had stories to tell. Several families preserved some of the enormous rounds for tables to remember the tree.

The second saddest event was the complete implosion of hut #6, which sat on the property next to Dutton. It had been moved across the road and used as storage by the Fidler family. For years the door opened into a hut of treasured names and dates. Now, the shingled roof sits inside the hut, resembling a fairy forest of algae and moss.

The Maqua Association held its annual meeting by the campfire. Lydia Engel displayed the new Maqua flag, and we had a flag-raising ceremony before our pot-luck with plans to order a new American flag to replace the existing one. The deck by the boathouse is also under repair by Kim Gorman, Bill Baker, and Thom Engel, to prevent further rotting of the wood. The deck is over twenty years old and is our favorite gathering spot for all things Maqua.

My granddaughters Ainsley and Addison, and Mom Stephanie Baker, assisted me with a Camp Maqua summer display in the Plainfield Township Hall museum. We gathered memorabilia from the lodge for the tableau, featured in the local paper with a previous article written about the camp. I also visited the Greater Bay Region YWCA to meet the new director with the desire to house some of their archives for our 100-year celebration of Camp Maqua on the Loon Lake property in 2024. (Stay tuned for details!)

I am unsure of the steps to register Camp Maqua and its buildings on the historic Michigan register, but it is my winter research project. It is my hope that there will be grants to help with our building preservation. If there are any campers or staff that have experience with this, please email me at walkbake@gmail.com.