When Joan McKinney arrived in 1970, she took an inventory of the nature hut (Dutton) and its equipment, cleaned it and readied during her pre-camp. She described the surroundings as central to all the cabins and by the water, with a front screened-in porch that faced the water. She kept her reptiles and amphibians there, plus the two bird’s nests to be observed. (Phoebe and Robin)

The main room held sixteen to twenty people or two cabins, blackboard, large work room cabinet to store chemicals and paints, bulletin boards, shelves, racks, tools. equipment, chairs and tables. A small back room held a toilet and an unplugged cooler. The second floor was sleeping quarters for unattached staff. She had a little diagram, which indicated a sink in the workroom that faced the road, and “Dorthe’s Island” to the right of Dutton, which was an outdoor nature terrarium that had been built three summers previously.

Joan’s bulletin boards featured “Animals Around Us” with photos of reptiles, birds and mammals and specimens and explanations of pressed leaves and photos of trees. She conducted nature contests each session, tree identification of twenty-five trees, and competitions between the cabins. Her prizes included penny candy and nature ribbons at the closing ceremonies.

There was also a boa constrictor, mice and a Blanding turtle that Joan brought with her, which the campers cared for over the summer, as well as a painted turtle found at camp.  Her father had made a poster on wild flowers entitled “Let them live in your eyes, not die in your hand”, which she thought was appropriate since many of the campers decorated their wishing boats with flowers at the end of the session. Other posters pertained to Smokey the Bear, poison ivy and poison sumac. An assistant was on hand from the first week and they worked together on scheduling lessons and rainy day activities.

She felt the girls were interested in the animals she had brought with her, along with the facts she provided about their habits and habitats. The campers dug for earthworms, fed and watered pets and built terreniums for frogs, crayfish and tadpoles. The terreniums were made from the aquariums found in the nature hut—one for frogs, crayfish and tadpoles and the other for toads and snakes. The turtles were kept in a big tub from the kitchen. The frog’s habitat was lake water, seaweed, sand and a flat rock that was big enough to be above water for a resting place. The water and seaweed were replaced daily. The toad terrenium had a layer or dirt, moss, flat pieces of wood and stones, which were watered every day.

Observations took place and were recorded, trips were made to “Turtle Cove” in rowboats to catch minnows, turtles and frogs and observations of plant growth, water oxygen cycles were discussed. Joan even organized toad and salamander hunts, replacing logs to their natural spots, identifying trees and plants and pointing out the uses for the bark. (I.E. white cedar has sheddy park that was used by the Indians on the Pacific coast to make clothing, baskets and more.)

She felt the campers would remember more if there were interesting facts presented. Once the two-week session was over, the campers would return the animals back to their habitats. In her second session they had collected one snapping turtle, one painted turtle, one Blanding turtle, ten mice (one very pregnant), twenty-four frogs, twelve toads, one Jefferson salamander, one crayfish, one rabbit and of course, the Boa”.

Joan had contests that were posted on the bulletin board, and each cabin participated. Rainy days were for nature games such as “Animal Charades”, a bird game, similar to “Concentration”, unscrambling bird, tree and flower names and “Categories”. She used flash cards of birds with information on them in preparation for her hikes, as well as recordings of birdcalls, which when turned up loud enough attracted those birds to the lodge.

DORTHE’S ISLAND had been started in 1967 and was called a “outdoor terrineus”, which was a trench dug by campers to make an island and a cemented moat. (Terrineus was latin for “made from earth”) The nature classes the previous summer had cleaned the trench, repaired the cracks, transplanted flowers, moss and stones on the island. A sign had been made and a stone wall had been started. Joan’s classes had cleaned out the trench and repaired the cracks that had been formed by tree roots. There was a problem finding a plug for the drainpipe, so Joan suggested a cork plug for next year and two dams if the water sunk to the lower end. (She illustrated how to build the dam with rocks and a drainpipe.)

Her suggestions for the following year also included retaining the “What Is It” corner, with peculiar nature objects to be identified, nature contests in the form of scavenger hunts and nature quizzes, crystal gardens (made of charcoal, salt, bluing and ammonia), smoke prints of leaves and flowers, bird feeders, rabbit hutches. “It is possible that the Conservation Department in Mio would let the camp have baby animal (raccoon and deer) for the summer,” she wrote.

There had been a temporary nature trail, which had been a success, but she recommended a permanent nature trail be blazed or one of the horse trails with wood plaques for descriptions of trees. She also liked the idea of a “Survival Day and Night”, where a small group of campers accompanied by the nature director, lived off the land, foraging for their food and water with only matches, first aid kits and water purifiers. Lastly, half-day trips to Cedar Swamp, Jack Pine Forest, Tawas Point, the Fire Tower and the Conservation Dept. to different environments would be scheduled.

Mike McKinney was the only male and a first-timer on the staff in 1971 under Barbara Haggart. Described by “Beanie” as “our man at camp”, she was pleasantly surprised that he blended in the staff with his pleasant and sincere attitude. He presented many new, interesting ideas in his ecology class and created enthusiasm for the girls.

Were you part of Joan or Mike’s classes? Did you help with the construction of Dorthe’s Island?