The precursor to primitive camping at Maqua may well have been in the early twenties’ when Meg Dahlem talked of their trips overnight by truck to the AuSable. They would sleep on the ground on a hill with no sleeping bags, but probably makeshift bedrolls. The appeal for outdoor camping of this sort waxed and waned over the years.

It was decided by the camp committee to establish three new postions as junior counselors in October 1963, with a new primitive site to be established, complete with all the necessary equipment and a salary for the counselor.

On November 14,1964, a list of suggestions was made to the camp committee. “Primitive Camping-Miss Balaskas will again attempt primitive camping with restrictions upon the primitive camp leader,” the notes read.

“I recall a survival night where we ate only what we found in the woods,” said Shelley Harris (1965-75). “I can still hear Dorthe reminding us that there were hot dogs in the kitchen if we came back hungry. She was nervous, but we ate dandelion soup and Queen Anne’s Lace root, which were nothing but wild carrots, and we didn’t die.”

The last couple years Karen Magidsohn (1965+) camped in Primitive. “If I remember correctly, it was past the riding stables There was a platform with a big green tent. It was our cabin and we cooked all our own meals and stayed out there the whole time. We had a pit toilet, built our own campfires and it was pure camping,” said Maggie, who to this day camps every summer somewhere in the U.S.

Jeanne Kiltie (1966-71) also loved the primitive camping past the tennis courts, where they slept in tents and ate their breakfast and lunches, but dinners back at the lodge. “We ate Queen Anne’s Lace roots and strange soups made from greens, but I have to say what I learned there I have used all my life.”

The summer of 1966 primitive camping was hindered by the government ban on fires, so none of the meals could be cooked outside. Dorthe’s report also added that she felt the age range did not suit the type to do primitive camping. Those who did participate lashed a shower, a large table and took a canoe trip, but due to the limited activities, the girls were back at camp the second week.

“I would really like to see the new primitive camp make a go of it,” she wrote,” but we might well just put in a new cabin or two in that area and eliminate the primitive group.” (Added to the disappointment that summer was the additional worries of family problems from one of the counselors.)

Kimela Peck (1966-74) lived out in “Prim” or “Primmy”, as it was affectionately known, for almost a week. It was somewhere off the property and it included a canoe trip where some boys from Mexico threw balls at them on the river. She loved cooking the peach toast covered in cinnamon and sugar at the end of a long stick, rescued from the woods to use as a fork.

“We had to dig our own outhouse and we were always searching for kindling for meals. I have a palpable memory of trying to find the best stick—one that had the ability to hold a slice of bread,” said Pamela Hartz (1966-75). “The best was the Y-shaped stick, so we could put the half of a canned peach on one side and the bread to toast on the other. Then came the brown sugar and that was our breakfast!”

“I loved living with the sound of crickets, but when it rained—oh the mosquitoes! Out came that pink chamomile lotion! We would bring all our stuff in and have to cart all this wet stuff to the lodge, but it was absolutely the best adventure, especially since I was from urban Flint,” laughed Pamela, who though camp represented nature and the opportunity to be one with nature.

Priscilla Johns (1968+) had vivid memories of primitive camping in her third year, when she slept in the military type tent on the wooden platform. “We had our own firepit and cooked everything out there by ourselfves with food we kept in a storage box. We may have come up to the lodge for one meal a day, but other than that we were on our own. It was the year we had a wooden outhouse over the latrine hole and we painted it orange with a racing stripe. I always loved camping out there, even when it rained and we got terribly wet.”

What do you remember about your Primitive Camp?

 

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